The Essential Characteristics of Opened Culture

—

by

Angela Gunder
in

In the landscape of education, the tide is turning towards a more inclusive and accessible horizon — a horizon where the barriers to learning and collaboration are dismantled, and the foundations of what we call “Opened Culture” are laid. This shift isn’t just about the materials we use or the practices we adopt; it’s deeply rooted in the communities that breathe life into the movement of open education.

The Genesis of Opened Culture

At the heart of any significant movement is the essence of culture. Renowned Jamaican scholar and cultural studies pioneer, Stuart Hall, defines culture as “the practice of giving meaning to people, objects, and events.” It’s through these lenses that we begin to understand the profound impact of culture in shaping communities, values, beliefs, and systems of communication. This understanding becomes even more pivotal when we pivot towards the realm of open education.

Opened Culture, as we perceive it, is a vibrant ecosystem where attitudes, values, and beliefs are cultivated to advance educational access and foster openness. It’s where institutions and communities intentionally clear the path for access, collaboration, and growth, championing the space and time necessary for educators and learners to engage in open and inventive practices.

The Framework of Opened Culture

Drawing inspiration from Bronwyn Hegarty’s Eight Attributes of Open Pedagogy1, the framework for Opened Culture emerges. It’s a constellation of participatory technologies, openness, trust, innovation, creativity, sharing, connected community, learner generation, reflective practice, and peer review. Each element is a testament to the actions, creations, and values cherished within an opened culture.

Participatory Technologies

  • Collaboration: Building Communities of Practice (CoPs) enhances skills in open educational practices (OEP).
  • Innovation: Sharing groundbreaking practices for the creation and dissemination of Open Educational Resources (OER).
  • Engagement: Fostering community through digital platforms centered around OEP.

People, Openness, and Trust

  • Collaboration: Encouraging a culture of openness and sharing across organizational groups.
  • Innovation: Supporting the transparent sharing of ongoing work to stimulate continuous improvement.
  • Engagement: Promoting empowering discussions on sharing practices.

Innovation and Creativity

  • Collaboration: Forming interdisciplinary teams to pioneer new approaches in OEP.
  • Innovation: Investing in novel tools and spaces to spur innovation.
  • Engagement: Providing opportunities for developing creative literacy skills.

Sharing Ideas and Resources

  • Collaboration: Create a network of champions leading training and PD
  • Innovation: Spotlight exemplars of open practices and products
  • Engagement: Build a recognition system for shared ideas

Connected Community

  • Collaboration: Gather contributors and advocates from across campus
  • Innovation: Leverage the affordances of digital spaces to build community
  • Engagement: Incentivize participation in both informal and formal gatherings

Learner Generated

  • Collaboration: Situate students as contributors to OEP and open pedagogy
  • Innovation: Tie curricular innovation to students’ participation in open ed
  • Engagement: Broadly share student work in open ed beyond the institution

Reflective Practice

  • Collaboration: Empower educators to commit to a practice of continuous improvement of OER
  • Innovation: Leverage new efficiencies and technologies for assessing OER
  • Engagement: Create PD around practices for ensuring quality of OER

Peer Review

  • Collaboration: Convene educators and students to support each other in their OEP
  • Innovation: Create space for educators to surface new approaches for improving OER and OEP
  • Engagement: Recognize service contributions by providing colleagues feedback on their work

Building and Sustaining Opened Culture

Cultivating an opened culture requires more than just individual effort; it demands organizational change. It’s about making conscious decisions to allocate time, space, and resources for everyone to participate in open educational practices.

As we embark on this journey together, we invite you to reflect on how you can contribute to fostering an opened culture within your own communities. What barriers can you help dismantle? What practices can you adopt to make education more accessible and collaborative?

  1. Hegarty, B. (2015). Attributes of Open Pedagogy: A Model for Using Open Educational Resources. Educational Technology Research and Development: ETR & D, 55(4), 3–13. ↩︎