WILU 2019

Scaffolding can create points of entry and access but can also reduce the complexity of learning to its detriment. And too often we build learning environments in advance of students arriving upon the scene. We design syllabi, assemble content, predetermine outcomes, and craft assessments before having met our students. We reduce students to data. And learning to input and output.

Radical openness isn't a bureaucratic gesture, isn't linear, offers infinite points of entry. It has to be rooted in a willingness to sit with discomfort. Radical openness demands educational institutions be spaces for relationships and dialogue. bell hooks writes, “for me this place of radical openness is a margin—a profound edge. Locating oneself there is difficult yet necessary. It is not a 'safe' place. One is always at risk. One needs a community of resistance.” For hooks, the risks we take are personal, professional, political. When she says that “radical openness is a margin,” she suggests it is a place of emergent outcomes, a place of friction, a place of critical thinking.