Social Sciences Faculty Lead ASCCC Open Educational Resources Initiative (OERI) Funded Projects
The Academic Senate for California Community Colleges (ASCCC) Online Educational Resources Initiative (OERI) has announced three Fullerton College faculty members are the recipients of funding for OER proposals. Social Sciences professors Amber Rose González, Aline Gregorio, and Anupama Mande have been chosen to lead projects that seek to challenge Eurocentric perspectives in current textbooks by integrating ASCCC’s Diversity, Inclusion, Equity and Anti-racism framework in their textbooks. Fullerton College faculty are the recipients of funding for three out of nine OER state proposals.
“We couldn’t be more proud to see another illustration of how the Social Sciences faculty continue to rise to the occasion in our collective effort to support the vital work of integrating accessibility to curriculum and instruction. Their work will help make learning relevant and positively impact student learning outcomes while mitigating the financial burden of textbooks,” said Social Sciences Dean Jorge Gamboa.
Studies have shown that students are more engaged and successful in classes utilizing free course materials, like open textbooks and licensed digital library materials and when they feel connected to learning content where their identities are reflected. The projects will be developed throughout the 2022-2023 academic year and will be available for adoption in fall 2023, with the potential savings of millions of dollars to students statewide.
About the OER Projects
González will lead the collaborative project “New Directions in Chicanx and Latinx Studies OER Textbook and Ancillary Materials.” Notably, the team consists of four faculty of color, part-time and full-time, in different districts across the state. Their goal is to address current and emerging needs for Chicanx/Latinx Studies and Ethnic Studies where it has been established that OER is lacking. The field emerged in California in 1968-1970 out of social movements focused on creating an empowering discipline by and for communities of color and has recently become a graduation requirement in California high schools, the CCC, CSU, and UC systems. This textbook is a timely and significant contribution to the field and to the Ethnic Studies movement.
Gregorio will head the project “Contemporary World Geographies,” a textbook equivalent OER for World Geography (GEOG 100). Existing open resources and textbooks for world geography courses suffer from Eurocentrism and lack in-depth explorations of systemic inequities in the world today. Gregorio’s team will work to rectify the OER offerings in world geography courses through a critical and analytical approach designed to instill a holistic understanding of the world as an interconnected web of disparate human experiences with a particular focus on universal human rights and spatial justice.
Mande will lead the project, “Integrating Social Justice, Equity, and Antiracism Themes in World History Since 1500” with a team comprised of other California community college faculty with diverse identities and areas of historical expertise. This highly qualified team of faculty will refocus the pedagogy in the world civilization course (HIST 113) by including the knowledge, culture, and history of black, indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC). The team’s goal is to not only provide the required historical knowledge but also develop assignments and content enabling students to analyze and interpret historical events from different perspectives with accuracy, clarity, and empathy.
