Chapter 3: Creating OER-Enabled Pedagogical Prompts                                               

Figure 7. Picture of Martin Luther King Jr. Delivering his Speech at the 1963 Washington, D. C. Civil Right March (Rowland Scherman, 1963. Public Domain)

“I still have a dream, a dream deeply rooted in the American dream – one day this nation will rise up and live up to its creed, ‘ We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.’ I have a dream …”  (King, 1963)

African American citizens and other minorities have been struggling for generations to achieve the “American dream.” The need for social justice and equality among those who do more of the labor in this country must be the political epicenter changing in a society that still keeps hiring segregation under the table in a broken Educational System. Education inequality has hindered minorities for generations; the need for emancipation is now or never. On May 25, 2020, George Floyd died under a terrible, unnecessary circumstance in which a video of how he died and his last words, “ I can’t breathe,” gave birth to a monumental global social justice movement. George Floyd’s last words, “I can’t breathe,” became the words of every African descent who said “enough is enough.”  In the United States, the Black Lives Matters Movement demanded social change, and African Americans among other minorities made their voices heard through weeks of protest and riots.

Given these historical times, we urge you to reflect on how your course materials talk to your students… Incorporating active learning activities in your courses will help our students generate critical thinking, reading, writing, and listening, to be independent intellectual learners because "only education is capable of saving our societies from possible collapse, whether violent, or gradual." (Piaget, 1932). We need to train our students’ minds to be future leaders who can make social changes in an unjust society.  Even when the transition can be stressful and confusing, changing our teaching style from teacher-centered to student-centered must be considered a social justice duty.

By Katuska Campana