My #OpenDissertation Journey: First Steps was presented by Gabi Witthaus (Lancaster) as part of the Researcher Presentations at the GO-GN mini-seminar on 31 March 2020. A recording of the session is available: https://www.youtube.com/user/GOGNOER/playlists

1. My #OpenDissertation
journey: first steps
Gabi Witthaus, GO_GN Mini-Seminar, 31/03/2020
https://tinyurl.com/GO-GN-Gabi

2. Abstract
I will discuss my plans to release my dissertation openly as work-in-progress over
the coming months, and will outline the first steps taken in this direction. The focus
of my research is the nature of online engagement among displaced people in
higher education. My study is based on ethnographic research with a small
number of refugees and asylum seekers who are Sanctuary Scholars on an online
Master’s programme offered by a UK university. I will discuss some of the ethical,
conceptual and practical issues that I am engaging with in my methodology, and
look forward to receiving feedback from the GO_GN community.
#OpenDissertation 101: more questions than answers?

3. Context
https://le.ac.uk/politics/study/distance-learning/sanctuary-scholarship

4. Research questions
1. How do refugees depict their lived reality of online learning?
2. How do these depictions map onto:
a. the online engagement framework for higher education (Redmond et
al., 2018)?
b. the expectations and aspirations (or ‘conceived’ realities (Soja, 1998))
of both the learners themselves and the programme team?
3. What can we learn from this analysis about the factors that can enable and
constrain refugee students’ engagement in online learning?
4. What recommendations arise for HEIs in supporting refugees and asylum
seekers to engage effectively in online learning?

5. Methodology
N = 6 Sanctuary Scholars (possibly more)
Semi-structured interviews (WhatsApp, Skype, Zoom)
PhotoVoice
Analysis of discussion forum posts & reflective assignments

6. #OpenDissertation - issues to consider
Ethical issues
Practical issues
Epistemological issues

7. Ethical issues
Attribution vs anonymity (= academic integrity vs safeguarding)
Avoiding re-traumatising participants (Clark-Kazak, 2017)
Giving something back to refugee community
Thanking participants for their time (and mobile data usage)

8. Practical issues
Where to release work-in-progress openly?
When to release sections/ chapters?
Engaging my audience
Avoiding engaging future external examiner…
Which CC Licence?

9. https://sites.google.com/artofelearning.org/opendissertation

10. Epistemological issues: voice and positionality
Author voice and positionality (self-disclosure/ reflexivity)
Power dynamics in this research? (Vanner, 2015)
Allowing for variation in participants’ contributions
Encouraging “partnership” - but without pressure

11. References
Clark-Kazak, C. (2017). Ethical Considerations: Research with People in Situations of Forced
Migration. Refuge, 33(2), 11–17.
Redmond, P., Heffernan, A., Abawi, L., Brown, A., & Henderson, R. (2018). An Online Engagement
Framework for Higher Education. Online Learning, 22(1), 183–204.
https://doi.org/10.24059/olj.v22i1.1175 [CC-BY]
Soja, E. W. (1998). Thirdspace: Journeys to Los Angeles and other Real-and-Imagined Places.
Capital & Class (Vol. 22). Cambridge MA: Blackwell.
Vanner, C. (2015). Positionality at the Center: Constructing an Epistemological and Methodological
Approach for a Western Feminist Doctoral Candidate Conducting Research in the Postcolonial.
International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 14(4), https://doi.org/10.1177/1609406915618094
[CC-BY-NC]

12. Let’s continue the conversation...
Twitter: @twitthaus
Blog: www.artofelearning.org
E-mail: g.witthaus@lancaster.ac.uk
#OpenDissertation Google Site:
https://sites.google.com/artofelearning.org/opendissertation
These slides: https://tinyurl.com/GO-GN-Gabi