What do you think of this draft proposal for the BCLA conference?

From Open Educational Practices to Social Justice: Making the Leap

Open Education is about more than opening resources, it is also about opening pedagogy but what does that mean? What does open education have to do with social justice? Do we believe that education is about leveling the playing field, and at its best addresses issues of injustice, privilege and exclusion? Are open education practices, at their core, about access, equity, innovation and creativity? If so, how is the open education movement embodying those values?

Join a panel to discuss the broad impact of open educational practices. How are these practices living up to their potential, and how are they failing to do so? Can open education help provide a more equitable future where a multitude of diverse voices are heard and respected? Librarians are key contributors in the open education movement as an extension of their historical roles to provide safe places of learning that are open and available to all, or is that traditional role a myth? Let’s discuss.

Inspiring this approach was the Thursday open access event Tension and Risk in Open Scholarship, and Amanda’s reflections on the Open Education Conference: https://bccampus.ca/2017/10/18/reflections-on-open-ed-2017-amanda-coolidge/  Thanks Amanda!

Here is the call for proposals:

The 2018 BC Library Conference theme is Work +Culture. This theme urges an examination of the connections between work environments, institutional cultures, and communities; an inquiry of how cultures can impact, clash, and complement each other and inform society as a whole.

Collaboration, inclusion, innovation – we include these words in job descriptions and library values and mission statements, but how well do we practice these values? Do our organizational structures and cultures foster or hinder these goals?  How do we -- as individuals, institutions, and organizations -- determine and define our culture and our values? And how does our culture affect our work and profession?

Are our values changing and if so what are they becoming? How do changes in our values and culture affect the concept of “library” and the work that we perform?

Understanding the culture of our institutions helps us understand the role of the library in our rapidly changing society and helps us understand the impact of our work.

Our hope is that the theme Work + Culture will inspire you to submit a session proposal that illustrates how libraries and library workers define their values in their every day work; proposals that challenge some of our existing assumptions about libraries and postulate new ways to engage in our culture;  proposals that examine our institutional assumptions and behaviour and ask how we can enhance our culture and our work; proposals that demonstrate new ways that libraries and library workers lead and support advocacy and proposals that help us define and redefine our work and our institutions.

Lin Brander| Librarian, Electronics & Computer Systems; Open Education|British Columbia Institute of Technology T 604-432-8922| E lbrander@bcit.ca| W bcit.ca/library