Making Classrooms Antiracist with OER and Open Pedagogy

by Una Daly, CCCOER Director and James Glapa-Grossklag, Dean, College of the Canyons

The Open for Antiracism (OFAR) program co-led by CCCOER and College of the Canyons emerged as a response to the growing awareness of structural racism in our educational systems and the realization that adoption of open educational resources and open pedagogy could be transformative at institutions seeking to improve.  Although many institutions have published impressive statements decrying racism, calling for change, and putting equity into their strategic plans, these haven’t always been translated into teaching practices that directly affect students.

Faculty Interest

The California Community Colleges represent the largest system of higher education in the U.S. serving over 2 million students at 115 colleges.  OFAR started with the assumption that these faculty wanted to make their classrooms more anti-racist and were looking for guidelines and a structured environment in which to learn how to do it. Although guidelines were emerging from many different organizations, there wasn’t one that looked at the problem through an open education lens or proposed a supportive safe environment where participants could take a deep dive into anti-racist teaching and apply it in their own classroom with peer support and expert advice.

Over 300 faculty responded to the OFAR call for proposal demonstrating that faculty were ready to learn about making their teaching practices and materials more anti-racist.  The program is designed to give participants a workshop experience where they can better understand anti-racist teaching and how the use of open educational resources and open pedagogy can empower them to involve students in co-creation of an anti-racist classroom.  

Facilitated Coursework

A 4-week facilitated OFAR course has been developed to guide participants through the process of exploring Antiracism in small and large groups and progressing into how OER and open pedagogy can be tools for opening up their classroom to allow students to be co-curators and co-creators in the process of making content and classroom practices antiracist.  The capstone in the 4th week is to develop an action plan for taking OER and open pedagogy into a course being taught this spring semester. 

Coaching and Peer Support

Peer support and expert coaching is offered throughout the spring semester as faculty are working their action plans in the classroom.  Monthly webinars from external experts in antiracist pedagogy, open education, and research are offered to provide a deeper understanding of structural barriers faced by marginalized populations.

Course Facilitators Share Experience

The course designers of the 4-week facilitated course continue in their critical role as mentors throughout the spring semester working with the participants and coaches.  They recently shared their own journeys in becoming antiracist educators.

“Like many social justice minded educators, as the COVID-19 pandemic wore on and the racial disparities that are part and parcel of our racist society were magnified, I felt keenly that I needed to DO something to champion antiracist policies and ideas. As an advocate of open educational resources (OER) and open pedagogical practices (OPP), I could see the ways in which the tenets of open pedagogy and antiracism seemed to go hand in hand. But how to make an impact right now?”  Read on …

---

“We had a goal of immediately trying to build a sense of community with participants because there is a great deal of vulnerability required to lean into the discomfort surrounding difficult discussions around race and racism. As facilitators, we were excited to learn from participants and knew each of them were bringing in a wealth of knowledge. We were intentional about exploring concepts from a theoretical and practical standpoint, and scaffolding content so as to support faculty participants with the development of their action plans.”  Read more …