On critically engaging with other people’s writing
I just finished a blog post about Sean Duncan’s PhD dissertation about reuse of learning objects, which was quite critical. And I asked myself for a second whether I should publish it or not. Would it make anyone upset (him, his supervisors)? Was it aggressive or uneccessary? I don’t think so. I think part of the reasons I felt uneasy with publishing this, is because I am so used to “haters” and “trolls” on the internet, who will obsessively debate and criticize everything. In addition, while the fundament of academia is critical engagement and debate, there is certainly enough unproductive “attacks”, personal disputes and other issues that don’t serve to promote scholarship.
However, just as Cory Doctorow is more afraid of obscurity than ebook-piracy, I think that obscurity or indifference is far worse than criticism in academia. If you have worked for years on a product, and it just ends up on a shelf in some library, never to be seen again… And I find this kind of thing happens frequently, at all levels. For example, I attended the Comparative, International Education Society annual meeting last year in Charleston, SC. This is a huge conference, with over 900 presentations given on all topics related to comparative education. Unfortunately, many of the presentations were extremely poor, but I felt that there was very little real engagement with the content, by the audience. Partly, this was probably due to the lack of time (often four 15 minute presentations, followed by just 20 minutes of discussion).
The best session I attended was the presentation of a large project presented by several famous scholars, who had invited a who’s who of famous education scholars to read drafts of their presentations before-hand, and give brief comments. One after another, they went up to the podium, and give extremely incisive and critical comments, with lot’s of substance and deep insight. In a way, the presenters were being ripped to pieces in all kinds of ways, in another way they got the incredible privilege of having some of the best minds in the world engage deeply with their content. And I also wonder whether the fact that the presenters were also so established, and that everyone knew each other, was one reason why they could be so outspoken… they probably would not have done that to graduate students.
Thinking about myself, I finished my undergraduate honor’s thesis last year on community libraries in Indonesia. It was quite a novel topic, and I was very excited to put it together. I even had it translated to Indonesian, because I believed it was very important that those who were talked about, could also read (and criticize!) the paper. However, although I know that a number of people downloaded the PDF (and mysteriously, it even appeared on the shelves of the Australian National Library), I have yet to receive any kind of substantial comment or criticism about the paper (which is very far from perfect!).
Even blog posts are similar. I always wondered how some bloggers get so many comments on their posts. I know through statistics that there is a nice number of people visiting this blog, many finding it through Google queries, others reading it through feed-readers, etc. Yet, I get very few comments, and even when my blog posts are republished or linked to otherwise, it’s usually just in a “this is neat” way. (There are exceptions, for example Downes did give me some nice resistance about the role of theories in OER research).
And added thing that sometimes strikes me is the whole hierarchy. What business do I have, as a first year MA student, to criticize the field of OER research, or a PhD thesis? However, as long as you do it in a respectful and sincere manner, I think it is an important part of learning. I never pretend that what I say is the final truth, it is what I think. If it is completely wrong, then better that I say it out, and be corrected. For example, I mentioned that I thought the 45 page PhD thesis was very short. Perhaps this is quite normal, and I will be corrected. Great. Then I will have learnt something.
I gave a talk two weeks ago for a Chinese community of people interested in open education and elearning, and one of the things I talked about was the English-language open ed blogosphere. I might have romanticized it a little bit, but I still believe it’s one of the most helpful and constructive “communities” or networks that I’ve ever engaged with. And one of the elements is that what you say really is much more important than who you are. Even if I am a first year MA student, if I have something interesting to say, people will read it. And although our education system is far from perfect, I treasure enormously the self-confidence of my teachers, almos consistently from primary school until my current MA, who welcome criticism and questioning, and encourage you to not accept things at face value.
So I will continue poking my head out, but it works both ways – my stuff is out there, and I would love for people to tear it apart. Then I’ll know, at least, that somebody’s read it.
Stian
June 9th, 2009 @ 4:38 am
I concur, Stian. And I think it’s important that we provide feedback to each other even when we don’t have anything interesting to add, such as this comment I’m making. :)
June 9th, 2009 @ 9:05 am
Hi Stian,
First of all, you are Norwegian, and all Norwegians are brilliant whether they are black, white, red or blue (which fallacy did I just commit) :)
Seriously, I think you are brilliant, and when you write you explore issues in many angles making it very difficult to tear you apart.
So, ordinary dudes like me don’t know where to challenge, while super dudes (besides Downes) have little time (although they might read your posts) to tear them apart unless you challenge them or their ideas directly with some venom based on juicy facts :)
For example, just write a post (with some flavor) entitled “David Wiley you are damn wrong!”, and trust me you will get tons of replies :)
But then again if you don’t get many comments on your blog, does not mean that your posts are not being challenged or appreciated elsewhere.
For example, I don’t get many comments either, but I have come to discover that many of my posts are being shared and talked about here and there in other blogs/sites and retweeted on Twitter quite often.
But as people continue to discover you (and your ideas) and you challenge other educators on their blog (comments), I believe comments will increase and eventually your ideas will be torn apart.
For example, you statement, “…I thought the 45 page PhD thesis was very short.” is such a rubbish and poor argument :)
Why is a 45-page PhD thesis very short? Is it short, because most other PhD thesis babble for 200 pages, when they could perhaps have made their argument in 5 to 10 pages.
What has the length of a paper to do with getting a PhD or fulfilling the requirements of a PhD thesis? Do I have to write more than 50,000 words (some places a requirement), if I could do it in 10,000 words? Could I get a PhD writing just 5 pages?
What is really the objective of a PhD anyway?
I suppose one can tear apart what I just said :)
Have a great day discovering and learning :)
Warm Regards,
Zaid
June 9th, 2009 @ 9:20 am
So one thing I didn’t get – have you published that criticism of that PhD thesis in the end? Is the 45 pages length the only criticism? You can do so much better than that ;) I think 45 pages is outrageous – a Ba thesis yes, an MA thesis perhaps but not a PhD. If someone babbles for 300 pages in their PhD that just means they missed the point of having this amount of space to make a meaningful contribution. Usually the problem is how to shorten the document, because while you do research, there is just so much that needs to be said and so little space.
As to why I sometimes don’t leave you comments – maybe because I prefer to talk to you directly on gchat :)
June 9th, 2009 @ 3:28 pm
Marta, I see that you found it later. Yeah, there was a lot more substantial stuff. But the length is interesting, because what exactly _is_ required to get a PhD? and how is a PhD different from an MA? or a BA honors thesis? Especially since requirements can wary so much from country to country – in Canada it typically takes something like 4 + 2 + 4-5 years (10-11 years in total) to get a PhD, whereas in Australia, it seems like you can do it in 6-7 (3+3-4)…
If you look at my previous post, however, Ali, you will see that I pointed out a number of things that I would like to have seen expanded. And yes, I really think it is very hard to cover the depth of material required for a great PhD thesis in 45 double-spaced pages. Not saying it’s impossible (especially in the sciences I guess, harder in the humanities)… But setting hard page requirements is tough, and it will get more difficult as we start embracing new forms of publishing… Many programs ask for articles instead… in the future, will a PhD be a wiki, a blog, a number of Twitter entries, a 15 minute documentary, and an audiobook? :)
Thanks all for chiming in!
Stian, just arrived in Milan
June 10th, 2009 @ 12:06 am
Criticism is scary to give and scary to receive for most people, but the fact that you stopped and thought about it meant that you were right to deliver it. Your criticism of Sean’s work was balanced and obviously well intentioned. The hierarchy matters not a jot.
Of course, that’s all in an ideal world. There will always be people who can’t handle criticism, even if it’s accurate and delivered well :)
Oh, and as for length, my thesis (in Australia) is expected to be around 80,000 to 100,000 words, not including appendices.
June 18th, 2009 @ 10:44 pm
Hoya, Stian. Looks like Akismet missed a couple of goons.
As impact-factor metrics become more sophisticated and sensitive to online publication, it seems to me that systematic criticism could be “popularized” by increasing the impact of the criticized author and ameliorating ego-bruising. There could be safeguards to predict and reward validity, and to take into account the difference of career maturity between the publisher and the reviewer.
Though, the fact that I’m suggesting this probably means that it’s already been thought of, developed, implemented, and discredited by now.
June 19th, 2009 @ 8:22 am
(Now that you’ve deleted the spam, it looks like I’m referring to other legitimate commenters. Good, good.)
August 25th, 2009 @ 9:31 pm
Since you took the time to read a post on my (German!) blog and didn’t critizise me at all, let me suggest, that the quantity of criticism does not nessecerily correlate with the quality of the content of a text. Still, I agree, criticism is a strong driving force in intellectual endeavors. But I wouldn’t take this fallibilistic view to far. I think one reason some blogs have more comments is that they serve a different function. For instance, I often don’t comment on blogs, because I feel self-conscious about my English writing. (I’m working on that as you see ; -) That doesn’t make me a less engaged and critical reader.