Innovative Practices

The 6Rs of Indigenous OER

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Abstract

In 2021 I was asked to give a presentation on Indigenous Knowledges (IK) in open education (OE) to kick off open educational resources (OER) week (Lar-Son, 2021). Most of my speaking on IK in education was based on how we maintain Indigenous sovereignty through data and research practices in the context of large post-secondary institutions. Given that OER creation was something that I had only done a few times in my career, I decided to analyze OER frameworks, and the 5Rs of OER (Wiley, 2007), using my own Indigenous worldviews and teachings. In particular the teachings that I drew upon were the Rs, or the Longhouse and Kirkness and Barhardt (1991). From these Rs I created the 6Rs of Indigenous OER as a way to guide non-Indigenous OER creators to work ethically and adhere to IK sharing protocols when needed. The following article explains the intertwining of IK, worldviews, research, and sovereignty with the concepts and frameworks of OER, to adapt the Rs and indigenize OER practices.

Keywords: Indigenous Open Education, OER, Indigenous Knowledges, Indigenous Sovereignty

How to Cite:

Lar-Son, K., (2026) “The 6Rs of Indigenous OER”, Journal of Open Educational Resources in Higher Education 4(1), 9–21. doi: https://doi.org/10.31274/joerhe.24660