Name: Resilience and Responsiveness: Lessons of Open Practices in Emergencies
Start: 2026-10-07T16:20:00-0400
End: 2026-10-07T16:50:00-0400

All sessions are available online except round tables, special activities, and workshops.

Resilience and Responsiveness: Lessons of Open Practices in Emergencies

Wednesday October 7, 2026 4:20pm - 4:50pm EDT

5 DR3

ID: 33611

We are living through a period of significant global instability, marked by political uncertainty, challenges to multilateralism, and increasing risks of conflict and disruption. These dynamics place pressure on education systems worldwide, raising urgent questions about how to ensure continuity, accessibility, and relevance. In this context, Open Educational Resources (OER) and broader open education practices offer a promising foundation for more resilient and adaptable systems, as they combine the affordances of digital technologies with relational, learner-centred approaches, an integration that proved essential during the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper examines what lessons from open education in emergency contexts can inform the development of more robust open ecosystems globally.This study argues that effective open education systems must demonstrate two key characteristics: responsiveness to user needs and resilience to external pressures. While these qualities are widely discussed, they remain under-examined in terms of how they are enacted across different contexts. In particular, emergency settings such as conflict, displacement, or systemic disruption offer a unique lens through which to observe how open practices adapt under pressure.To investigate this, the presentation reports on findings from a qualitative comparative study of open education initiatives in both emergency and non-emergency contexts. The analysis draws on semi-structured interviews conducted with two groups: (1) learners engaging with open educational platforms, and (2) stakeholders involved in governance and decision-making processes. This dual perspective enables an examination of both user experience and systemic organisation. The findings, derived through thematic analysis, highlight patterns across contexts, with particular attention to how responsiveness to user needs and resilience to external pressures are operationalised in practice. The study is guided by two research questions:1. How do user needs in open educational platforms differ between emergency and non-emergency contexts? 2. How do governance structures and processes differ across these contexts? This research contributes to the emerging field of Open Education in Emergencies by extending its focus beyond short-term crises to include longer-term and systemic disruptions. By examining practices at the margins of education systems, it seeks to surface insights that are often overlooked in more stable contexts and to amplify perspectives that are less visible in dominant policy and research narratives. In doing so, it also aims to shift the framing of educational provision from a logic of institutional interest toward a logic of user need and long-term resilience.The expected outcome is a conceptual framework that organises effective practices into four dimensions: Relevance, Openness, Independence, and Pluralism. This framework will synthesise findings from across contexts to identify transferable strategies for designing open education systems that are adaptable, scalable, and equity-oriented. Ultimately, the research aims to demonstrate how insights from emergency contexts can inform more robust and inclusive open education ecosystems globally.

Speakers

Adriana D’Amico

Education Policy Student - Intern Researcher @ Monash Virtual School, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

Adriana D’Amico is a postgraduate student currently enrolled in an Erasmus Mundus Master program on education policies from global development. During her bachelor in Economics and social sciences she took part in both advocacy activities, working with a team to promote pluralism... Read More →

Wednesday October 7, 2026 4:20pm - 4:50pm EDT
5 DR3 MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Presentation

Speaker Modality In-person
Track Hacking the Open Ecosystem and Praxis for the Public Good

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OEGlobal 2026

Adriana D’Amico

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OEGlobal 2026

Adriana D’Amico

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