Presenters are listed in alphabetical order.
EdTech’s Critical Turn: How Flexible Learning is Liberatory But Also Imbricated in Issues of Power and Privilege
Flexible learning is often promoted as a design that enables broader access to education. Using an analysis of the surrounding literature on flexible education that has been published in the journal Distance Education over the last 40 years we show that flexible learning is embedded in six themes: the qualities of flexibility as affording “anytime anyplace” learning; flexibility as pedagogy; liberatory or service-oriented aspects of flexibility; limitations of flexibility, especially in terms of technology, the constraints of time of space, and cultural differences; flexibility as a quality needed by instructors and instructional designers; and critiques of flexibility as a concept. Using critical analysis of the broader literature, we show that flexible learning relies on numerous assumptions about learners and power.