The Emergence of Open School Education: The Case of (original) (raw)

Reconceptualizing open schooling: towards a multidimensional model of school openness

Journal of Curriculum Studies, 2024

'Open schooling' has become in recent years a burgeoning theme in the discourse on how to rethink education for the 21st century. This paper addresses a gap between calls for implementing an open schooling approach in policy papers and international reports and the scarcity of rigorous academic discourse on what open schooling theoretically means and practically entails in terms of school organization and curriculum. To this end, the paper presents an ecological model of school openness that is composed of eight interrelated dimensions: shared governance, 'open' curriculum, inner-school communities, learning communities, student participation, social engagement, parental involvement, and community collaborations. These dimensions are organized into three categories, accounting for organizational, pedagogical and communal aspects of school openness. The multidimensional nature of the model presented here provides a more intricate and nuanced account of open schooling that acknowledges the complexities and challenges that the movement towards greater openness yields for school communities. From an educational research perspective, this model functions to inform the understanding and examination of the multidimensionality of opening schools to their community. From an educational practice perspective, it can instigate in-depth and meaningful dialogue within school teams on what open schooling is and its ensuing merits.

Research on Open Education: Problems and Issues

1972

Abstract: An observer's views of open-informal education and its central issues are presented in view of increasing interest in opening up classroom procedures and activities. The problems in defining Open Education are noted, but, in general, the events, ...

Openness and the Transformation of Education and Schooling

Open: The Philosophy and Practices that are Revolutionizing Education and Science, 2017

It is tempting to couch the tension between open education and traditional educational models in simplistic terms such as free vs. commercial or permitting revision vs. static. In this chapter, authors Huitt and Monetti provide a more sophisticated discussion of the ways that openness is transforming education. They urge readers to consider the purpose and focus of education, outcomes and assessments, processes, and transparency. Parsing formal education into these components allows us more specific test cases to apply our thinking about open and to consider the transformation of schooling. Education, at all levels and in its many forms, is experiencing significant social and economic pressure to change. There are many ideas about the source of this pressure, including: How to cite this book chapter:

Open(ing) Education: Theory and Practice

Critical Studies in Teaching and Learning, 2021

Book Review Conrad, D. & Prinsloo, P. (eds.). 2020. Open(ing) Education: Theory and Practice. Leiden Boston: Brill | Sense.

On the role of openness in education: A historical reconstruction

In the context of education, "open(ness)" has become the watermark for a fast growing number of learning materials and associated platforms and practices from a variety of institutions and individuals. Open Educational Resources (OER), Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC), and more recently, initiatives such as Coursera are just some of the forms this movement has embraced under the "open" banner. Yet, ongoing calls to discuss and elucidate the "meaning" and particularities of openness in education point to a lack of clarity around the concept. "Open" in education is currently mostly debated in the context of the technological developments that allowed it to emerge in its current forms. More in-depth explorations of the philosophical underpinnings are moved to the backstage. Therefore, this paper proposes a historical approach to bring clarity to the concept and unmask the tensions that have played out in the past. It will then show how this knowledge can inform current debates around different open initiatives.

Open education: Walking a critical path

Open(ing) Education: Theory and Practice (Eds. Dianne Conrad & Paul Prinsloo), 2020

Link to Open Access version: http://eprints.teachingandlearning.ie/id/eprint/4345 ..... This chapter explores justifications for and movements toward critical approaches to open education. While “open” is often framed as an unequivocal good, the deceptively simple term hides a “reef of complexity” (Hodgkinson-Williams & Gray, 2009, p. 114), much of which depends on the particular context within which openness is considered and practiced. Critical approaches to open education consider the nuances of context, focus on issues of participation and power, and encourage moving beyond the binaries of open and closed. As a starting point, I draw on Lane’s (2016) analysis that open education initiatives can be considered in two broad forms. The first seeks to transform or empower individuals and groups within existing structures, e.g. by removing specific prior qualifications requirements, eliminating distance and time constraints, eliminating or reducing costs, and/or improving access overall. A second form of open education seeks to transform the structures themselves, and the relationships between the main actors (e.g. learners, teachers, educational institutions), in order to achieve greater equity. Many critical educators have planted their flags in the latter territory, advocating the use of an explicit inequality lens to support social transformation and cognitive justice. This chapter presents an argument for critical and transformative approaches to open education. After a brief overview of open education, I explore several different critical analyses of open education and then widen the lens to consider critical analyses of the networks and platforms on which many open practices rely. The chapter concludes with examples of and recommendations for critical approaches to open education.

An Empirical Study of Attitudes Toward Open Education

1972

In order to evaluate the possibility that open education represents a revival of the progressive education movement, data were gathered on the attitude of experienced teachers toward open, progressive, and traditional educational practices. An attitude scale composed of 70 items was administered to a sample of 64 program assistants in the Tucson Early Education Model (TEEM).