Southern agency and digital education: an ethnography of open online learning in Dili, Timor-Leste

ABSTRACT

This ethnography, based on fieldwork in Dili, Timor-Leste between 2015 and 2017, adopts an orthodox sociological theorising of agency to investigate the ways in which people in Dili negotiate the numerous interacting structural barriers to digital education. Having identified a lack of attention to learner agency in the literature on the promotion and adoption of MOOCs and OER in the Global South (King, Pegrum, and Forsey [2018]. ‘MOOCs and OER in the Global South: Problems and Potential’. International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning 19 (5): 2–20. doi:10.19173/irrodl.v19i5.3742), the paper addresses Connell’s [(2008). Southern Theory: The Global Dynamics of Knowledge in Social Science. Crows Nest: Allen & Unwin] influential criticism of the imbalances in global knowledge production, and explores the parallels in technologically enhanced learning. A new concept- Southern agency- is developed through the stories of three Timorese students and their engagement with digital education, focussing on the influences of local infrastructure, family, literacies and the colonial legacy. The paper highlights the need for more extensive research into local practices of learning with technologies and advocates Southern agency as a heuristic device to gain valuable insights into the lived experience of Southern learners.

KEYWORDS:

• Digital education
• Global South
• Southern theory
• MOOCs
• OER

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Monty King is a PhD student at the University of Western Australia.

Martin Forsey is an educational sociologist/anthropologist with particular interests in the social and cultural effects of schooling and the internationalisation of tertiary education.

Mark Pegrum is an assistant professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Western Australia, where he teaches mainly in the area of e-learning.

ORCID

Monty King http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3279-8857

Martin Forsey http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2532-2132

Mark Pegrum http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1577-4642