This session will discuss the experiences of scholar activists in open education through sharing autoethnographic findings. With the increased anti-DEI and anti-justice legislation across the United States, it is critical to center stories of resistance, “resistance and..” (Roberts-Crews, 2023), as well as post-oppositionality or ways to move beyond resistance (Keating, 2013). Through Black feminist cultural analyses and using the “self as text”, this session will explore the labor of scholar activists and reveal the broader systems of oppressions that open education operates through, against, and maintains all at once. The discussion seeks to affirm scholar activists and practitioners in open education while providing audiences with specific ways to support their labor during contentious political and social times.
Attendees of this session will be able to:- Understand the experiences of activists and advocates and their vital work in the open education community.
- Understand institutional and communal harm (both intentional and unintentional) against social justice-oriented scholars and practitioners.
- Practices for support and solidarity with scholar activists and practitioners.
- Strategies for scholar activists to continue their work in open education during anti-DEIJ attacks.
