Open Pedagogy and Transdisciplinary Thinking: Making connections through a visual artefact self-study

This presentation provides the results of a self-study of the STEAM OER project Form and Function(s): A Sustainable Design meets Computation OER Sprint. The researcher applies visual documentation of created and found images that support the process of her self-reflections upon open pedagogy and curriculum, occurring over the OER project development. With her background in visual studies, pedagogy, and openness in education, the researcher experienced times of uncertainty due to the STEM content inherent to the project. Additionally, challenges and realities of the covid pandemic influenced the people and processes that were intertwined with meeting project deliverables. Senge’s concept of mental models informs the inquiry and conceptualizing transdisciplinary thinking is considered. The eight attributes of open pedagogy frame the interrogation of the images and the connections made to curriculum theorizing. The self-study provides conclusions and suggestions for the role of visual documentation as a means of conceptualizing complex ideas and relationships for open educators and researchers interested in the practices of open curricular and pedagogical processes and Hegarty’s eight attributes of open pedagogy, especially the role of critical self-reflection.