Content advertised as “open access” and “freely accessible” may give the impression that open educational resources (OER) are universally accessible, but many users still face inequitable barriers to access. Additionally, access doesn’t equal inclusion. Textbooks often express sexism and racism contents and exclude marginalised voices. We need to consider how to contribute to a transformation and expand open access to resources to truly address diversity, equity, and inclusion. Dr Sarah Lambert (2018) provides a framework for this transition. Lambert (2018) identifies and expands on three principles of social justice that may be applied to OER: redistributive justice, recognitive justice, and representational justices. Lambert notes that providing free textbooks to learners of colour is redistributive justice in action. It reduces the costs and increases the chances of success for learners who “by circumstance have less” (Lambert, 2018, p.227)—i.e., they are marginalised in education, workplaces and more broadly in society.

In her article, Lambert (2018) asks how “open” the textbook is for marginalised learners if First Nations students, and learners of colour are invisible inside the textbook and perhaps invisible in the whole curriculum. She notes that making edits to include images and cases featuring more diverse communities, businesses, and people will be an act of recognitive justice. Lambert (2018) goes on to ask additional questions, including what the implications are if the textbook features people of colour, but does not value their perspectives, knowledge or histories and what happens if the textbook takes a white colonial view of black lives? What implications follow if black stories are told solely by white voices? Lambert (2018) argues that the development or selection of a new version of a textbook, or perhaps a new resource altogether, written by people of colour where they are free to represent their own views, histories, and knowledges would be an act of representational justice, giving voice to those who are often not heard. The table below summarises these three principles in the context of open education.

[table id=6 /]

Table 1: Social Justice and Open Education. Source: Changing our (Dis)Course: A Distinctive Social Justice Aligned Definition of Open Education by Sarah Lambert, licensed under a CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

Our Mission

We deeply value the diverse users of our books, and seek to include and impact each staff and student user in a positive and considerate manner. During our development processes, the University of Southern Queensland (UniSQ) undertakes substantial efforts to properly represent genders, races, cultures, geographies, ethnic backgrounds, disabilities, nationalities, ages, sexual orientations, socio-economic status, and diverse viewpoints in our books. We seek to avoid any offense, and ensure that every reader can see themselves in our books. We hold primarily to the notion, expressed by Jasmine Roberts (Ohio State), that we should not leave it to underrepresented groups to spearhead these conversations and efforts.

To that end, we have created general guidelines for development and improvement, adapted from OpenStax’s Improving Representation and Diversity in OER Materials [PDF]. Our adaption was developed and peer-review by input from staff, students and researchers across Australia. This is an ongoing and continually evolving effort. We will seek input and monitor changes in terminology, sensitivity, policies, and descriptions in our materials. We will also welcome and engage with individuals and groups who share our commitment and/or have specific guidance, feedback, or suggestions. We would value input on our approach, on specific items or additions we can consider or add to increase diverse representation, and so on. If you have any feedback please email Nikki.Andersen@usq.edu.au.

The framework and practical resources for enhancing inclusion, diversity, equity and accessibility is found in the following pages. However to get a better idea of the relationship between open education and social justice, please feel free to browse through the resources below, and familiarise yourself with key definitions.

Copyright note: This section has been adapted in part from:

• Changing our (Dis)Course: A Distinctive Social Justice Aligned Definition of Open Education by Sarah Lambert, licensed under a CC BY-SA 4.0 licence. 
• Improving Representation and Diversity in OER Materials [PDF] by OpenStax, licensed under a CC BY 4.0 licence.