Centering Diversity and Inclusion
Learning Objectives
By the end of this chapter, you will be able to:
- Identify OER design decisions that promote educational equity, inclusion, and access
- Implement strategies to make materials accessible
- Explain how Universal Design for Learning is a good practice for both pedagogy and accessibility
- Evaluate DEIA in OER
This chapter is an adaptation of the chapter, “Centering Diversity and Inclusion” from the OER Starter Kit by Abbey Elder and is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 International license.
Adaptability and affordability are two major aspects of what makes an open educational resource attractive to students, but there is another facet that should be considered when you are developing or adapting an OER for your course: perspective. In particular, you should ask yourself how the perspectives being represented in your OER might affect the inclusivity of your course environment.
As Quill West argues in her blog post on diversity and inclusion in open education:
“As important as access is to students and to institutions, it is a starting place for leveraging other benefits of OER, and I hope that our conversations about [open education] go beyond access, because saving money on materials doesn’t address bigger issues in student persistence and completion.”[1]
Reflecting on the Open for Antiracism Program (OFAR), an initiative that trains educators and teaching staff in antiracist pedagogical practices, including the use and creation of OER, Ash Barber notes:
“One of the problems the program addresses is that materials in the classroom don’t always represent the people in the classroom. An OER can be modified, adapted, become a collaborative piece in which students can see themselves and build a sense of belonging: They’re welcome here. This course is for them. They’re not on the outside looking in”[2]
In this chapter, we will discuss some of the opportunities and drawbacks of using OER to promote inclusivity in your courses.[3]
Definitions
How can we understand diversity, equity, and inclusion in the context of higher education and student success? For more information about what diversity and inclusion mean, you can read UVA’s Diversity and Inclusion Vision Statement.
Diversity
Diversity refers to having a range of people across gender identities, racial backgrounds, geographic locations, socioeconomic backgrounds, ages, ability, sexual orientation, and other characteristics represented and participating in a community. Diversity has to do with whose perspectives are being heard, who gets to make decisions, who gets to meaningfully engage at all levels of the community, and more.
Equity
There are systemic barriers people face based on their gender identity, race, geographic location, class, age, ability, sexual orientation and other factors. Equity recognizes that people need a variety of resources and support to overcome these barriers and succeed. Open textbooks designed with an equity mindset reduce barriers and facilitate a deeper engagement with the course material.
Inclusion
Inclusion is about making a resource, location or event welcoming and inviting, so that people from different backgrounds feel that they belong. Inclusive design means that you’re creating a lot of different ways for people to participate in an experience and make a decision.
Definitions from “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in Publishing” from the Open Textbook Publishing Orientation (PUB 101) by the Open Education Network is licensed under CC BY 4.0
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in OER
Diversity in open education can be achieved by including a variety of sociological perspectives in your open content. Doing this ensures that your students can identify with and relate to your course material. Critical here is ensuring that other cultures are presented accurately in your materials, and not according to stereotypes or perceptions based on the standards of your own culture.[4]
Whether intentional or not, ethnocentrism can creep into the content and presentation of your course materials, and it is something all authors should be aware of. This doesn’t mean you must create course content that accurately portrays and includes all cultures and perspectives; however, you should be respectful toward other people and be aware of your biases as they arise.
One way you can accomplish this is by explicitly acknowledging the perspectives that are included in your content and those which are not. How has your social and cultural background reflected on the work you’ve created? What authors are being cited and acknowledged in your work, and why? Acknowledging that your perspective is limited while including other perspectives in your work can be an incredibly rewarding experience. Some benefits of including diverse perspectives in your course content include:
- Engaging more students because they recognize themselves or their life experiences in your course content
- Sharing content that appeals to instructors in a variety of educational settings
- Creating a more interesting reading and learning experience for your students and learners around the world
For additional recommendations, see Guiding Authors Toward Inclusive Content
If you aren’t certain about how or where to add examples relevant to other cultures, that doesn’t mean your resource will never include these perspectives. Thanks to your OER’s open license, once your resource has been published, instructors from other countries, cultures, and backgrounds might choose to remix your work for their course’s needs. The changes they make might include:
- Translating the book into a different language
- Adjusting the content to meet the local cultural, regional, and geographical interests
- Revising the material for a different learning environment
Another option for making your work more inclusive from the beginning is to consider inviting instructors and professionals in your field to contribute to your OER; however, you should be aware of the ways in which your project’s design may deter or welcome people of other ethnicities, races, and cultural backgrounds.[5] For example, you may have set up regular meetings for those collaborating on your project at a time that is not feasible for a scholar living in a different time zone. Keep this and other considerations in mind if you would like people from other countries to collaborate on your project.
Impact on Student Success
As we saw in Chapter 1, the use of OER can have a positive effect on academic achievement. A large-scale study looking at the impact of OER in higher education found that courses with OER adoption had higher final grades and lower rates of DFW (D, F, and Withdrawal grades) for all students. The increase in final grades and lower rates of DFW were even more significant for Pell recipient students, part-time students, and populations historically underserved by higher education.[6]
Representational diversity in course materials has been shown to improve achievement among students from historically marginalized groups. One project studied the effect of gender stereotypic and counter-stereotypic textbook images on male and female students’ science performance; results indicated that female students’ performance was higher after viewing images of female scientists than after viewing stereotypic images.[7]
Disclaimer
We (authors of this text, Emily Scida and Bethany Mickel) are cis white women from the United States. We have not experienced the types of bias that affect those from marginalized backgrounds related to race, cultural background, and sexual orientation. We have tried to keep this chapter simple and to link out to external resources whenever applicable; however, there may be cases where our writing betrays our lack of experience with these topics.
If there is any part of this book you find to be one-sided or dismissive of any aspect of your identity, please contact us at ees2n@virginia.edu or bethanym@virginia.edu. We welcome any comments or feedback that might improve our work and help inform our own understanding of this topic. Thank you.
- West, Quill. "Overview of EDI and Open Education." CCCOER blog, June 28, 2018. https://www.cccoer.org/2018/06/28/on-equity-diversity-inclusion-and-open-education/ ↵
- Barber, Ash. "Lost in the Open Sea: Practical Guidance for Finding and Creating Inclusive OER" Digital Dexterity blog, April 24, 2023.https://digitaldexterity.edublogs.org/2023/04/24/lost-in-the-open-sea-practical-guidance-for-finding-and-creating-inclusive-oer/?utm_source=chatgpt.com ↵
- Attribution: "Diversity & Inclusion" was adapted from Including all students by SUNY OER Services, licensed CC BY 4.0. ↵
- Adding examples from other cultures is a good practice; however, if you don't know much about the type of people you are "including" in your resource, your inclusion might feel like alienation for students who belong to that group. ↵
- Rebus Community. "Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in OER." YouTube video, 55:00. September 29, 2017. https://youtu.be/rUiyiAT0uMQ ↵
- Colvard, Nicholas B., C. Edward Watson, and Hyojin Park. "The impact of open educational resources on various student success metrics." International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education 30.2 (2018): 262-276. ↵
- Jessica J. Good , Julie A. Woodzicka & Lylan C. Wingfield (2010) The Effects of Gender Stereotypic and Counter-Stereotypic Textbook Images on Science Performance, The Journal of Social Psychology, 150:2, 132-147, DOI: 10.1080/00224540903366552 ↵
The practice or policy of including people who might otherwise be excluded or marginalized, such as those who have physical or mental disabilities and members of minority groups. (Source: Oxford living dictionary)