Laura is a professor emerita at the University of Cape Town (UCT), South Africa. She has worked in education throughout her professional life as a teacher, teacher educator, publisher, strategist, researcher, and scholar. At UCT Laura was the first director of the Centre for Innovation in Learning and Teaching (CILT) and led UCT’s Centre for Educational Technology, OpenUCT Initiative and Multimedia Education Group.
Laura plays a key strategic and scholarly role in the area of open education institutionally, nationally and internationally. She has has a long-standing commitment to open education and has been especially influential fostering openness in all its many forms (OER, open access, open scholarship, open science, …), as a means of social justice. Her voice has been both critical and constructive representing an essential global south perspective.
Laura has long understood that it is the underlying principles of open that are important. Her work has shown how open principles translate into higher education practice making possible new forms of north/south networked relationships and new forms of networked learning. Threaded through all her work is a concern about digital and social inequities. These concerns have permeated her research interests which focus on the changing nature of higher education in a post-digital society and new forms of teaching and learning provision.
Laura serves on the editorial boards of many national and international journals; has been an interested contributor and participant at relevant events on every continent; and is an active reviewer of pertinent articles, books, and proposals.
In the recently published book “Higher Education for Good – Teaching and Learning Futures” Laura and co-editor Catherine Cronin invited contributors to share “glimmers of alternative futures” of higher education for good. The resulting 27 chapters grapple with the future in ways that keep possibilities open rather than closed.
The excellent chapters in this book were further amplified at the Open Education Conference (OER24) on 28 March 2024 at Munster Technological University, Cork, Ireland. There Laura and co-presenter Dr Catherine Cronin gave a keynote titled “The future isn’t what it used to be: Open education at a crossroads” Their keynote describes the polycrisis of our current global context and the concurrent fluidity and instability of open education. It situates open education at a crossroads and issues a call for the open education community to take action to move forward from that crossroads.
“Higher Education for Good” and “The Future Isn’t What It Used To Be” exemplify Laura’s leadership in open education combining community sourced insight, in depth analysis, and a map for moving forward. Laura offers critique, hope, and purpose for open education as an important component of higher education going forward.
Award Nominator
I have taken inspiration from Laura and her work for many years. Her commitment to social justice and open education have been unwavering. I have learned from her and take pride in having walked alongside her in our mutual efforts to advance open education around the world. I admire her efforts to enable the systemic and structural changes associated with open education at institutional and national levels. I especially admire her advocacy for global south considerations and her ability to engage with and lead the open education community in ways that encourage participation and ensure inclusion.
Laura Czerniewicz’s continuous and strong leadership in the open education movement highly deserves the leadership award.
Award Reviewer
Her advocacy for the global south is significant.
Award Reviewer
She deserves to be recognised as a strong leader, human, empathic, caring, driven and good at respectfully supporting others in their path, being it shared or individual.
Award Reviewer
