Representing the Underrepresented: Adding Culturally Responsive and Anti-Racist Content to your Course Materials and OERs

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Jess Brooks and Cara Lee

Portland Community College

Oregon State University, March 2022

Overview

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• The switch to OER
• Representation
• Culturally Responsive Elements
• Small Group Activity
• Questions

Link to Text: https://spot.pcc.edu/math/mathinsociety/book-1.html

The Problem to be Solved

• Old textbook: Using & Understanding Mathematics, a Quantitative Approach
• Costly to students: $135
• We were only using a third of the textbook
• Could be more representative of our students��

OER Process

• David Lippman: Math in Society, A survey of mathematics for libral Arts Majors
• Open Licensing - CC BY SA
• https://creativecommons.org/
• Open Oregon Grant
• https://openoregon.org/
• Focus on our students and content
• Coded in PreTeXt - web and print version ($21) from the same code
• Cost savings to students: $400,000 so far!

Why is Representation Important?

When I see myself in the content I feel like...

• I belong in the class and subject area
• I matter
• I’m safer
• I’m acknowledged and celebrated
• This class is for me
• This class is relevant to me and my life
• I want to learn

This is only the beginning. There is so much more to do…

For example, we have yet to represent people with disabilities in the content

Representation and Culturally Responsive Elements

Areas of Representation

• Biographies
• Names
• Pronouns
• Racial context

More Culturally Responsive Features

• Relevance
• Accessibility
• Technology

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Biographies

Names

Resource: https://www.behindthename.com/

Story of Iman and Batula

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Pronouns and Gender Diversity

Racial Context

Relevance

Technology

Before and After

Representing more cultures

Before and After

Deprioritizing dominate culture and assumptions about students’ backgrounds

Prioritizing relevance and resources needed to be successful in the course

Before and After - Gender Inclusive

Activity - Choose Your Own Adventure

• Math in Society Specific - If you want to look more at this book and resources for potential adoption: Math 105 Jamboard Link
• Culturally Responsive Materials - If you want to apply the culturally responsive ideas to your own field and materials: Culturally Responsive Jamboard Link
• How can you apply this to your field and materials?
• Try a before and after question or post your own
• We also have a quiet breakout room for those who want to work on their own
• We’ll save 10 minutes for questions when we come back together

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Questions

cara.lee@pcc.edu

jess.brooks@pcc.edu

Portland Community College, Portland, Oregon