Chrissi Nerantzi: A(n open) rebel
A summary of a talk given as part of OKHE Topic 1, 2018/9
Dr Chrissi Nerantzi (FSEDA, CMALT, PFHEA, NTF; full bio) was our first guest in 2018/9, joining us from Manchester Metropolitan University where she is Principal Lecturer in Academic CPD in the Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching. We would like to thank Chrissi for her time, and an inspirational talk. Below is a summary of/some reflections on her talk, written by OKHE tutor Chris M with thanks to Chrissi for her input.
“A(n open) rebel”
Chrissi started with a quote, and one way of interpreting ‘open’ in education:
“A mind is like a parachute, it doesn’t work if it is not open” — Frank Zappa
Open as default?
Openness may be rebellious, but this is partly a reflection of the structures which surround us. A quote from Martin Weller (a previous contributor to OKHE) suggests that “sharing as widely as possible should be at the heart of educational practice”. There is a strong link between openness and sharing, although it is worth remembering that openness is about more than sharing.
So should ‘open’ be our default? While Martin suggests it should be at the heart of our practice, that is not to say that everything we do should be done openly. Not all openness is useful (see openwashing, for example) or appropriate (some things should not be shared). Chrissi encourages a critical view of openness — how would you answer this question? You can find the above quote in Martin’s free book, The battle for open. How openness won and why it doesn’t feel like victory.
“How open changed my (life and) practice”
Chrissi then talked us through her life and career: she was born in Germany to Greek parents; moved to Greece where she was a programmer in the Hellenic Navy; returned to Germany for research and also worked as a lecturer; then to the UK where she has worked for a number of institutions. Why did she tell this? At each stage, Chrissi felt she was a ‘foreigner’ and an ‘outsider’. She has seen and experienced the importance of diversity in education and society. Through being part of and developing networks, she has seen the value of connecting people, being connected, and the role diversity plays in this. This has fuelled her passion for openness as a force for bringing diverse people and ideas together.
Crossing boundaries
A quote from Jutta Treviranus helped us continue this line of thought:
“In our interconnected and crowded society we need to go beyond tolerating or respecting diversity, we need to prize and learn to orchestrate and create synergy out of our differences. We should shift focus from how we are each better or worse in the same skills, to the unique, evolving set of talents, passions and competencies we each bring to tasks at hand. It is our variability that gives us collective strength.” (Treviranus, 2016, 6) (emphasis added).
After seeing the map of Chrissi’s career across Europe, and hearing her talk about diversity, this quote was pertinent. Chrissi had previously posted it on Twitter on 23rd June 2017, the date of the UK referendum on membership of the EU. “Perhaps I am being political,” she suggested, as we listened in February 2019, weeks before the UK is due to leave the EU, “but education is political.” A welcome reminder for me that nothing we do in a University is neutral; our work is always shaped by values — whether ours or someone else’s; whether we are conscious we are upholding them or not.
Chrissi continued the idea of crossing boundaries to tell us about her research. In her doctoral thesis, she found that cross-boundary communities organised through informal cross-institutional collaboration are attractive to academics and their professional development. She made the point that many of us are engaged in valuable development through diverse external networks and communities, but looking only within our own institutions, we may not look very engaged… or even disengaged.
This contrast between appearing engaged — possibly something more easily done through networks local to our ‘home’ institution, likely resulting in less diversity in our work and network — and being engaged externally, was powerful for me. In particular, the research confirms that there is value in engaging in professional development with individuals from other sectors, beyond academia.
Chrissi thanked the OKHE team for inviting her to speak in the session — and also reflected on the presence of entry barriers in the Main Library building. How open, exactly, are our physical spaces? Not the first time the Library has asked/been asked this, and it won’t be the last.
Just a rebel?
Chrissi then showed us a comment from the external examiner for her thesis:
“The study takes a novel, arguably radical, stance in relation to the field of academic development. I consider this to be a particular strength of the thesis. Its novelty lies in the ways in which it evidences and illuminates participants’ experiences of ‘alternative’ continuing professional development opportunities for academics.” Prof. Linda Drew, External Examiner
She pointed out the word ‘radical’. Is encouraging openness and diverse networks really radical? After all, what are we all here for? Universities are here to create new knowledge and disseminate it for the social good, to make a difference.
Chrissi concluded that yes, her thesis is radical — but perhaps it shouldn’t be.
This took us to her original presentation title, “An open rebel”: there is so much crossover between openness and disruption/rebellion, perhaps a simpler title would be “A rebel”.
The power of networks
Chrissi stressed how powerful networks have been for her career — starting from an MSc Research project, an online problem-based learning (PBL) trial within Academic Development (Edinburgh Napier University), she has studied, founded, run and benefited from many development networks. These take many forms, including open courses, open educational resources, networks and communities, as well as webinars. A timeline showed just how many networks this is — links are included in the text version of the slide; #LTHEchat and others are worth knowing about.
A framework for collaborative open learning
Chrissi then showed us her cross-boundary collaborative open learning framework, which comes from a “phenomenographic study into the lived experience of open learners in two open cross-institutional courses”. It describes two types of engagement: ‘selective collaboration’ and ‘immersive collaboration’. For each, it describes engagement patterns and learning needs. We have produced a text version of this slide including links.
Informal networks
Chrissi then showed us the number of collaborations which have arisen from the networks she is involved in — a whole range of educational institutions and organisations from the UK and around the world.
Openness as a disruptive force
We then considered two quotes alongside each other.
“Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist”
— Pablo Picasso“If you don’t know the rules, you don’t know not to break them. The amateur doesn’t fear failure.”
— Kessels (2016, 43)
It is interesting to think about both of these in the context of playful learning, and open practice. The second is from a book, Failed it: How to turn mistakes into ideas and other advice for successfully screwing up.
What does a pedagogic innovator do?
We then looked at a number of descriptions of different types of innovators, based on the types of things they try, and whether they do this with purpose. Technology is just one aspect of this model, and it is worth looking back a few years — when innovation was too often discussed as if it only related to technology. Now, technology use in learning and teaching is very normalised; perhaps this has helped us to move to talking about innovation more usefully.
This took us to the Pedagogic Innovators Project, which Chrissi has been working on with Barbara Thomas and others. Chrissi and Barbara have a paper currently under review, which asks what drives pedagogic innovation. While technology plays a role, this is perhaps decreasing — and we should not just consider digital technology as important. Being given the time and space to innovate are very important for innovators — something which institutions can do to support innovators.
Crucially, a quote suggests that it is innovators who drive change, and that this can change institutions; not the other way around:
“Innovators are people who create and innovate regardless of whether there is a strategic change initiative they are the key resource for leading bottom-up change and to changing institutional culture.” (Jackson, 2014, 41)
Wake up, take risks, create ripples!
Chrissi finished with some words of encouragement:
There’s no time to sleep; we need to wake up and act!
Take risks and go for it. Practices have a ripple effect!
We hope that you enjoyed Chrissi’s talk — I certainly did. You are welcome to comment on this write-up with anything you would like to add.
