Creation
OER Down Under: OEP in Remote Australian Indigenous Fisheries
Charles Darwin University
Dr Johanna Funk
Overview
This chapter presents some of the multimedia ‘student’ authored open educational resources (OER) from multi-organisation research collaboration in the Northern Territory of Australia. The 2014-2016 portion of the project created OER within an ‘opened’ training model which aimed to better meet the expectations of remote Indigenous communities of coastal Northern Australia who were developing ongoing fisheries and aquaculture businesses.
Existing units offered in the usual training only partially addressed the needs of regions we were working in. The units selected for this project were more suited to local business development in coastal remote Northern Territory communities. The framework provided a way to support negotiated workforce training that effectively addresses issues of distance, access to sustainable training, language diversity and recognition of collaboration between industry, community, and existing knowledges. The resources we created were mapped to a consolidation of relevant units of competency in trades and further education, otherwise known as vocational education and training (TAFE/VET). This chapter explores a key element of the framework; video resources that could be developed locally.
Remote training delivery can be complemented by open educational practices (OEP). These practices enabled the local staff of Aboriginal Corporations (the ‘students’) in fisheries training programs to contextualise and author work-based learning resources. The goal of this project was to develop resources as example recognition of prior learning (RPL) which could recognise and contextualise competencies for meaningful employment (Lambert, et al., 2022). The final result of the process was a series of videos made in simple technology, reproducible in other communities for more culturally responsible ownership of local work-based learning. The resources were narrated in local languages, in situ, and bear Creative Commons licenses the authors chose themselves.
My project contribution as a research associate included facilitating the OER creation with staff to demonstrate competencies in training packages covering fisheries and aquaculture enterprise development.
Using this case study
This case study is useful for teaching academics, learning designers, library staff, government and industry professionals. This chapter is aimed at showcasing the process involved in developing resources as examples of author work-based learning resources. This chapter also includes information related to remote training delivery that addresses issues of distance, language diversity and recognition of collaboration between industry and community.
Key stakeholders
The project involved a range of government, industry, community, and training stakeholders. Local staff who were completing the training to grow their business authored the OER used in promotion, training, and as RPL learning records to illustrate the potential of this approach.
Local staff, their situated practices, knowledges, and languages were centred in the process.
Background issues
A main issue with nationally accredited TAFE/VET sector training packages is that they can tend to be generic in nature despite being practical and competency based. Engineered pathways and de-contextualised workforce programs have been shown to be less effective for participants and TAFE/VET sector completion and employment rates in remote communities are problematic (Guenther, et al., 2014). Certificate completion rates also don’t always reflect learning that will be authentically useful locally. (ABS, 2009, 2011; Gray, Hunter & Howlett 2013; Jordan & Mavec, 2010; Wallace, et al., 2011).
Measurement of an externally defined notion of success, inconsistently delivered through decontextualised delivery that take no account of local realities has resulted in repeated failures of programs (Ellanna, et al. 1988; Morphy & Sanders 2001; Sanders, 2002; Dale, 2013; Guenther, et al., 2014; Klein, 2014; Jordan & Fowkes, 2016). This repeated failure adds to a lack of morale, investment and credibility for any sustainable, locally relevant, or emergent culturally responsive programs, and increases inconsistency of experience for those undertaking the training.
Another related issue in the Northern Territory is low employment rates and availability of meaningful work on Country. The local authorship of resources allowed us to contextualise the units of competency that were relevant to some of the site-specific training and economic goals of the Aboriginal corporation with which we were working.
What became clear early in the project’s development were the challenges for current training provision.
- Participants were in small groups, making delivery on Country financially unviable.
- Model enterprises represented in training materials may not align with local business models in other parts of the country, possibly making enterprises culturally unviable.
- Existing qualifications addressed parts of the potential roles of enterprises, but no one course, or training package would provide all the competencies required; new and context-specific skills needed to be included in training frameworks.
Measurement benchmarks for workforce development initiatives include key success indicators for full completion of training package certificates as they are written (Australian Bureau of Statistics, n.d.). These metrics rarely consider some of the complexities involved:
the learners’ own knowledge authority and management, how they would prefer to use or adapt the training materials (whole or in part) to their local contexts, and the ways they want to run their businesses.
Adhering to local practices could refine definitions of program success informed by and for local authority (Foley, 2006; Ivory, 1999). Respecting knowledge authority of decision makers in remote communities and the orientation they decide for their community’s training needs shows a respect for how community members want to learn and add to their knowledge, for their own purposes.
Project description
Exemplar videos were created by the Aboriginal Corporation staff (‘students’) to meet learning objectives from different units of competency in fisheries and aquaculture training. For example, ‘how to take a water sample for quality testing’ is featured here. The resources were narrated in local dialects with English subtitles. The researcher edited resources with locally produced music provided by Community, added English subtitles as directed by the authors, and historical content about business and trade in the region at the suggestion of community elders (Manmurulu, 2016).
As the researcher on the project, I played the part of camera holder, editing video and processing raw footage at the direction of the authors in iMovie and simple slideshow software as we sat under mango trees and in the community art centre. In this form of ‘training,’ the trainees ‘teach’ the researcher, who then compiles footage demonstrating competence in the order the staff select.
Creative Commons licences were discussed with the resource authors, and they chose the CC-BY-NC-SA license. The resources were shared on the Aboriginal Corporation’s social media before it was shared on the research organisation’s ‘Vimeo’ website (with permission).
Key outcomes
The OEP in this project distinguishes ‘training content’ that is freely available and adaptable (one OEP feature), and the ongoing relational practices involved in defining the purposes, use, and creation of resources within a larger adaptation of training packages and approaches.
The value of OEP involved within program and resource creation can be determined by context, enabling collaborative participation in layers of knowledge management rather than only access to free content which was authored by someone else. The multi-organisation collaboration supported these resources, which met requirements for the Indigenous fisheries training framework as well as supported meaningful knowledge creation in remote communities. We pushed for this model of collaborative OEP which met mainstream knowledge needs, but also contextualised competences by those authoring the learning, provoking a shift in training- ‘student’ relationships in culturally distinct instances.
Open practices with leadership from local knowledge authority can increase community ownership over enterprise development; a reason people want training in the first place. Continuing to innovate on OEP can improve learning quality and ‘open’ training up to local realities.
In this way, OEP can transform ‘training delivery’ into ‘community led development.’ Increased ownership can lead to increased engagement and authority over knowledge handling practices. Resource creations became less about content and more about human centred authoring and interaction in application of competence.
It could follow that the power in resources, programs and subsequent practices is determined by the openness with which they are created. Following community leadership in consolidating the training illustrates a placed, connected, and authentic practice, acknowledging complex realities rather than forcing outcomes that would result in further ontological and economic disenfranchisement. Prior emphasis on resource management has distracted attention from the practices which underpin resource creation, use and interaction (Geser, 2007). OEP and learning can be ‘open’ in different ways. Taking pause to examine and define openness for this project helped us to step back from only focussing on content production and ground a definition of OEP for the process concerned.
Learnings and recommendations
OEP is underpinned by authentic, place-based learning communities
The use of authentic, placed knowledge that respects knowledge authority and informs development can complement and deepen workforce training through engagement with local realities. Learning is connected to the place where it happens. Guthadjaka describes a joining of tributaries; that learning comes from a series of sources (Guthadjaka, 2010). This directs OEP to be informed by a range of views and ‘re-present’ (Freire, 1970) the knowledge in a way that collaborates with a range of learning approaches, including the learner’s knowledge system. This also accommodates the tensions (Bannerjee & Tedmanson, 2010; Gould, 2015) between levels of life in knowledge and learning communities.
Emphasising relationships of people to their environment
Learning on Country (LOC) includes those that are doing the learning in situ and therefore aligns with Freirean authentic education and is legitimate and lawful via local authority structures. Contextualising OEP in a training framework designed to meet the expectations of Aboriginal people offers opportunities for improved learning outcomes, design that aligns with participants’ lives, and increased community ownership. This ‘opens up’ community-led development of workforce program knowledge. The community leadership, authorship, and ownership of pedagogy – respects those whose learning it is, and their authority in that context.
It does the education design work ahead of meeting communities where they want to do and apply their learning.
More than just competence
Participants demonstrated having ‘know-where’ and not just ‘know how and what’. Knowing the land on which they work on multiple levels – due to it being clan-owned estates, childhood playgrounds, family ceremonial places, historical trading sites with Makassar, and traditional hunting and fishing grounds; one can see how the connected nature of the situated knowledge come to bear on learners’ demonstration of connected knowledge in the resources, in addition to workforce competence.
Champions – what was the experience of those worked on the project? What did they say? Any reflections they have?
Community Leaders would rather shape local employment programs under their authority.
Training can represent a de-contextualised development agenda which doesn’t acknowledge local authority structures’ impact on how that would shape such employment program delivery (Klein, 2014; Manmurulu, 2016). Moving towards more localised training collaborations is a positive move.
Trust and collaboration rather than power over ‘students’
Learning as participation and shared authority challenges the roles in training- ‘student’-relationships. The resources were filmed by the researchers and the staff ‘taught’ the researchers. The community shaped the innovation of a situated training design.
In practice
Develop a partnership, build trust and demonstrate humility
Make sure the project meets the needs of the community first. Work to transform power dynamics and innovate with the educational and cultural context – in this case, TAFE/VET training sector and communities which it attempts to serve but is too distanced from.
Of particular- and still current- significance is the historical and ongoing colonial violence within education systems. This influence has shaped the ongoing unsatisfactory experience Aboriginal peoples continue to endure. Taking responsibility for dismantling the oppressive structures we are complicit in is a starting point for all educators.
Educational institutions generally prioritise management of learning resources and compliance systems. This can overshadow the potential for openness to be considered a collective right and responsibility. The required power shift to engage learners in their own learning management requires the subtle, contextualised use of OEP that would lead to more empowered learning and competence in workforces. Learner-created resources are examples of the openness that allows this shift, also presented in the Continuum for OER Adoption and Practice (Stagg, 2014).
Practical skill development and application required in the TAFE/VET sector demands that work-related learning is the priority, not content creation. In the context of qualification structures which help trainees, however, openness and authority in gaining and demonstrating skills might retain trainees at a higher level than currently exists.
Acknowledgement of local knowledge authority presents an opportunity to imagine how to further engage learners with culturally distinct concepts of learning in a more functional relationship with learning and workforce participation.
Further resources
References
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Acknowledgement of peer reviewers
The authors gratefully acknowledge the following people who kindly lent their time and expertise to provide peer review of this chapter:
- Dr Mais Fatayer, Learner Experience Design Manager, University of Technology Sydney
How to cite and attribute this chapter
How to cite this chapter (referencing)
Funk, J. (2024). OER Down Under: OEP in Remote Australian Indigenous Fisheries. In Open Education Down UndOER: Australasian Case Studies. Council of Australian University Librarians. https://oercollective.caul.edu.au/openedaustralasia/chapter/oer-down-under-oep-in-remote-australian-indigenous-fisheries
How to attribute this chapter (reusing or adapting)
If you plan on reproducing (copying) this chapter without changes, please use the following attribution statement:
OER Down Under: OEP in Remote Australian Indigenous Fisheries by Joanna Funk is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence.
If you plan on adapting this chapter, please use the following attribution statement:
*Title of your adaptation* is adapted from OER Down Under: OEP in Remote Australian Indigenous Fisheries by Johanna Funk, used under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence.
About the author
name: Dr Johanna Funk
Dr. Johanna Funk is a teacher, research fellow and lecturer across independent, higher and public education sectors, with a diverse range of professional interests including relational pedagogy, educational technology analysis and design, policy and media content analysis as well the use of open platforms and social media in research.
