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Inclusivity, collaboration and student co-creation: �Open textbook production models for social justice

By Glenda Cox, Bianca Masuku & Michelle Willmers

Digital Open Textbooks for Development, Centre for Innovation in Learning and Teaching,

University of Cape Town

10 March 2022

UCT OPEN TEXTBOOK CONVERSATION EVENT – MARCH 2022

Event recording: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NpqoNDYj6ASRhBl71wlB5YKjBFX5pIun/view?usp=sharing

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The groundwork for this research was carried out with the aid of a grant from the International Development Research Centre, Ottawa, Canada.

It is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence.

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14h00 – 14h10	Welcome and introductions
14h10 – 14h25	Open at UCT: The UNESCO Chair in Open Education and Social Justice �(Dr Glenda Cox)
14h25 – 14h40	The UCT Open Textbook Award �(Michelle Willmers)
14h40 – 14h50	Vision 2030: Open education and transformation �(A/Prof. Lis Lange)
14h50 – 15h10	Discussion
15h10 – 15h20	Digital Open Textbooks for Development: Production models and student involvement �(Bianca Masuku)
15h20 – 15h30	Closing discussion

Programme

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Disclaimer

Digital Open Textbooks for Development

DOT4D initiated as a three-year (2018–2021) research, advocacy and implementation project funded by the Canadian IDRC, following in wake of Research on Open Educational Resources for Development (ROER4D) and other CILT open education initiatives (since 2007). Now an institutionally funded initiative.

Bianca Masuku

Researcher

Michelle Willmers

Publishing & Implementation Manager

Dr Glenda Cox

Principal Investigator

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DOT4D objective

To contribute to improving inclusion in South African higher education by addressing equitable access to relevant learning resources.

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Key features of open textbooks for social justice

Digital, freely available collections of scaffolded teaching and learning content
published under an open licence
with affordances for integrated multimedia and third-party content
published via platforms and in formats that provide affordances for content delivery on a range of devices, print and low bandwidth access strategies
through collaborative, inclusive authorship, quality assurance and publishing approaches
that can be leveraged in sustainable models of open textbook production for social justice and transformation.

Open textbooks > Collaboration > Inclusion > �Social justice > Sustainability

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Open at UCT:

The UNESCO Chair in Open Education and Social Justice

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UNITWIN/UNESCO Chairs Programme

Launched in 1992
877 across the world
14 Chairs in South Africa

> Aims to build networks across institutions and countries

> Research to inform policy and generate innovation

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Open is based on the philosophical view of �“knowledge as a collective social product and the desirability of making it a social property”

(Prasad & Ambedkar in Downes, 2007:1)�

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Photo by freestocks.org on Unsplash

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Open Education (OE)

Open Education is an international movement to make education accessible to all �(Cape Town Open Education Declaration)

Broad view of education, beyond institutions

Collective term used to refer to practices & activities that have both openness & education at their core

http://www.capetowndeclaration.org/read-the-declaration

For interest https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Open_Education_Handbook/What_is_open_education%3F & https://oerknowledgecloud.org/sites/oerknowledgecloud.org/files/openeducationhandbook2014_bis.pdf which includes:

...Open education is about removing barriers to education. This may be through removing entry requirements, as The Open University (UK) has done, or by making content and data freely and legally available for reuse. However it also reflects other cultural changes, such as the move to open up learning methods and practices, which sees the blurring or removal of traditional roles such as teacher and student, moving towards roles�such as mentor and learner.�Open Education is an area in which priorities and practices are continually changing. There are many aspects of open education that engender debate (such as content licensing, definitions of open, incentives for participation, etc.) and other aspects that are less contentious (the need for technology to support learning, data use to support education initiatives in the developing world, etc.) Overall, there is increasing recognition that education is being transformed and that open education can play a significant role in this transformation.�Some people tend to think about open education in terms of the content and resources used in education. Seen this way, a piece of data or content is open when it meets the Open Definition, "if anyone is free to use, reuse, and redistribute it — subject only, at most, to the requirement to attribute and/or share-alike." This means that, with the right 'open' licence, resources like textbooks, websites, videos, curricula, lesson plans, audio and image files can be free to share and adapt according to pedagogical needs. Open licensing typically results in resources being made available more cheaply (or for free). Some commentators have suggested that the distinction between 'open' and 'free' that is derived from the open source movement. While free software focuses on the freedom of agents within the software�world (eg. users and developers) 'open source' software focuses on the advantages to the software�development process of transparency and sharing.�In open education, for a resource to be open, it must be both 'gratis' and free/open. That is, one must�be able to access the educational resource at no cost and have the legal rights to reuse, revise, remix�and redistribute the resource and/or adaptations of the resource.�In the context of open education the focus until recently has tended toward open access to resources,�but there are other ways of being open, reflected in the language of 'open educational practices'�(OEP). These are innovations in educational practice that are made possible by open licensing of�resources.�It is worth remembering that the open in 'open education' does not apply just to content, data or�resources. Openness is part of wider change and movement towards equality and collaboration.

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UNESCO launched forums and led policy driven debates on how to raise awareness and implement the adoption and use of OER

https://en.unesco.org/news/covid-19-catalyst-greater-oer-use-worldwide

The UNESCO OER Dynamic Coalition Advisory Group Members, representing OER Experts and Governmental Partners from all UNESCO regions intervened in this panel discussion.

The debates emphasised the crucial role of OER in ensuring continuity of formal and informal learning and the transformative power of OER during the Covid-19 pandemic crisis, where online and digital learning became the new normal for learning worldwide. Bottlenecks include the issue of access to resources and internet, and the challenges of ensuring resources in the languages and context of the users.

Speakers highlighted the policy potential of university peer networks, the influence of governmental policy approaches on institutions. Regarding the adaptation of OER to different languages, the debates underscored the need to ensure adoption both at a contextual and pedagogical level for success. In addition, international collaboration based on an intersecting bottom-up and top-down approaches were highlighted. .

This webinar was organized as part of the Open Education 2021 Conference hosted by the University of Nantes, France. The focus of the Open Education Global 2021 Conference is on the implementation of the OER Recommendation. It is being held online from 27 September to 1 October 2021.

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Why Open Education matters

> There is a need for accessible and FREE resources

> There is a need for localised materials, transforming the curriculum and addressing relevance created collaboratively

> Lecturers can re-use materials (more efficient use of time)

> Open education encourages lecturers to reconsider their teaching and learning approaches

> Colleagues and students can become co-creators

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> The high cost of textbooks is not only detrimental to students economically but is also a social justice issue.

> In both the US and in other countries (e.g. Canada and New Zealand) it has been observed that “those most economically harmed by the COVID-19 pandemic were populations already frequently considered disenfranchised” (Williams & Worth 2020)

> The authors call for “intentional disruption on the part of the institution”

Widening structural inequality

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Social Justice

Open Education

Open/free
Transformative
Collaborative
Multiple voices/power dynamics

Economic equity
Cultural diversity
Political inclusion

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Unpacking social justice

Social justice is a concept that requires the organisation of social arrangements that make it possible for everyone to participate equally in society.

Fraser (2005) considers social justice as “participatory parity’ in economic, cultural and political dimension

(Cox, Masuku & Willmers, 2020)

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Social_Justice_Pride_Flag.png

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(Thanks to Susan Gredley)

Economic

Material resources
Maldistribution and redistribution

Political

Political voice
Mis/representation mis/framing

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Social Justice as participatory parity (Fraser)

Cultural

Cultural attributes
Misrecognition and recognition

> Participatory parity looks at the what, who and how of social justice

> Justice in each dimension can be remedied through affirmative or transformative responses.

Nancy Fraser wears a number of hats, so to speak; she is a feminist scholar, a moral philosopher, a political and social theorist, whose work over the past three decades has been central to debates over what constitutes a socially just society.

She is particularly well known for her three-dimensional framework of PP (her “greatest contribution” (Blackmore 2017))

Fraser equates participatory parity with social justice: PP is the ability to participate as equals or peers in social interaction. Social and institutional arrangements can either enable or constrain participatory parity from three dimensions:

the economic which relates to the distribution, maldistribution and redistribution of material resources
the cultural – relates to the misrecognition and recognition of cultural attributes
and the political – relating to political voice and contains two levels of injustice, misrepresentation and misframing

Participatory parity looks at the what, who and how of social justice

All three dimensions are mutually entwined and reciprocally influence and reinforce each other but none are reducible to the other. Efforts to work towards social justice must thus involve all three of these dimensions – the emphasis will be tactical and strategic. She uses the slogan “No redistribution or recognition without representation” (Fraser, 2008:282) – all three conditions are necessary for participatory parity and none alone is sufficient

Social justice in each one of these dimensions can be viewed from an affirmative or transformative perspective – and I will discuss this a bit more later.

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Social justice drivers for open textbook production at UCT

Curriculum transformation

Multi-�lingualism

Pedagogical innovation

Affordable access

Locali-�sation

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Drivers/motivation	Social Justice dimension (Fraser, 2005)	The role of the Open Textbook: Affirmative and transformative responses

Affordable access

Economic (maldistribution of resources)

Saving students money

Multilingualism

Cultural (misrecognition)

Terminology in Chemistry and Statistics translated into local languages with the help of students

Curriculum transformation

Cultural (misrecognition of culture and identities)

&

Political (misrepresentation or exclusion of voice)

Inclusion of local cases and examples, making textbooks relevant

Collaboration with colleagues and students (empowering and giving voice)

Pedagogical innovation

Political (misrepresentation or exclusion of voice)

Two examples of changing ‘classroom’ practice to deliberately include students as content creators

Read table

Quotes from OER and SJ chapter (Cox et al. in press)

In this sense, open textbooks allow for cultural recognition and political representation not previously witnessed in HE. Within these classrooms there is more than an affirmative or ameliorative change. Do open textbooks address underlying structures of dominance and subordination? Only if they are created and used across the institution and potentially across South Africa in order to embrace critical reflexivity and pluralism valuing previously excluded knowledge and legitimising indigenous resources.

Looking ahead towards a transformative response to social injustice, the valiant efforts in some classrooms need to extend across the institution and across institutions. Institutional support in the form of open textbook awards, recognising open education work in promotion criteria, empowering academics through intellectual property rights and ownership, and sourcing funding to support the work of educators and students involved in open textbook production are crucial for transformation.

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Student voices

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Images by OpenStax

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“overcoming injustice means dismantling �institutionalised obstacles”

(Fraser, 2005:92)

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The UCT Open Textbook Award

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Recognising teaching innovation that promotes social justice and transformation

Symbol of institutional commitment to supporting teaching and learning initiatives producing textbook content that promotes:

Curriculum transformation / decolonisation
Pedagogical innovation
Inclusion of students and marginalised voices
Disability access
Relevance to local context
Multilingualism
Technical innovation

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Award details

Value of R30 000 and may be shared between more than one recipient.
Single or multiple-authored textbooks may be nominated (at least one of the primary authors or editors must be based at UCT).
Content must be published under a Creative Commons or other open licence.
No restriction is placed on disciplinary orientation, language or format in which the book is written.
There is no time limit in terms of publication date.
Prior award recipients are asked to observe a two-year waiting period before submitting nominations for subsequently published works.

http://www.cilt.uct.ac.za/cilt/open/otaward

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Award winners

https://openbooks.uct.ac.za/uct/catalog/book/1

2021

2022

https://openbooks.uct.ac.za/uct/catalog/book/36

https://people.cs.uct.ac.za/~mkeet/OEbook/

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Vision 2030:

Open education and transformation

(A view from the DVC Teaching & Learning)

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Digital Open Textbooks for Transformation: �Collaborative models and student involvement

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Method

DOT4D mixed-method approach: grant proposals, surveys, case study interviews, grant closure reports and fieldnotes

Identified key production activities within their processes (authorship, quality assurance and publishing) and defined different forms of collaborative approaches with colleagues and students therein.

Focused on collaborative approaches with colleagues and students: Which open textbook production activities were colleagues and students involved in and how / to what degree were they being brought into these processes?

Utilised Bovill (2020) framework of inclusion as analytical tool to understand degrees of collaboration and student involvement in open textbook production.
Mapped production activities to inclusion strategies to identify collaborative open textbook production models.

Examine how 11 UCT open textbook initiatives (through grants programme) transform content (co-)creation and pursue social justice within their classroom contexts through the development of open textbooks

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Bovill (2020) terms of inclusion

(adapted by DOT4D)

Participatory design	Stakeholders contribute to the design and development of initiatives. including curriculum; students are “testers or informants” and don’t have a high level of agency
Engagement	Activities to motivate and interest students; can include engagement in teaching and learning
Partnership	Collaborative; contribute equally; some pedagogical conceptualisation and decision-making; implementation and analysis

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Bovill terms of inclusion (cont.)

Co-creation	Contribute new pedagogical ideas; empowerment; meaningful engagement; students construct understanding and learning resources
Representative	Elected role, small group representing whole group
Consultant	Students selected and paid to collaborate
Co-researcher	Collaborating meaningfully on teaching and learning research or subject based research
Co-designer	Sharing responsibility for designing learning, teaching and assessment

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Student co-creation highlights (and lowlights)

In 6 initiatives, students took on various co-creation roles in authorship.
In 2 initiatives, students were co-creators in quality assurance processes.
Authors found ways in which to not only capture students’ lived realities in the authorship process, but also to include their feedback in quality assurance.
However, students were not involved in any of the publishing processes.
Student participation is a critical aspect of the institutional transformation agenda, in that it addresses social justice and inequity in the classroom.
The resultant models show how students (and colleagues) were engaged in varying activities and to varying degrees.

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Collaborative open textbook production models

Aim: Provide open textbook creators with sustainable models of production that manifest “parity of participation” as the just end point of social justice

DOT4D context: Four models reflecting varying levels of student and colleague collaboration

Participatory/Engagement Model
Participatory/Engagement and Co-Creation Model
Co-Creation Model
Co-Creation/Partnership Model

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References

Bovill, C. (2020). Co-creation in learning and teaching: The case for a whole class approach in higher education. Higher Education [online] 79, pp. 1023–1037. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-019-00453-w

Cox, G., Masuku, B. & Willmers, M. 2020. Open Textbooks and Social Justice: Open Educational Practices to Address Economic, Cultural and Political Injustice at the University of Cape Town. Journal of Interactive Media in Education, 1 (2):pp. 1–10. Available at: https://open.uct.ac.za/handle/11427/31887

Downes, S. (2007).Models for Sustainable Open Educational Resources. Interdisciplinary Journal of E-Learning and Learning Objects, 3(1), 29–44. Informing Science Institute. https://www.learntechlib.org/p/44796/.

Fraser, N. (2005) Re-framing justice in a globalising world. New Left Review 36, 69–88. Available from: https://newleftreview-org.ezproxy.uct.ac.za/issues/ii36/articles/nancy-fraser-reframing-justice-in-a-globalizing-world

Williams, K. and Werth, E. (2021). A case study in mitigating COVID-19 inequities through free textbook implementation in the U.S. Journal of Interactive Media in Education [online], 2021(1), p. 14. Available from: https://doi.org/10.5334/jime.650