Prof. Rory MCGREAL1
1Athabasca University, Athabasca, Canada
Europeans began to adopt the indigenous communities’ notion that through engagement, connexions, reason, debate and actions societies can effect positive change. Indigenous Americans enunciated a critique of French values that opened the eyes of many influential Europeans who in the 16th and 17th centuries, were locked into hierarchical, highly structured societies that had no concept of freedom and equality.
European philosophers were at first bewildered by these new constructs, but then became inspired. They recognized that these indigenous American critiques equipped them with significant insights and a wider awareness of the complexity of their social structures. Indigenous thinkers contended that freedom was a perquisite for social equality. European Enlightenment thinkers adopted these concepts, and began refusing to submit to capricious power, some opposing the clergy, making connexions with the people and engaging in political action. The ideals of the French and American revolutions can be traced to indigenous views on community engagement, freedom of speech, and equality of women. None of which existed in hierarchical Europe, even as concepts.
Europeans first encountered these concepts in the17th century after connecting with indigenous leaders. The political sensibilities of Enlightenment thinkers were shaped by these early contacts, that have framed the attitudes and ideas of much of the world, up to the present day. People today have appropriated these concepts from their connections with indigenous communities. Today people actively work together and engage in societal construction and change, while supporting these indigenous concepts of freedom and equality.
Biography:
Prof. Rory McGreal is the Editor-in-Chief of IRRODL (International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning.. He is also the founder of the OER Knowledge Cloud, a repository of research articles on OER. He is the Athabasca University Chairholder of the UNESCO//ICDE Chair in Open Educational Resources (OER). Previous positions include Assoc. VP Research, and founder of TeleEducation NB, the first Canadian province-wide elearning network. He is also the recipient of several national and international awards for open and distance learning; and has conducted workshops in more than 60 countries, and been an invited speaker in more than 40.