A model drawing lessons learnt from the ROER4D project and introducing the new Digital Open Textbook for development project.

1. A proposed social justice and intersectionality
model for open education research: The ROER4D
and DOT4D initiatives
Glenda Cox and Cheryl Hodgkinson-
Williams
University of Cape Town
OpenEd Niagara Falls, 2018

2. Overview of presentation
Lessons learnt
oIntroduction to ROER4D
oMeta-synthesis approach
(multiple sub-projects)
oOpen education cycle
oTheoretical framing: Social
realism
Moving forward
oIntersectionality
oSocial Justice
http://roer4d.org/edited-volume-2

3. ROER4D research sites across the Global South :: 18 sub-projects in 26 countries

4. Meta-level research question
In what ways, and under what circumstances, can the adoption of OER
impact upon the increasing demand for accessible, relevant, high-
quality and affordable education in the Global South?
- As a way to synthesise 18 autonomous sub-projects within the
ROER4D network

5. Meta-synthesis approach
oSynthesis of draft book chapters of the ROER4D edited volume,
research reports and in some cases primary micro data
oConceptual framework of 10Cs “Open Education Cycle” developed by
Hodgkinson-Williams (2014) and refined by Walji & Hodgkinson-
Williams (2017)
oTheoretical framing: aspects of Margaret Archer’s (2003) Social
Realism

6. Optimal Open Education Cycle
Hodgkinson-Williams, Arinto, Cartmill & King, 2017

7. Culture
Interplay
Structure
Agent
“How does structure influence agency?”
Social Change according to Social Realism
(Margaret Archer 2003)
SOCIAL CHANGE

8. Meta-synthesis Component: Create
Structure Culture Agency Interplay
Enablers:
Government support
School based support
Permission to use open
licences
Constraints:
Lack of permission to
share created works
Enablers:
Professional networks
Constraints:
Unfamiliar practice
amongst educators
Enablers:
Digital proficiency
Consideration for
reuse
Constraints:
Lack of digital
proficiency
Lack of awareness of
OER and Open
licensing
Lack of time
Access to
infrastructure,
medium level
digital proficiency,
legal permission,
technicalsupport, a
little financial aid
and motivation to
share seem to
encourate the
CREATION of OER

9. “In the ROER4D project, Archer’s theoretical
perspective is used to understand under what
conditions (structural and cultural) individuals’,
and/or institutions’ decision-making (agential)
result in change or constancy in OEP associated
with OER adoption….”
(Hodgkinson-Williams, Arinto, Cartmill & King,
2017,p.35)

10. Social Realism (Margaret Archer)
Structure Culture Agency Interplay
Intersectionality(includes
gender)
Social Justice: Nancy
Fraser (2005)
Intersectionality
Fraser’s Social Justice
Dimensions
Indicators
Economic
Cultural
Political
Social Realism (Margaret Archer)
Structure Culture Agency Interplay

11. ● Funders: International Development Research Centre (IDRC),
Canada
● Period: Jul 2018 - Dec 2020
● Host institution: CILT, UCT
● Context: UCT, South Africa

13. Project General Objective:
To contribute to improving inclusion in South African higher education
by addressing equitable access to appropriate and relevant learning resources.
Project Specific Objectives:
Articulate and identify the best approaches to designing an open textbook.
Support open textbook publishing activity at UCT that prioritizes strategies for
integrating student perspective, curriculum transformation, and sustainability.
Inform current textbook publishing policy-development initiatives at institutional and
national levels.

14. Fees must fall, Picture by Ian Barbour; Wikimedia, CC BY-NC-SA
https://www.flickr.com/photos/barbourians/22697273532/in/
photostream/

15. Curriculum
change in
Higher
Education in
South Africa
What Knowledge? Whose
Knowledge?
Representativity
Exclusion and inclusion
Positionality
Gaps, silences and absences
Invisibility
Marginalisation
Potential of Open
Textbooks
# feesmustfall
Economic dimension
# Rhodesmustfall
Cultural dimension
Political dimension

16. Social Justice (Nancy Fraser, 2005)
Fraser’s concept of social justice as “parity of participation” (2005, p. 73)
(1) economic injustice or maldistribution; (2) cultural inequality or misrecognition;
(3) political misframing
Dimension Injustices
Economic Maldistribution
of resources: economic inequality
Cultural Misrecognition
attributes of people & practices
accorded less respect, status inequality
Political Misrepresentation
Lacking right to frame discourse

17. Intersectionality
the interconnected nature of
social categorizations such as
race, class, and gender as
they apply to a given
individual or group, regarded
as creating overlapping and
interdependent systems of
discrimination or
disadvantage (Crenshaw,
1989)
https://iwda.org.au/what-does-intersectional-feminism-actually-mean/

18. Conceptual Model for DOT4D
Fraser’s Social Justice
Dimensions
Indicators
Economic
Cultural
Political
Social Realism (Margaret Archer)
Structure Culture Agency Interplay
Intersectionality (includes gender)

19. Intersectionality
Indicators
Fraser’s Social
Justice dimension
Examples of Questions
● Number of students
● Class / Socioeconomic
status
● University funding & services
● Government funding via
NSFAS
Economic How many students need simultaneous access to
a textbook?
For what period of time do students need access
to a textbook?
Whether students and/or parents are able to pay
for their university resources – textbooks?

20. Intersectionality
Indicators
Fraser’s Social Justice
Dimensions
Examples of Questions:
● Gender
● Sexuality
● Marital status of women
● Language
● Discipline
● Level of study
● Piracy tolerance
● Age
● Disability
● Cultural traditions
● Race
● Ethnicity
● Nationality
Cultural How does the curricula prevent perpetuation of
gender stereotypes?
How are women’s and non-gender conforming
people’s knowledges sourced/cited; prescribed?
What are the intersectional barriers to equitable
participation of women and men?
What percentage of prescribed readings are
authored by women?

21. Intersectionality
Indicators
Fraser’s Social
Justice Dimensions
Examples of Questions:
● Knowledge source
● Image source
● Right to select
● Political ideology
Political What proportion of student learning
materials are imported?
What proportion of student learning
materials are developed locally?
Whose perspective is predominant in
student learning materials?

22. Agency (Archer,
2003)
Examples of Questions:
Motivation
Ultimate concerns
Projects
Practice
Reflexivity
Ultimate
concerns
What were your reasons for sharing? Are the
reasons related to your personal motivation?
Can you describe your life projects or key goals
that you would like to achieve over the next few
years?

23. Conceptual Model for Digital Open Textbooks
Fraser’s Social Justice
Dimensions
Indicators
Economic
Cultural
Political
Social Realism (Margaret Archer)
Structure Culture Agency Interplay
Intersectionality

24. An approach that goes beyond numbers that addresses all aspects
of transformation; the economic, the cultural, and political. An
approach that holds at its core the agency of the textbook authors and
enables /empowers them to realise their projects and concerns.

25. References
• Archer, M. S. (2003). Structure, agency and the internal conversation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Cox, G, Trotter, H, Hodgkinson-Williams, C, Arinto, P, Cartmill, T and King, T. (2018) Surfacing agency and power: A
social realist perspective on select findings from the ROER4D projects. OER18, April London, England
• Crenshaw, K. (1989). Demarginalising the intersection between race and sex: A black feminist critique of
antidiscrimination doctrine, feminist theory and antiracist politics. Retrieved from
https://philpapers.org/archive/CREDTI.pdf
• Fraser, N. (2005). Reframing justice in a globalizing world. New Left Review, 36, 69–88. Retrieved from
https://newleftreview.org/II/36/nancy-fraser-reframing-justice-in-a-globalizing-world
• Hodgkinson-Williams, C., Arinto, P. B., Cartmill, T. & King, T. (2017). Factors influencing Open Educational Practices
and OER in the Global South: Meta-synthesis of the ROER4D project. In C. Hodgkinson-Williams & P. B. Arinto (Eds.),
Adoption and impact of OER in the Global South (pp. 27–67). Retrieved from
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1037088
•
Hodgkinson-Williams, C.A. & Trotter, H. (forthcoming). A social justice framework for understanding open
educational resources and practices in the Global South, Journal of Learning for Development.
•
Walji, S. & Hodgkinson-Williams, C. (2017). Understanding the nature of OEP for OER adoption in Global South
contexts: Emerging lessons from the ROER4D project. Presented at OER17, 5–6 April 2017. London, UK. Retrieved
from https://www.slideshare.net/ROER4D/understanding-the-nature-of-oep-for-oer-adoption-in-global-south-
contextsemerging-lessons-from-the-roer4d-project
This work is carried out with support from the International Development Research
Centre, Ottawa, Canada.

26. http://roer4d.org/
Further reading
Edited volume: http://www.africanminds.co.za/dd-product/adoption-and-impact-
of-oer-in-the-global-south/
Published data sets:
https://www.datafirst.uct.ac.za/dataportal/index.php/catalog/ROER4D
Twitter: @ROER4D
@dot4_d
http://www.cilt.uct.ac.za/cilt/special-projects#emerge