While open educational practices (OEP) have shaped countless classrooms in higher education, K-12, and beyond, these ideas are largely unheard of in the world of organized labour. This session presents a metatheoretical model suggesting that the scholarly processes that proliferate OEP in formal academic settings are predominantly disconnected from organized labour, yet there are existing channels to bridge the connections. The model employs a systems thinking framework with two main subsystems. First, is the prospect for OEP in union education settings. For example, in Joint Health and Safety Committee certification training programs, there are numerous OEPs that have the potential to enhance engagement and inclusion. The second subsystem comprises open labour practices (OLP), which are practices with concepts similar to OEP such as renewable content. Renewable union reports will be discussed as a manifestation of OLP with a case study of the Canadian Union of Public Employees.
Attendees of this session will be able to:- Understand the metatheoretical model explaining why OEP practitioners are primarily present in higher education settings and absent from union education settings.
- Understand the ways that OEP can be applied to union education settings such as the Canadian Union of Public Employees.
- Understand the way that open labour practices (OLP) can facilitate advocacy for wider adoption of OEP in union settings.
- Understand the channels by which unions in higher education settings can catalyse exchange of such ideas to the broader movement of organized labour beyond academia.
