I recently enrolled in KPU’s Professional Program in Open Education. The first course is OPEN 9100 Theory and Philosophy of Open Education!  For one of our assignments we had to reflect on our own definitions of open.

For me, open is:

a belief in the potential of openness and sharing to improve learning, and a social justice orientation – caring about equity, with openness as one way to achieve this.

Maha Bali, “What is Open Pedagogy Anyway,” Open Pedagogy Open Discussion, April 24, 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmPmZEhy3Lc.

For me, open is not just the creation, use, and reuse of open educational resources (OER) – freely accessible openly licensed text, media and other digital tools – but also the co-creation, adaptation, and sharing of teaching practices. Open pedagogy has four basic principles: improving access to education, and access more generally; centering leaner-driven process; emphasizing community and collaboration over content; and connecting the academy to the wider public. My definition of open is one that considers the potential to dismantle hierarchical academic structures and often provide opportunities to disrupt the academy altogether.

Maha Bali has explained that open, and open pedagogy specifically is an ethos with two major components

a belief in the potential of openness and sharing to improve learning, and a social justice orientation – caring about equity, with openness as one way to achieve this.

Maha Bali, “What is Open Pedagogy Anyway,” Open Pedagogy Open Discussion, April 24, 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmPmZEhy3Lc.

For two of its leading proponents, Rajiv Jhangiani and Robin DeRosa, open pedagogy is “a site of praxis, a place where theories about learning, teaching, technology, and social justice enter into a conversation with each other and inform the development of educational practices and structures.” They argue there is no fixed definition of open pedagogy, but rather a series of questions to be asked:

• What are your hopes for education, particularly for higher education?
• What vision do you work toward when you design your daily professional practices in and out of the classroom?
• How do you see the roles of the learner and the teacher?
• What challenges do your students face in their learning environments, and how does your pedagogy address them?
• What visions do you work toward when you design your daily professional practices in and out of the classroom? (Jhangiani and DeRosa)

For me, open is about considering these questions, answering them for myself, and returning to them repeatedly in my practice.

I am also going to include the image I selected for the Media Gallery because I think it also illustrates my definition of open:

OEPr: Open Education Practices re-imagined by Helen Dewaard is licensed under a CC BY 2.0.

Bibliography

Maha Bali, “What is Open Pedagogy Anyway,” Open Pedagogy Open Discussion, April 24, 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmPmZEhy3Lc.

Catherine Cronin, “Openness and Praxis: Explroing the Use of Open Educational Practices in Higher Education,” the International Review of Research in Open and Distributed learning 18, no. 5 (2017): 2, http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/3096;

Rajiv Jhangiani and Robin DeRosa, “Open Pedagogy,” Open Pedagogy Notebook: Sharing Practices, Building Community http://openpedagogy.org/open-pedagogy/.

Robin DeRosa, “Extreme Makeover: Pedagogy Edition,” January 22, 2017, http://robinderosa.net/higher-ed/extreme-makeover-pedagogy-edition/

 #KPUOpenEdProgram

wonder noun a feeling of surprise mingled with admiration, caused by something beautiful, unexpected, unfamiliar, or inexplicable

wonder verb desire or be curious to know something or feel doubt

For the past few years I have picked a “word of the year” for me to focus on and ground my intentions. In 2019 when I was on leave following Tori’s birth it was “home”. Auspiciously in 2020 it was “heart”. And last year for a variety of reasons I selected “whole”.

A few weeks ago, while reading Brené Brown’s Atlas of the Heart (2021), I knew instantly “wonder” was going to be my word for 2022.

Paired with “awe” and categorized under “Places We Go When It’s Beyond Us”, Brown explains “Wonder fuels our passion for exploration and learning.” (LOC 1038)

Brown quotes Rachel Carson’s wish in The Sense of Wonder:A Celebration of Nature for Parents and Children that a good fairy gift each child:

a sense of wonder so indestructible that it would last throughout life, as an unfailing antidote against the boredom and disenchantments of later years, the sterile preoccupation with things that are artificial, the alienation from the source of our strength.

Carson, The Sense of Wonder

Carson’s sense of wonder led her to write Silent Spring (1962) “a fable for tomorrow” which many consider to have inspired the modern environmental movement. You can hear more about her curiosity in the “For the Birds” episode of one of my favourite podcasts The Last Archive.

Between the climate crisis and the seemingly never-ending pandemic, I hope “wonder” as a noun and verb can be both a talisman and practice to protect me from disillusionment, and connect me to my sense of purpose. As I set my intentions for the new year, I want “wonder” to be central in all of my roles and identities as an art historian, leader, partner, mother, and community member.

In 2022 I want to be curious in the face of the unexpected, unfamiliar, or inexplicable, because who knows what this year will bring.

Hopefully something beautiful.

My review of Canada and Impressionism: New Horizons is out now in the latest issue of RACAR Journal of the Universities Art Association of Canada (UAAC).

Thanks to the Gotham Center Blog I was able to revisit my dissertation research. Check it out here:

“The Presentation Of The Civic And Commercial Life Of The City”: May King Van Rensselaer And The Founding Of The Museum Of The City Of New York

It takes humility to reconsider our past commitments, doubt to question our present decisions, and curiosity to reimagine our future plans. What we discover along the way can free us from the shackles of our familiar surroundings and our former selves. Rethinking liberates us to do more than update our knowledge and opinions it’s a tool for leading a more fulfilling life.

Grant (p. 243)

During my doctoral defence my committee asked me what I would have done differently. I responded with an emphatic “EVERYTHING!” If I knew then what I know now it would have been a completely different project.

After reading Adam Grant’s Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know (2021) I think my response demonstrates how much a really did learn in those five years. As he explains, his book is “an invitation to let go of knowledge and opinions that are no longer serving you well, and to anchor your sense of self in flexibility rather than consistency.” (p. 12)

Initially I was intrigued by Grant’s commentary on attachment. He explains, “I’ve learned that two kinds of detachment are especially useful: detaching your present from your past and detaching your opinions from your identity” (p. 62). For me I saw connections to how post-secondary educators have adapted to online teaching and learning. I don’t identify as a lecturer. In fact, I often tell students that public speaking is my worst fear. I wonder how this detachment from an identifying as a lecturer served me during the pivot. Did it allow me to experiment with the curation of content more? The sudden shift from fact to face learning to remote delivery also forced me to acknowledge I didn’t know how to teach online. By the end of March, I signed up for course on how to teach in a mode new to me and as a student I was able to experiment with different approaches. Put in the role of the learner I was completely humbled. Grant quotes psychologist Elizabeth Krumrei Mancuso and her colleagues who write, “Learning requires the humility to realize one has something to learn” (p. 25).

Then I became curious to see how I could apply his scientific approach winning debates and influencing people in my role as division mentor for humanities. This position was recently created to support colleagues navigate the pivot to remote teaching due to the COVID-19 pandemic. My own experience aligns with Grant’s theories of how people express their preach, prosecute, and politick to argue their beliefs. In many cases my first reaction was to act like a preacher extoling the virtues of online teaching and learning, point like a prosecutor at those who were struggling to adapt to our new reality, and persuade colleagues to embrace the changes like a politician.

Instead, in thinking like a scientist I am interested in exploring various hypothesis about teaching and learning in our current unprecedented times. Grant explains: “Thinking like a scientist involves more than reacting with an open-mind. It means being actively open-minded. It requires searching for reasons why we might be wrong – not for reasons why we must be right – and revising our views based on what we learn” (p. 52). Writing for Inside Higher Ed, Joshua Kim also explores the implications of Grant’s Think Again for the post-secondary landscape post-pandemic.

Additionally, without specifically naming it, Grant makes a compelling case for open pedagogical practices. In ‘Chapter 9: Rewriting the Textbook’ he gives an example of a high school teacher who has students pick a chapter from their history textbook and rewrite it to include people and events they view as underrepresented. Rethinking occurs as learners are encouraged to be critical of the information they are consuming and thoughtful of constructing knowledge themselves.

He continues on to challenge traditional lecture practices in favour of active learning, noting “Lectures aren’t designed to accommodate dialogue or disagreement; they turn students into passive receivers of information rather than active thinkers” (p. 192). He also recognizes that while students often enjoy lectures research demonstrates they actually gain more knowledge and skill from being engaged in active learning. Grant believes “good teachers introduce new thoughts, but great teachers introduce new ways of thinking” (p. 203).

I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested how to enact change for themselves, and within their communities. He gives concrete strategies for having the difficult conversations we are all facing in 2021. As always Grant has given me something to think about well after I closed his book.

And perhaps most importantly I will stop asking my daughters what they want to be when they grow up. Read Think Again, to find out why.

Friday, February 26, 1:00pm – 2:30pm EST

Register in advance for this meeting:
https://langara.zoom.us/meeting/register/u50lcOuqrjsrH9HEi0C0devRKYGVaRX0uPW0

Are you interested in what ArtxHistory.org founder Natalie Coletta describes as “rejecting the dominant language and scholarship that create a climate of elitism and exclusivity” in art history? Are you curious about using open educational resources (OERs) to do so? Join us for an afternoon session of talks with three art historians leading the development of open access teaching materials that seek to challenge traditional textbook conventions. Leah Clark will discuss how Open Arts Objects, an open access platform providing free films inspires diverse audiences to understand art and visual culture while leading change in museum educational programmes and professional practice and increasing public awareness about a global approach to art history. Natalie Coletta founded the ArtxHistory portal as a means to decolonize academia, while serving students and teachers and addressing challenging topics in the areas of artistic practice, history, and critique of 20^th and 21^st century art. Smarthistory’s Dean of Content and Strategy, Lauren Kilroy-Ewbank will speak about how the resource’s free, award-winning digital content unlocks the expertise of hundreds of leading scholars making the history of art accessible and engaging to more people around the world.

Leah Clark, The Open University, Open Arts Objects

Dr. Leah Clark is project lead on Open Arts Objects, an innovative project that provides free open-access films and teaching support materials geared to the new A-level in Art History. She appears in over 10 films on topics ranging from Chinese porcelain collections in Renaissance Italy to “critical terms for Art History” on hybridity and globalisation. Open Arts Objects was shortlisted for a Times Higher Education Award in the category of Knowledge Exchange/Transfer Initiative of the Year for 2019. Dr. Clark was also runner up for the Open University’s Research Excellence Awards: Outstanding Impact of Research on Society and Prosperity in 2019. In June of the same year, her research was showcased in one of 15 interactive exhibits at the British Academy Summer showcase festival for curious minds, “What can Italian Renaissance art tell us about global trade?​,” which led to an interview on BBC 3 counties radio and an article for The Conversation.

Natalie Coletta, Community College of Rhode Island, ArtxHistory

A professor of Art History at the Community College of Rhode Island, where she has been teaching since 1994, Natalie Coletta has been committed to the support and development of affordable, inclusive, open-door education throughout her career. Prof. Coletta believes strongly in the importance of creating a just and dynamic learning experience for students in the foundational years of their college education: it’s the early years that shape the foundation of our thinking. The intention of an inclusive classroom was defined early in Prof. Coletta’s pedagogy, particularly through the mentorship of feminist practitioners Natalie Boymel Kampen and Wendy Wassyng Roworth, with whom Prof. Coletta studied at the University of Rhode Island in the 1980s. A two-year directorship at Hampden Gallery during her MA studies in American Art at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, was seminal in developing Coletta’s theory and practice around the gallery as a critique of culture and curriculum.

Lauren Kilroy-Ewbank, SmartHistory

Dr. Lauren G. Kilroy-Ewbank is the Dean of Content and Strategy at Smarthistory, and a longtime content editor and author for Smarthistory. At Smarthistory, she works to make art history engaging, accessible, and free to as many people as possible—and to do it responsibly. She has initiated several projects, including the successful “Expanding the Renaissance Initiative” that seeks to open up new pathways to understanding art between c. 1300–1650 across the world. Her research focuses on religious art in the Spanish Americas and Iberia, emotions, women in art, and digital art history. She has won several teaching awards and grants to support innovative digital teaching initiatives involving virtual reality, digital platforms and software, and more. Prior to joining Smarthistory full time she was a tenured Associate Professor of Art History at Pepperdine University, and assistant professor at Brooklyn College, CUNY and the Graduate Center, CUNY.

Slavers were never a major part of the population of the District of Columbia (census records, for example, indicate 3,185 resident slaves in 1860, or only 4.25 percent of the city’s residents). Yet on the national political scene, no single patch of ground was more consistently and more controversially thrust into public light during some four decades of abolitionist and proslavery campaigning. Even when they could make no headway in the rest of the South, Northern activists tried repeatedly throughout the antebellum years to erase the blot of slavery in the nation’s capital.

On Slavery in Washington, “Eastman Johnson’s Negro Life at the South and Urban Slavery in Washington, D.C. John Davis” in Art Bulletin vol. 80 no. 1 (March 1998).

Like most others I have been horrified watching yesterday’s failed coup in Washington, DC. The image above however struck me as particularly poignant and as the art historian I am I decided to dig a bit deeper. Please note that this post captures only my initial findings and I hope to follow it with a more thorough analysis.

After a quick search I discovered that the portrait hanging on the wall behind the domestic terrorist carrying the Confederate flag is of Justin Smith Morrill (1810-1898), one of the founders of the Republican Party best known for his role the Morrill Land-Grant Acts that established federal funding for establishing many of the United States’ public colleges and universities. Now in the Senate collection it was painted by Jonathan Eastman Johnson (1824-1906) in 1884 (below).

For those familiar with 19th century American art, Johnson is best known for his depictions of “so-called slave life,” like Negro Life in the South (1859) later nicknamed Old Kentucky Home (below). In The Civil War in 50 Objects Harold Holzer (2013) characterizes the work as “the visual embodiment of the dangerous myth of the ‘happy slave’ – an argument that fueled pro-slavery intransigence for generations.” How fitting that an image depicting the anti-black sentiments of 21st century white supremacy would include both a confederate flag, and a painting by Johnson.

According to SmartHistory essay by Scott Mestan and Dr. Bryan Zygmont, Johnson’s second most famous work in his focus on the status of race around the time of the American Civil war is A Ride for Liberty—The Fugitive Slaves (c. 1862). For more on their analysis of this work see their article here.

Margatita Karasoulas, Assistant Curator of American Art at the Brooklyn Museum and Steven Zucker further discuss the work in this “Seeing American” video.

I debated even posting the initial image of the reprehensible acts of January 6th, 2020, but I have been so struck by the appearance of Johnson’s Portrait of Justin Morrill in the photograph that I think it needs to be addressed. This is just another example of the poignancy of visual culture and the importance of visual literacy and critical thinking in 2021, especially in topics around race and representation.

In his detailed account of “Eastman Johnson’s Negro Life at the South and Urban Slavery in Washington, D.C.,” John Davis concludes by stating: “American history, it is becoming increasingly clear, has suffered no small number of such losses of memory, particularly when the issue of race is a determining factor.” This was true when he wrote the article in 1998, and tragically it is even more apparent in this current moment.

While I think more about yesterday’s events and the significance of these images here are some additional resources to consider.

A Dangerous Escape to Freedom in the Brooklyn Museum

American Scenes of Everyday Life in The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History

Photographs of African Americans during the Civil War at the Library of Congress

Eastman Johnson Papers in the Archives of American Art

Eastman Johnson in the Google Art Project

The following TEDxAtlanta talk by Anya Kamenetz, an American journalist and author of several books, including: Generation Debt and DIY U: Edupunks, Edupreneurs, and the Coming Transformation of Higher Education, summarizes many of the concepts I have been thinking about in relation to the courses I have been taking for teaching online and open education.