Abstracts
Abstract
This article reports eight distance teachers’ stories about teaching at two open universities over the past two decades with a focus on their perceptions and feelings about the changes in their teaching practice. This qualitative study employed a methodological approach called the autoethnographic interview, aiming to document more realistic histories of the open universities and to imagine a better future for those universities. As a result, the paper presents autobiographical narratives of distance teachers that dissent from the general historical accounts of open universities. These narratives are categorized into three interrelated themes: a) openness: excessive openness and a lost sense of mission; b) technological innovation: moving online and long-lasting resistance, and c) teaching: transactional interactions and feelings of loneliness. The paper then presents a discussion of useful implications for open universities, which can serve as a starting point for more meaningful discussions among distance educators in a time of change.
Keywords:
- open university,
- distance education,
- distance teacher,
- history,
- autoethnographic interview
Appendices
Bibliography
- Adams, T. E., Holman Jones, S., & Ellis, C. (2015). Autoethnography: Understanding qualitative research. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
- Athabasca University. (2019). About AU. Retrieved from https://www.athabascau.ca/aboutau/
- Bates, T. (2008). Transforming distance education through new technologies. In T. Evans, M. Haughey, & D. Murphy (Eds.), International handbook of distance education (pp. 217-236). Bingley, UK: Emerald.
- Black, L. M. (2013). A history of scholarship. In M. G. Moore (Ed.), Handbook of distance education (3rd ed., pp. 3-20). New York, NY: Routledge.
- Callender, C., & Thompson, J. (2018). The lost part-timers: The decline of part-time undergraduate higher education in England. Retrieved from https://www.suttontrust.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/The-Lost-Part-Timers-Final.pdf
- Chang, H. (2008). Autoethnography as method. Abingdon, UK: Taylor & Francis.
- Coates, K. (2017). Independent third-party review of Athabasca University. Saskatoon, Canada: Coates Holroyd Consulting.
- Davis, A. (2001). Athabasca University: Conversion from traditional distance education to online courses, programs and services. International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 1(2).
- Ellis, C. (2007). Telling secrets, revealing lives: Relational ethics in research with intimate others. Qualitative Inquiry, 13(1), 3-29.
- Giroux, H. A. (2014). Neoliberalism's war on higher education. Toronto, Canada: Between the Lines.
- Harris, S. (2018, April 9). Save the Open University! Dailymail. Retrieved from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5592473/Save-Open-University-Tories-urge-ministers-support-institute.html
- Haughey, M. (2010). Teaching and learning in distance education before the digital age. In M. F. Cleveland-Innes & D. R. Garrison (Eds.), An introduction to distance education: Understanding teaching and learning in a new era (pp. 46-66). New York, NY: Routledge.
- KNOU. (2019). About KNOU. Retrieved from https://www.knou.ac.kr/engknou2/
- Lee, K. (2017). Rethinking the accessibility of online higher education: A historical review. The Internet and Higher Education, 33, 15-23.
- Lee, K. (2018). Discursive effects of a paradigm shift rhetoric in online higher education: Implications on networked learning research and practice. In N. B. Dohn, S. Cranmer, J. A. Sime, M. de Laat, & T. Ryberg (Eds.), Networked learning: Reflections and challenges. New York, NY: Springer.
- Lee, K. (2019). Openness and innovation in online higher education: A historical review of the two discourses. Manuscript submitted for publication.
- Lincoln, Y. S., & Guba, E. G. (1985). Naturalistic inquiry (Vol. 75). London, UK: Sage.
- Patton, M. Q. (1999). Enhancing the quality and credibility of qualitative analysis. Health Services Research, 34, 1189-1208.
- Peters, O. (2008). Transformation through open universities. In T. Evans, M. Haughey, & D. Murphy (Eds.), International handbook of distance education (pp. 279-302). Bingley, UK: Emerald.
- Pittman, V. (2013). University correspondence study: A revised historiographic perspective. In M. G. Moore (Ed.), Handbook of distance education (3rd ed., pp. 21-37). New York, NY: Routledge.
- Southgate, B. C. (2009). History meets fiction. Oxon, UK: Routledge.
- Tait, A. (2008). What are open universities for? Open Learning, 23(2), 85-93.