By Kim Grewe, PhD, Instructional Designer Northern Virginia Community College
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?
The answer came in the form of an invitation. Una Daly of CCCOER and James Glapa-Grossklag of College of the Canyons asked me to develop and facilitate a groundbreaking course for California Community College faculty called Open For AntiRacism (OFAR). Together with my dear colleague Joy Shoemate from College of the Canyons, we designed the course to look at Open Educational Resources as a means to create more antiracist curriculum and Open Pedagogical Practices as a vehicle to create more inclusive online course spaces that empower all students to create knowledge, have their lived experiences acknowledged, and their voices heard. The course was offered asynchronously over 4 weeks. Faculty examined their own understanding of racism and antiracism, learned about OER and OPP, and created an antiracist action plan that incorporates OPP and/or OER to be implemented IMMEDIATELY, this Spring 2021 semester, in the courses they teach.
Over 300 applicants from across the state of California applied to take part in this course. 17 faculty were chosen as the first cohort for this groundbreaking course. And what a diverse group of 17 that make up this first cohort! The participants hail from different regions of the state, teach at different community colleges across a variety of different disciplines. The individuals are of different races or ethnicities, different stages in their careers, different genders and gender identities.
In order to prepare for the work, I began by doing what a lot of us academics do: teaching myself. I sought out resources, readings, and learning experiences that would teach me more about what racism is and how we can work together as educators to break down its destructive barriers to equity and access in higher education. One of the first things I learned is that I needed to understand the definition of racist. A lot of us DO NOT know what racism is.
Next, I had to realize that I’m racist. We all are. It cannot be helped. If we are swimming in racist waters, we cannot help but cling to racist notions and ideas, and those ideas, whether conscious or unconscious, are going to find their way into our words and deeds. Realizing this was liberating for me. Once I released myself from the grip of the good/bad binary idea of racism and realized that good people can be racist, I could be more honest with myself and get to work to do better, do more.
I never learn as much as when I develop the learning or facilitate the learning. This OFAR course was no different. I benefited from interacting with Joy and with each and every member of the cohort of outstanding faculty. How enriched my own understanding and knowledge has become by interacting with so many talented, hard working, and incredibly smart people. Through the course design, I learned the language and theory around antiracism, and I reinforced my expertise around OER and OPP.
But it was through the experiences as the co-facilitator of this learning that I was able to put the ideas into practice. Joy and I tried to model open and inclusive practices in our facilitation. We encouraged faculty to submit their work in the style that best suited their strengths (a principle of UDL). This led to people creating piktocharts for the first time, using screen share and webcam to reflect on a module, using Canvas Studio to record audio replies, and more.
I witnessed one participant becoming empowered and seeing herself and her journey a little differently as a result of our learning together. Seeing her move her story to the front instead of as a footnote to the greater story really stood out to me as an impactful result of the work. Another member, who has been ABD for years and had fallen into a comfortable pattern at work is now inspired to finish his dissertation, having something meaningful to write about as a result of his work in this course. These were literally life altering learning experiences that Joy and I were honored to experience with our dear Cohort 1, who will always hold a special place in my heart.
Through reading participants’ reflections, I learned that these faculty sometimes had difficult conversations about race with each other in synchronous Zoom calls that weren’t required. More than one participant reflected on sitting with discomfort, what their reaction was sitting with it, and then channeling that discomfort into positive action. I was witnessing change and transformation happening as part of difficult, critical self-reflection. To become antiracist requires a transformation. This transformation takes a desire to learn, the tenacity to self-educate, a commitment to act, and taking action to dismantle some aspect of white supremacy culture and systemic racism.
In this way, we are stepping up, speaking out, and reframing the very personal way we have always taught within a white supremacy culture. Even writing these words, I tremble; I have never dared to publicly say or write such things. But I am firmly convinced that if we remain silent on these issues, we are complicit. And there are so many of us, then, who are inadvertently working to strengthen the very racist structures we always thought we were helping to dismantle.
So I applaud these courageous educators. The journey will not be easy. We humble ourselves; we are just learning the language to use to talk and write about these things. There will be missteps. There will be discomfort and misunderstanding. But there will also be growth towards antiracism and inclusivity in our curriculum, course design, and pedagogical approaches.
By learning how to sit with discomfort, to really listen, to make sure we understand racism as a structure not an event, to learn how to better respect all our students and colleagues, to use our privilege to be an active antiracist by calling out racist behavior and talk when we see it: these are all antiracist acts that can lead to real growth and change, first in the individual, and then hopefully within the institution itself. As my friend Monica Galvan from the OFAR cohort reminded me recently, institutions are made of people and by changing as people we can change the institution.
Using open to help bring about this change seems right. The paradigm-shifting power of Open Educational Resources and Open Pedagogical Practices is consistent with antiracist curriculum and pedagogy. OER and OPP provide us with resources, tools, and approaches to break down traditional power structures. OER provides not only student access but also the opportunity to have student voice and experience at the forefront of the learning. Open Pedagogy allows us to empower our students by seeking out their knowledge and experiences as valuable and including them in our course design and teaching approaches. I’m excited to see the ways in which OFAR Cohort 1 leverages OER and OPP to create more equitable, inclusive, and antiracist learning spaces for their students.
Dr. Kim Grewe is an educator, scholar, online learning enthusiast, and champion of open education. With teaching experience from middle school to community college, Kim is currently working as an instructional designer at Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA), one of the largest and most diverse community colleges in the United States. During the recent surge in demand for online learning, Kim has worked to develop and deliver training on topics such as creating authentic assessments in online courses, increasing interaction and engagement in online courses, implementing group work in online courses, and using open to create equitable and inclusive online learning spaces.
Kim has also enjoyed conducting research around OER, both as an OER Research Fellow and a VCCS Chancellor’s Faculty Fellow. Kim’s dissertation explores the impact of OER use on community college students’ deep approaches to learning.