The COVID-19 pandemic was a pivotal, high impact period in the history of modern education. Seemingly overnight, institutions, programs, and classes around the world moved from being in-person to being online. The amount of individual and collective effort required for this to happen was tremendous. As a result, the pandemic forced both K-12 and post-secondary education systems globally to view the purpose and provision of education, including open education, in different ways. At the same time, the systemic racism against Black, Indigenous, and other People of Colour (BIPOC) was simultaneously being brought to the forefront across all facets of society, including education (Boys, 2022).
It is often assumed that open education, by virtue of improving access to education, de facto supports social justice, but this is not the case (Clinton-Lisell et al., 2023; Iniesto & Bossu, 2023; Lambert, 2018; Mills et al., 2023; Raju et al., 2023). Additionally, online learning is generally thought to improve students’ access to education because of the flexibility in when and where to learn that is possible (Brown, 2012; Butcher & Rose-Adams, 2015; Chen et al., 2022; Kennette & Lin, 2021; Maslowski, 2022; Oguz et al., 2015; Park & Choi, 2009; Pastore & Carr-Chellman, 2009; Williams et al., 2023), but it can, in fact, be a site of social injustice for historically marginalized students (Bakermans et al., 2022; Bozkurt et al., 2020; Croft & Brown, 2020; Ortega et al., 2018; Phirangee & Malec, 2017). As a result, using open pedagogy in an online course to support social justice requires intentionality on the part of the instructor (Bali et al., 2020; Hodgkinson-Williams & Trotter, 2018; Lambert, 2018).
For my dissertation, I am undertaking an exploratory, qualitative, and critical interpretive phenomenological study that seeks to answer this central research question: What are the experiences of faculty members who teach online using open pedagogy to support social justice? My study is situated within the context of one post-secondary institution located in British Columbia, and faculty who teach online courses using open pedagogy to support social justice are being interviewed to better understand how they conceptualize social justice, how they operationalize it using open pedagogy, and what approaches and strategies they use to develop their social justice leadership. In my presentation, I will share preliminary results from my study, and participants will have an opportunity to ask questions, provide feedback, and share ideas.
Included in
[Session 10E]: Social JusticeReferencesBakermans, M., Pfeifer, G., San Martín, W., & LeChasseur, K. (2022). Who writes and who responds? Gender and race-based differences in open annotations. Journal for Multicultural Education, 16(5), 508–521. https://doi.org/10.1108/JME-12-2021-0232 Bali, M., Cronin, C., & Jhangiani, R. S. (2020). Framing open educational practices from a social justice perspective. Journal of Interactive Media in Education, 2020(1), 10. https://doi.org/10.5334/jime.565 Boys, J. (2022). Exploring inequalities in the social, spatial and material practices of teaching and learning in pandemic times. Postdigital Science and Education, 4(1), 13–32. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42438-021-00267-z Bozkurt, A., Jung, I., Xiao, J., Vladimirschi, V., Schuwer, R., Egorov, G., Lambert, S. R., Al-Freih, M., Pete, J., Olcott, Jr., D. Rodes, V., Aranciaga, I., Bali, M., Alvarez, Jr., A. V., Roberts, J., Pazurek, A., Raffaghelli, J. E., Panagiotou, N., de Coëtlogon, P., Shahadu, S., Brown, M., Asino, T. I. Tumwesige, J., Ramírez Reyes, T., Barrios Ipenza, E., Ossiannilsson, E., Bond, M., Belhamel, K., Irvine, V., Sharma, R. C., Adam, T., Janssen, B., Sklyarova, T., Olcott, N. Ambrosino, A., Lazou, C., Mocquet, B., Mano, M., & Paskevicius, M. (2020). A global outlook to the interruption of education due to COVID-19 Pandemic: Navigating in a time of uncertainty and crisis. Asian Journal of Distance Education, 15(1), 1-126. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3778083 Brown, J. L. M. (2012). Online learning: A comparison of web-based and land-based courses. The Quarterly Review of Distance Education, 13(1), 39–42. Butcher, J., & Rose-Adams, J. (2015). Part-time learners in open and distance learning: Revisiting the critical importance of choice, flexibility and employability. Open Learning: The Journal of Open, Distance and e-Learning, 30(2), 127–137. https://doi.org/10.1080/02680513.2015.1055719 Chen, V., Sandford, A., LaGrone, M., Charbonneau, K., Kong, J., & Ragavaloo, S. (2022). An exploration of instructors’ and students’ perspectives on remote delivery of courses during the COVID‐19 pandemic. British Journal of Educational Technology, 53(3), 512–533. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.13205 Clinton-Lisell, V.E., Roberts-Crews, J., & Gwozdz, L. (2023). SCOPE of open education: A new framework for research. International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 24(4), 135-153. https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v24i4.7356 Croft, B., & Brown, M. (2020). Inclusive open education: Presumptions, principles, and practices. Distance Education, 41(2), 156–170. https://doi.org/10.1080/01587919.2020.1757410 Hodgkinson-Williams, C. A., & Trotter, H. (2018). A social justice framework for understanding open educational resources and practices in the Global South. Journal of Learning for Development, 5(3), 204–224. https://doi.org/10.56059/jl4d.v5i3.312 Iniesto, F., & Bossu, C. (2023). Equity, diversity, and inclusion in open education: A systematic literature review. Distance Education, 44(4), 694-711. https://doi.org/10.1080/01587919.2023.2267472 Kennette, L. N., & Lin, P. S. (2021, December 16). The case for asynchronous online courses: How do students benefit. The Society for the Teaching of Psychology. https://teachpsych.org/E-xcellence-in-Teaching-Blog/12197763 Kishimoto, K. (2018). Anti-racist pedagogy: From faculty's self-reflection to organizing within and beyond the classroom. Race, Ethnicity and Education, 21(4), 540-554. https://doi.org/10.1080/13613324.2016.1248824 Lambert, S. R. (2018). Changing our (dis)course: A distinctive social justice aligned definition of open education. Journal of Learning for Development, 5(3). https://doi.org/10.56059/jl4d.v5i3.290 Maslowski, A. K. (2022). Infusing multiculturalism, identity, and social justice in asynchronous courses. Teaching of Psychology, 49(1), 93–99. https://doi.org/10.1177/0098628320964772 Mills, A., Bali, M., & Eaton, L. (2023). How do we respond to generative AI in education? Open educational practices give us a framework for an ongoing process. Journal of Applied Learning & Teaching, 6(1), 16-30. https://doi.org/10.37074/jalt.2023.6.1.34 Oguz, F., Chu, C. M., & Chow, A. S. (2015). Studying online: Student motivations and experiences in ALA-accredited LIS programs. Journal of Education for Library and Information Science, 56(3), 213–231. https://doi.org/10.12783/issn.2328-2967/56/3/4 Ortega, A., Andruczyk, M., & Marquart, M. (2018). Addressing microaggressions and acts of oppression within online classrooms by utilizing principles of transformative learning and liberatory education. Journal of Ethnic & Cultural Diversity in Social Work, 27(1), 28–40. https://doi.org/10.1080/15313204.2017.1417945 Park, J.-H., & Choi, H. J. (2009). Factors influencing adult learners’ decision to drop out or persist in online learning. Educational Technology & Society, 12(4), 207–217. http://www.jstor.org/stable/jeductechsoci.12.4.207 Pastore, R., & Carr-Chellman, A. (2009). Motivations for residential students to participate in online courses. The Quarterly Review of Distance Education, 10(3), 263–277. Phirangee, K., & Malec, A. (2017). Othering in online learning: An examination of social presence, identity, and sense of community. Distance Education, 38(2), 160–172. https://doi.org/10.1080/01587919.2017.1322457 Raju, R., Claassen, J., & De Lillie, K. (2023). Social justice: The golden thread in the openness movemen
