by Jason M. Leggett

Ryan identifies three clear learning outcomes for the assignments for fall 2020: 

What I like about these outcomes is that there is a coherent whole with identifiable pieces. Theatrical history is on one end and the elements of structural history: roles, positions, duties, considerations, and characteristics can be broken down to help students see a progression and the social construction of history. 

One assignment provides exploration of global themes showing students a world beyond Broadway – Hollywood; The second allows for a personal choice and exploration of identity as a construct. The culminating assignment best represents the ideals we have discussed this semester about open pedagogy: 

In reflection, we both examine a relationship between constructed identities and text as a representation of knowledge. I really like the kinesthetic elements in Ryan’s pieces and will try to introduce some of these into my own practice. The final trans-identity assignment provides opportunities for both rich personal exploration and dialogue with larger groups. We both utilze elements of actor network theory but in Ryan’s class students are asked to draft a script; I am intrigued by the possibilities. Ryan incorporates the theme of justice and global/diversity throughout the semester so I anticipate a wide range of narratives that reflect the positionality of our students. I appreciate that Ryan provides choice while also indicating what content is to be covered. I think this is a good balance between providing professional guidance (epistemology) and providing culturally relevant learning opportunities (pedagogy).

As a member college of AAC&U, Kingsborough has committed to diversity and global learning. As Senior Researcher Caryn Musil identiifies, “educating students for a global future is no longer elective.” The Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) has identified global knowledge, ethical commitments to individual and social responsibility, and intercultural skills as major components of a twenty-first-century liberal education. Recognizing that their graduates will work and live in an interdependent, highly diverse, fast-changing, and volatile world, an increasing number of colleges and universities are including global learning goals in their mission statements (Meacham and Gaff 2006). I think we have made progress this semester in thinking through how to reduce the gap between global learning as an ideal and the practice of it within the educational setting. 

I have benefited from participation in professional development activities through the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) focused on developing course work and scholarship about civic learning and democratic engagement. One question that has been posed in the last few years has been: how can the promises of the humanities, as traditionally understood, be integrated into departments with an update that appreciates differences, rights, agency, and social change? 

This question has been on my mind as we begin this adventure into transforming our curriculum at Kingsborough Community College through Open Pedagogical Strategies. For my part, I am transforming a course that is required within the Justice Academy but is also a course that draws in students from Nursing, Liberal Arts, Computer Science, Engineering, Biology and many students who are not sure what they want to major in. Pol 67, American Legal System, is very broad and can be taught from many points of view. I wondered how I could position the Courts as a venue for Social Change. 

Within my scholarly commitments and interest, I adhere to a methodology from scholars who deviated from traditional political science studies, traditional legal studies, and traditional history studies and began the Law and Society movement in the late 1950’s. 

I began examining Universal Human Rights and International Courts in 2003 around the global issues of climate change and migration (Goals 13 and 16). For this project I am hoping to integrate this research into the classroom and position the class as a kind of clinic where students can research the United States Sustainability Goals of their choice and learn how to conduct legal research as one possible strategy for social change. One of the suggested learning outcomes as a Justice Academy program in our department is:  Demonstrate the ability to access, conduct, interpret, and apply justice research. 

During this semester I am experimenting with students with how best to break down a research and writing project. In some ways COVID has made this process a bit easier in that I needed a platform to collect student drafts, inquiries, writing practicums, and to provide digital teaching resources to respond to student questions. I am using CUNY Commons, Google Forms and Docs, and Youtube in addition to email, Blackboard Collaborate and Zoom. One OER I am interested in developing for the next semester is the Zine. 

One such Zine is from Barnard College: Lesson C: How do systems of power repress voices of dissent? One thing I like about this assignment is that it positions protest, the resistance to domination, as a valid form of political participation. On the other hand, sometimes students fall into a state of hopelessness when their content does not make immediate change. I think the historical context of this assignment could be better structured and very likely it will need to be surrounded by other assignments. In sum, it is reassuring that the burden of assignment design is eased by access to a larger community of work in OER that focuses on a non-elitist point of view about politics and power. 

AS a non-traditional educator I find myself constantly engaged in a dual process of seeking out team-members who admit they experienced a form of isolation in graduate school not too different from the social isolation during Corona 2020, and a barrage of terms that seem to change with the seasons in silos of disciplinary domains. Before I graduated from community college and then the public University, I was the first in my family to graduate with a degree, I worked in political campaigns and for a not-for-profit focused on civics and human rights education for high school kids. That experience guided me through law school where I worked on the pragmatic implementation of human rights from the ground up instead of the lofty ideals of chambers at the United Nations. I had experienced the constant need to work across differences, backgrounds, and opinions, unlike many of my colleagues in academia. Through this project, with a team of faculty members across differences, I intend to further my work to bridge the gap between law as ideal (among elites) and the reality of law for ordinary folk. Like others, I am convinced that a practical use of rights consciousness and social change comes through education.  

In a published article from 2018, I responded to a claim by Andy Lane (2016) that the “rhetoric” about “open education” and pedagogical practices was “ahead of the reality.” While I agreed with Lane that emancipation in the learning process requires a more political stance by educators, I argued that for social change to occur (beyond platitudes and citations to Freire) in the classroom, “technology must be integrated into course work in the humanities so that students can engage with social, political, and legal institutions and behavior.” I ground this epistemological claim in the work done by political scientists who push beyond a pluralist model of politics. Lukes (2005) and McCann (2020) have long articulated the work done by Foucault and feminist scholars such as Patricia Hill Collins for a view of power and social change that includes not only the dominant position, but also the resistance strategies and the social construction of reality evident since the turn toward empirical science 100 years ago (2019). 

In my work, I have tried to work with others to study collective action problems in the shadow of work done by Ostrom, Hardin, Bateson, Lator, Levi, and many others. While the successes have been modest and the failures persistent (2016), I am encouraged by the turn towards equity among institutions, faculty, and students.  As social science theorists know well, our attempts to construct a shared language around open pedagogy, equity, and social change will largely influence what successes we are able to implement in reality. I am optimistic about this work and hope others join us as we try to think of ways to integrate urgent modern problems into the curriculum at our community college in one of the most diverse areas in the world.