OFAR Year Three Kicks Off

By Maritez Apigo – Distance Education Coordinator, Open Educational Resources (OER) Coordinator, and English Professor at Contra Costa College

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My increasing involvement in the Open for Antiracism (OFAR) program parallels my growing passion and leadership in supporting faculty’s journey to becoming antiracist educators and integrating Open Educational Resources (OER) and open pedagogy. In year one of the Open for Antiracism (OFAR) program, I was an OFAR Advisory Coach. In year two, I was a Course Facilitator and an Advisory Coach. Currently, in year three, I am adding Lead Advisory Coach to my evolving list of leadership roles. 

In my role as Contra Costa College’s OER Coordinator, I support faculty in exploring OER and making their classes Zero Textbook Cost (ZTC) to remove the barriers associated with book costs for students. I’ve noticed that OER typically replicate the eurocentrism and the lack of diversity and inclusion of traditional textbooks. I’ve even had colleagues request OER that specifically represents diverse scientists or philosophers only to discover that they don’t exist. 

I began to see that the field of Open Education was blindingly white. What could I do to change this?

James Glapa-Grossklag, OFAR co-lead

OFAR fills a necessary gap in diversity, equity, inclusion, and antiracism in OER. Its attention to specific and substantive change happening at the intersection of antiracist pedagogy, OER, and open pedagogy is what attracted me to the OFAR program. Instead of replicating eurocentrism and perpetuating the silencing of marginalized voices, it is working to eradicate white supremacy in curriculum and pedagogy. Further transformations occur through open pedagogy by placing student work at the center.

Una Daly, Director of the Community College Consortium for OER (CCCOER), and James Glapa-Grossklag, Dean of Educational Technology, Learning Resources, and Distance Learning at College of the Canyons both co-lead OFAR. James reflects, “I began to see that the field of Open Education was blindingly white. What could I do to change this? Instructors wished to make their teaching antiracist and needed support, and the tools or field that I knew best (Open Education) would help people to make this desired change a reality.” 

Although OFAR is a faculty development program, institutional impact and support are key to implementing antiracist classrooms.

Una Daly, OFAR co-lead

In OFAR, change happens on multiple levels, from the classroom up to the institution. Una explained, “Although OFAR is a faculty development program, institutional impact and support are key to implementing antiracist classrooms. Our faculty teams request a letter of support from a college administrator who is asked to participate in selected OFAR activities, provide opportunities for them to share their work on campus, and support them in the case of opposition to antiracist pedagogy.”

Year Three

Currently beginning its third year, OFAR is further developing its roots in the California community college system, making an impact and showing promising results. From year one to two, OFAR more than doubled the number of participants it could accept and implemented college teams to enhance institutional impact. Administrator support was required and their feedback was requested at program completion. Several of the year one participants became Advisory Coaches to help support the more significant number of participants and provide continuity and leadership growth. 

From year two to three, the growing need for more team and coach support led to the addition of two new roles: Team Leaders and Lead Advisory Coach. These roles will continue to grow leaders from within the OFAR community. Administrator involvement is deepened by adding multiple communications with their teams over the year-long program. Una and James are also exploring the role of students in the OFAR program and have heard from the teams about how they envision the student role at their college this coming year. 

Eight college teams have been accepted into the program for year three, which include full-time and part-time faculty from:

• Butte College
• Clovis Community College
• Compton College
• Hartnell College
• Los Angeles Southwest College
• Moorpark College
• Orange Coast College
• Palo Verde College

Antiracist Action Planning and Implementation

I am blown away by the opportunities our participants have identified to infuse anti-racism and open pedagogy in their courses.

Joy Shoemate, OFAR course developer and facilitator

Faculty begin OFAR by participating in a six-week online professional development course that leads them through training modules on antiracist pedagogy, OER, and open pedagogy, co-facilitated by Joy Shoemate (College of the Canyons), Kim Grewe (Northern Virginia Community College), and Maritez Apigo (Contra Costa College). The culminating project is the submission of an Antiracist Action Plan. In these action plans, participants set goals to review OER options to replace their textbooks and make their courses Zero Textbook Cost (ZTC), decolonize and equitize their syllabi, revise content units to be antiracist, and create non-disposable assignments that integrate open pedagogy. Joy Shoemate expresses, “I am blown away by the opportunities our participants have identified to infuse anti-racism and open pedagogy in their courses. It’s especially heartening to learn how many faculty have not only adopted OER but really embraced OER by immediately revising existing texts to make them more antiracist.” View stellar examples of Antiracist Action Plans from year one participants in this webinar recording.

Implementation of each participant’s Antiracist Action Plan will occur during the spring semester with the direct support of a peer Advisory Coach assigned to each college. Each coach is a veteran community college faculty member and brings particular expertise in OER, antiracism, or course design. Five of the eight current Advisory Coaches are alumni of the OFAR program themselves.  

Advisory Coaches 2022-23

Closing

I’m excited to be a part of OFAR’s evolution, particularly when I reflect on how many students’ lives are directly impacted by the changes happening with each of the 40+ faculty members and each of the 8 college teams annually. OFAR provides the structure and support for more and more faculty and colleges to make significant curricular, pedagogical, and institutional transformations in OER and open pedagogy through an antiracist lens. OFAR is not simply performative plans, pledges, and promises of antiracism; it’s real change.

Maritez’s Bio

For over two decades, Maritez Apigo has had the honor of teaching English and ESL in community colleges, high schools, and middle schools in the Bay Area, California, and in Hawaii. She has been teaching online since earning her M.A. in English and TESOL from SFSU in 2012, and she holds an Online Network of Educators (@ONE) Certificate in Online Teaching and Design and an @ONE Advanced Certificate in Online Teaching Principles. Currently, she is the Distance Education Coordinator, the Open Educational Resources (OER) Coordinator, and an online and hybrid English Professor at Contra Costa College. As a leader in online education, she trains faculty in online pedagogy at the college, district, and state levels. She is an @ONE Online Course Facilitator of four professional development courses. On the leadership team of Open for Antiracism (OFAR), she serves as a Course Facilitator and Lead Advisory Coach. Her passions for social justice, equity, innovation, and student success are illuminated in her work. When she’s not teaching, you might discover her behind the turntables DJing, in the dance studio working on her dance technique, or at a soccer field cheering on her two young children. Twitter: @maritezapigo