Hiking Together: Open Pedagogy

Social Justice by Assignment

Learning Objectives

By the end of this chapter, you will

  • Compose an open pedagogy teaching statement rooted in social justice

Silhouette of hiker with cap and poles descending mountains with two dogs against a green background "Sniff, climb, share learning" text above them.
To make your own OER marketing materials, see Growing Your OER Program: A Marketing and Advocacy Toolkit.

Now that you have your footing in renewable assignments, we want to consider how you can sniff out opportunities to integrate social justice into your assignment design. As we have shared, the pinnacle of your epic OER quest is to iterate toward recognitive justice.[1] Luckily, those who have gone before you are here to guide you.

Assignment Design Rooted in Social Justice

Lambert’s call for greater representational justice prompted open pedagogues to reconsider how they practiced open pedagogy, particularly their course assignments. As one does in higher education, an open praxis formed through conversations in scholarly articles, blogs, and conference presentations. The conversation focused on creating holistically student-driven and social-justice open pedagogy assignments focused on learning processes.[2]

Out of these conversations, Maha Bali, Catherine Cronin, and Rajiv Jhangiani assessed and revised common open pedagogy assignments in alignment with recognitive justice. The three practitioners evaluated how common assignments could be improved upon by focusing on learners, holistic, interactive processes, and social justice.[3]

Select the arrows to view characteristics of socially just open pedagogy assignments. 

Assignment Examples

To guide the community in creating socially just assignments, Bali, Cronin, and Jhangiani provided a spectrum of how instructors could iteratively transform typical open assignments.

This table is modified from “Table 2” by Maha Bali, Catherine Cronin, & Rajiv S. Jhangiani in Framing Open Educational Practices from a Social Justice Perspective under CC BY 4.0.
Open Pedagogy Practice Contexts for which assignment may be neutral or negative Contexts for which assignment may be ameliorative Contexts for which assignment may be transformative
Student-created OER/content Negative if content available publicly or openly is dominated by one perspective; Negative if exploiting student labor; Neutral if highly structured and teacher-directed; Negative if without student agency Ameliorative if content created or adapted to increase representation of diverse identities and marginalized groups Transformative if marginalized students have power of decision-making over content, process and epistemological frameworks
Wikipedia editing Negative if insufficiently prepared learners are exposed to edit wars and online abuse Ameliorative if content is created or adapted to increase representation of diverse identities and marginalized groups Transformative if more representation in leadership (not just content) and if epistemology is challenged, i.e. what counts as credible sources?
Collaborative annotation (e.g. Marginal Syllabus) Neutral if annotating dominant canonical texts, and those annotating are privileged groups; Negative if it opens room for abuse or harassment of authors when annotating their texts, or abuse in comments around texts Ameliorative if content chosen with a social justice intent or represents a variety of perspectives including marginalized groups and/or in different languages: Economically ameliorative as it provides a free way to participate in global academic conversations using low-bandwidth, asynchronous technology Transformative if decision-making over which texts to annotate and the process of annotation comes from or involves marginalized groups

The authors’ scaffolding of the transformative results of social justice principles demonstrates how mindful changes to an assignment can further Lambert’s vision. For instance, having students contribute to Wikipedia has a good end goal of understanding the information creation process or dispelling the myths of Wikipedia. But instructors should be thoughtful about the needs and voices of all students for the assignment. Being thoughtful about topic selection, how students can self-represent through topics relevant to their lived experiences, and how to prepare and protect vulnerable, novice learners for the site’s editing wars. Taking such a student-centered approach to social justice-minded open pedagogy is not easy, but Bali, Cronin, and Jhangiani’s guidelines are an example of the many blueprints that exist in the open pedagogy community.

OERFSJ Faculty Team Highlight

  • When creating their open textbook, Leigh Meredith, Phil Choong, and Melisa Garcia valued the perspective their students at the University of San Francisco would contribute to Rhetorical Communities. The undergraduate text is focused on the “practices, values, and expectations that shape communication within different communities,” and the authors couldn’t think of better contributors than their students. The OER is laced with presentations, comics, and podcasts in which students validate their daily lived experiences and cultural forms of expression as valid, authentic intellectual studies. Zoe Deleon and Paul Uong, for example, shared their experiences learning medical jargon as second-year nursing students.

Select the arrows below to navigate Zoe and Paul’s “Nursing Discourse Community Analysis.”

Select the arrow for an accessible version of the Nursing Discourse Community Analysis interactive.

Slide 1:

Image description: A title slide with a bright pink background and several tan adhesive bandages placed at different angles. Large white text appears across the center.

Transcript:

NURSING HANDOFFS

PAUL AND ZOE

Slide 2:

Image description: A pale pink slide introduces the risk of confusing the medications clonazepam and clonidine. Illustrations include prescription containers, tablets, three bowls of salad, and a smiling piece of lettuce.

Clonazepam and Clonidine

What happens if a nurse
mixes up these two?

SALAD !!!

The word “SALAD” is used as a humorous answer to the question about mixing up the two medications.

Slide 3

Image description: A pale pink slide states that a patient was mistakenly given clonazepam. Beneath the warning is a cartoon of a frightened person with bulging eyes, an open mouth, and sweat marks.

Transcript:

Oops! You just gave your patient
Clonazepam.

Can cause paranoia or suicidal ideation and impair memory, judgment, and coordination. Combining with other substances, particularly alcohol, can slow breathing and possibly lead to death.

Slide 4

Image description: A pale pink slide states that a patient was mistakenly given clonidine. An illustration of a human heart appears near the bottom.

Transcript:

Oops! You just gave your
patient clonidine.

Can cause heart problems such as an irregular heartbeat or heart palpitations, or an unusually slow heartbeat (bradycardia), feelings of confusion, problems understanding what is happening around you, or hallucinations (seeing or hearing things that are not real), stomach pain, vomiting, and constipation symptoms all together – these can be symptoms of a rare condition called pseudo-obstruction of the large bowel.

Slide 5

Image description: A pale pink slide titled “Paul and Zoe” includes photographs of two nursing students, one standing in hospital scrubs and one wearing a white medical coat. Decorative illustrations show a stethoscope, syringe, nurses, and a nurse assisting an older adult.

Transcript:

Paul and Zoe

  • Sophomore 2 Nursing Students
  • Almost a year of Clinical Experience
    • San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center
    • Seton Medical Center and Chinese Hospital
  • Can give injections! Can provide CPR!

Slide 6

Image description: A pale pink slide titled “Shared Purposes and Goals.” An outline drawing of two hands surrounding a heart appears on the left. An illustration on the right shows one person comforting another. The slide lists goals of compassionate, individualized, and holistic nursing care, followed by a quotation attributed to Roma Mayo.

Transcript:

Shared Purposes and Goals

  • Providing compassionate care, sympathy, and empathy
  • Individualized Care
  • Along with the care, seeing your patient have improved signs and symptoms
  • Holistic Approach to Care (Providing care for the WHOLE person)
  • Seeing beyond yourself and putting yourself in the shoes of the patient

“One of the main objectives is to give compassionate care and treat each patient individually. Not all patients are the same, so it is important to make sure you have individualized care for each patient” – Roma Mayo

Slide 7

Image description: A pale pink slide titled “Patterns of Language Use and Interpretation” is divided into three sections. The left section discusses abbreviations and includes a chart of common medical abbreviations: Text includes: Abbreviations

  • effective and efficient
  • information about the patient’s health status and needs

The abbreviation chart contains examples grouped under the headings “Frequencies,” “Routes,” “Tubes,” “Measurements,” and “Routes for eyes and ears.”

The center section, labeled “Taboo,” includes crossed adhesive bandages and warns against unfamiliar abbreviations and excessive use of lay language. Text includes:

  • using abbreviations that are not well known
  • using layman’s terms; too much subjectivity is not wanted

The right section discusses medical terminology and includes an illustration of four stages of pressure injuries. Text includes:

Medical Terms

  • Information you would be familiar with as a healthcare personnel
  • Stages of a Pressure Injury
  • 1+, 2+, 3+

The pressure-injury diagram labels skin, soft tissue, bone, and Stages 1 through 4.

Slide 8

Image description: A pale pink slide displays a large centered quotation. Small illustrations around the quotation show nursing staff, a patient in a wheelchair, a healthcare team, a clinician speaking with a patient, a nurse holding an IV bag, and a stethoscope.

Transcript:

“Texting vs. calling is tricky, especially with multiple providers who don’t always communicate directly. The bedside nurse ends up as the middleman, which can lead to miscommunication. Direct communication is key—over-communicating is always better than not enough.” – Dr. Isabella Charway RN, DNP, AGACNP-BC

Slide 9

Image description: A pale pink slide titled “Shared Genres.” The left side contains a list of key nursing genres, including text: Shared Genres

Key Genres

  • Handoffs
  • Charting
  • Nurses and Doctor Communication
  • Concept Maps/ BRAINs

In the center is an illustration of a nurse’s cap and checklist. On the right, three healthcare workers examine clipboards together.

Slide 10

Image description:
A pale pink slide titled “Genre Analysis: Nurse to Nurse Handoff.” The left side explains the Situation, Background, Assessment, and Recommendation portions of an SBAR report. Transcript: Genre Analysis: Nurse to Nurse Handoff

Situation

  • diagnosis (why they came to the hospital)
  • ex: pt has pneumonia

Background

  • past medical history
  • any special things to note (ex: patient’s diet is NPO)
  • previous procedures that might serve as any contraindications
    • ex: pt has a left AV fistula
  • ex: pt has diabetes

Assessment

  • head-to-toe
  • any abnormalities (ex: pt is oriented x 3, not oriented to situation)
  • TPRBPO (temperature, pulse, respiratory count, blood pressure, oxygen saturation)

Recommendation

  • any procedures and orders (ex: pt should be scheduled for an MRI)

A sample nurse report sheet appears in the center.

The right side explains that handoffs occur during shift changes, transfers, and rounds and may be delivered through the electronic health record or in person.

Transcript:

Done when there’s a shift change, unit transfer, or general rounding; can also be done with doctors and other specialties like physical therapists, respiratory therapists, etc.

Can be done through the EHR or usually in person.

The sample form in the center is labeled “Nurse Report Sheet” and visually organizes information according to SBAR.

Slide 11

Image description with transcript:
A pale pink slide contains an embedded Lecturio Nursing YouTube video:

Slide 12

A pale pink slide with a large black heading reading “Example of a SBAR report.” Below the heading is a white rectangular text box labeled “Example 1.” The box explains how SBAR can be used in healthcare and gives a patient scenario organized into Situation, Background, Assessment, and Recommendation.

Example 1. Because of its simplicity and usefulness in crucial situations, SBAR has many implementations in healthcare. It can be used between professional staff such as nurses and physicians, and it also has value for hand-offs by nurses between change of shifts or patient transfers. Below is a basic example of how SBAR communication can be used in a healthcare setting, but SBAR can be used as a leadership communication tool in any industry.

Situation: The patient has been hospitalized with an upper respiratory infection. Respirations are labored and have increased to 28 breaths per minute within the past 30 minutes. Usual interventions are ineffective.

Background: The patient is a 72-year-old female with a history of congestive heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Her husband has requested to be notified if the patient’s condition changes.

Note: The patient’s past illnesses are highly relevant to the current situation, but the patient’s home address is not.

Assessment: Patient’s breathing has deteriorated in the last 30 minutes. Usual interventions (i.e., inhaler, oxygen, breathing treatments) have been ineffective and are not relieving symptoms.

Note: The assessment must be made by a qualified staff person, such as a registered nurse, but it is not a diagnosis unless it is made by a provider such as a medical doctor or physician assistant.

Recommendation: Consider intubation immediately. Call physician STAT or initiate Rapid Response Team.

Slide 13

Image description: A pale pink, text-only slide asks what can happen when a handoff report is not completed. It presents a scenario involving Nurse Brown, Nurse Green, an undocumented dose of morphine sulfate, and the prevention of an accidental overdose.

Transcript:

What can happen if you do not do a handoff report?

“Nurse Brown on unit A is receiving report from Nurse Green, who is transferring the patient from unit B to unit A. The patient medication administration record (MAR) does not indicate the patient has received any pain medication in the past shift. When Nurse Brown asks about this, Nurse Green realizes she gave morphine sulfate but did not document it on the MAR. Due to Nurse Brown’s question, Nurse Green realizes the omission and communicates the information and documents it in the medical record, preventing an accidental overdose of a medication” (Byers et. al.).

Slide 14

Image description:
A pale pink, text-only slide describes how SBAR communication supports the goals of the nursing profession. It connects SBAR to compassionate care, individualized care, improved outcomes, holistic care, and patient advocacy.

Transcript:

How does SBAR communication advance the goals of the nursing profession?

SBAR enhances nursing by ensuring clear, effective communication, directly supporting key professional goals:

  • Compassion & Empathy: Reduces miscommunication, ensuring timely, patient-centered care.
  • Individualized Care: Helps tailor care plans to specific patient needs.
  • Improved Outcomes: Ensures timely interventions, leading to better patient recovery.
  • Holistic Care: Communicates comprehensive patient needs beyond just symptoms.
  • Patient Advocacy: Helps nurses effectively relay concerns, prioritizing patient well-being.

By streamlining communication, SBAR promotes safer, more compassionate, and effective nursing care.

Slide 15

Image description: A pale pink, text-only slide asks what makes nursing handoffs conventional knowledge for insiders. Four bullet points identify abbreviations, nursing terminology, the hospital setting, and repeated practice at the end of each shift.

Transcript:

What makes this more conventional to insiders?

  • Abbreviations
  • Nursing Terms
  • Only really done in a hospital setting
  • Done every time a shift ends, so practice makes you efficient, concise, but descriptive when doing a handoff

Slide 16

Image description with transcript: A pale pink, text-only conclusion slide discusses the role of concise nursing communication while noting tensions involving lay language, holistic care, specialized terminology, and accessibility.

Transcript:

Conclusion

  • Through effective and concise communication, care is able to be able to be provided quickly
    • However, each patient has their own report given by the nurse = individualized
  • Non-medical personnel sometimes can only understand it if its layman’s terms (contradictory to how a nurse communicates)
  • Nursing reports leave out subjective parts of the patients, logistics only, which contradicts holistic care
  • Not accessible, even sometimes to nurses with all the different medical terms and abbreviations
  • Stick with universal terms and make some simpler

Slide 17

Image description: A pale pink slide titled “References” lists three underlined sources. The references are formatted as website citations and include access dates of March 27, 2025.

Transcript:

References

Friesen, Mary Ann. “Handoffs: Implications for Nurses.” Patient Safety and Quality: An Evidence-Based Handbook for Nurses., U.S. National Library of Medicine, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK2649/. Accessed 27 Mar. 2025.

SBAR | ASQ, asq.org/quality-resources/sbar. Accessed 27 Mar. 2025.

How to Give an SBAR Report | What Is It and How SBAR Used | Lecturio Nursing | Fundamentals Theory, YouTube, www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSYTFJqvEug. Accessed 27 Mar. 2025.

 

 

Visit Rhetorical Communities for more examples of open pedagogy.

Your Turn: Social Justice in Your Assignment

  1. Select the hot spots as you read the comic to read and watch social-justice-centered open pedagogy theories, practices, and examples.
  2. After enjoying at least two sources, reflect on how these sources may influence your open pedagogy assignment.
  3. At the end, export and save your work for your records.
Select the arrow to view an accessible version of the Open Pedagogy, Social Justice and DEIA interactive.

Open Pedagogy, Social Justice, and DEIA

Image description

A seven-panel illustrated comic titled “Open Pedagogy, Social Justice, & DEIA.” A subtitle invites readers to explore theories and examples of open pedagogy by selecting hotspots in the comic. The comic follows Desi and Nataly as they consider how open educational resources and open pedagogy can promote equity.

Across the panels, the two educators discuss diversity, equity, inclusion, anti-racism, Lambert’s social justice framework, minority-serving institutions, student privacy, emotional support, digital tools, critical digital pedagogy, and course design. Chalkboards and speech bubbles contain several linked terms, including Lambert’s work, Pressbooks, H5P, alt text, and poetry. The final panel reassures readers that the resource will help them apply the ideas to assignments, assessment, and course design.

Transcript

Title:

Open Pedagogy, Social Justice, & DEIA

Subtitle:

Explore theories and examples of open pedagogy by clicking on the hotspots in the comic.

Panel 1:

Desi and Nataly brainstorm how OER can promote equity through open pedagogy.

Chalkboard:

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, & Anti-Racism

Nataly:
“I wonder what approach is best for our students’ learning and our teaching?”

Panel 2:

Desi:
“There are a variety of approaches to make inclusive OER.”

Nataly:
“Great! Let’s learn how open pedagogy aligns with social justice.”

Panel 3:

“Let’s start with Lambert’s work and go from there!”

Selectable hotspot reveals the following guidance and resources:

Open Pedagogy, Social Justice, & DEIA

Open pedagogy, or open educational practices, can push your OER beyond cost-savings to Lambert’s representational and recognitive forms of social justice.

Read

Listen

Panel 4:

“Our institution has been recognized as a minority serving institution …”

“What are anti-racist frameworks for partnering with our students?”

Selectable hotspot reveals the following guidance and resources:

Cultural Humility & Anti-Racism

Taking an anti-racist approach to open pedagogy is important to our student communities and, for many of you, to practice self-care. Below are theories, practical advice, and examples, including words of wisdom from folks at Hispanic Serving Institutions and Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institutions.

Read

Theories and Frameworks

  • World Intellectual Property Organization. (2017). Documenting Traditional Knowledge – A Toolkit. CC BY 3.0.
    • The intersection of Traditional Knowledge (TK) and intellectual property rights can spark questions in appropriate and respectful ways of documenting and sharing TK, which the toolkit addresses through a variety of checklists and guidelines.
  • Seiferle-Valencia, M. (2020). It’s Not (Just) About the Cost: Academic Libraries and Intentionally Engaged OER for Social Justice. Library Trends 69(2), 469-487. https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/lib.2020.0042.
    • Seiferle-Valencia examined how OER creators implemented Lambert’s three Rs [Website] of social justice and OER, calls for greater inclusion of students from historically and systematically marginalized populations, and how the identities of support staff can help center student voices.

Examples of OER

  • Cramer, R. F., Keldin, G., & Nelson, H. (2024). Institutional racism in the United States revisited (L. L. Knowles, Ed.). Chapman University. https://doi.org/10.36837/chapman.000602
    • Armed with five decades of data, a team of faculty examines systematic and structural racism through the disciplines of history, economics, education, political science, and public health.
Listen

Panel 5:

Inclusion & Kindness

Desi:
“Thinking of student support, what do students need to know about publicly sharing their work?”

Nataly:
“Beyond copyright, we need to think of privacy and their emotional support.”

Selectable hotspot reveals the following guidance and resources:

Inclusion & Kindness

Publicly sharing work introduces new levels of vulnerability into the already complicated lives of your students and you. Below are resources to help your students and you kindly navigate the emotions and challenges of open pedagogy.

Read
Theories and Frameworks
  • Denial, C. A Pedagogy of Kindness. In J. Stommel, C. Friend, and S.Michael Morris (Eds.) Critical Digital Pedagogy. CC BY-NC 4.0.
    • Catherine Denial details how embracing a pedagogy of kindness helped her embrace her students’ individuality, adapt universal design for learning, and create more productive learning spaces.
  • Pearce, L., Lin Hanick, S., Hofer, A., Townsend, L., and Willi Hooper, M. (2022). “Your Discomfort Is Valid: Big Feelings and Open Pedagogy,” Knowledge Cultures 10(2): 24-51. https://doi.org/10.22381/kc10220222.
    • The OER aficionados at Open Oregon give you the full rundown of how they scale open pedagogy to flexibly support student discomfort with publicly sharing with individualized learning plans, successfully scaling productive learning experiences for each student.
  • Taylor, K.B., & Baker, A.R. (2019). Examining the Role of Discomfort in Collegiate Learning and Development. Journal of College Student Development 60(2), 173-188. https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/csd.2019.0017.
    • Student emotions are valid but can often stall their learning. Discover strategies for helping your students manage their discomfort and cross important learning thresholds.
Listen
  • Gonzalez, J. & Weathers, M. (2024, August 4). Teaching Executive Functions to All Students. Cult of Pedagogy.
    • Two experienced teachers share how to impart organizational and time management skills to ensure all students can succeed. Though not focused on open pedagogy, the podcast can help you and your students sidestep problems that can derail open pedagogy projects.

Panel 6:

Desi:

“While caring for our students and ourselves, how can we manage to teach new digital tools and all our content?”

Chalkboard:
Pressbooks
H5P
Alt-Text
Poetry

Nataly:

“What about Critical Digital Pedagogy?”

Selectable hotspot reveals the following guidance and resources:

Critical Digital Pedagogy (CDL)

CDL calls for instructors and students to critically engage with the digital tools they use to learn and share their work. Digital pedagogy requires balancing privacy with digital literacy, as Catherine Cronin outlines, and fostering care and support for (invisibly) laboring faculty and students.

Read

Theories and Frameworks

Panel 7:

Desi: “This is a lot. How do we turn all of the advice into an actual course, with assignments, and assess everything?”

Nataly: “Don’t worry. We’ve got that covered.”

Selectable hotspot reveals the following guidance and resources:

Designing a course or an assignment

Here are even more tips, guidelines, and roadmaps for designing and achieving your learning objectives and outcomes.

Read

Theories and Frameworks

  • Riehman-Murphy, C. & McGeary, B. Open Pedagogy Project Roadmap. CC BY-NC 4.0.
    • The Roadmap helps you scope and sustain your projects with outcomes focused on student agency. Check out their case studies for inspiration.
  • Quinn, J., Burtis, M., Jhangiani, S., & Denial, C.J. (2022). Designing for Care. CC BY-NC 4.0.
    • With roots in humanizing pedagogies, such as Catherine Denial’s Pedagogy of Kindness, this volume guides you through making certain students feel represented and seen in digital platforms.
  •  Stommel, J. (2023). Ungrading for Equity. Jesse Stommel.
    • Jesse Stommel shares how he centers the most marginalized students in his class by forgoing grades for compassionate and collaborative assessment dialogues between the instructor and students.
Listen

 

Footer:
Inspired by Mathspace.

Your Turn: Open Pedagogy, Social Justice, & DEIA

After reading, listening to, or watching at least one or two resources for open pedagogy, reflect on how social justice can shape your open pedagogy assignment. You might consider what recognitive justice would look like for your students. What are their lived experiences, professional aspirations, and educational experiences, and how can you support all three through open pedagogy, for instance?

 

 

  1. Sarah R. Lambert. (2018). Changing our (dis)course: A distinctive social justice aligned definition of open education. Journal of Learning for Development, 5(3), 225–244. https://doi.org/10.56059/jl4d.v5i3.290 ↵
  2. Catherine Cronin. (2017). Openness and praxis: Exploring the use of open educational practices in higher education. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 18(5), 15–34. https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v18i5.3096; Robin DeRosa & Rajiv Jhangiani. (n.d.). Open pedagogy. Open Pedagogy Notebook. Retrieved July 23, 2026, from https://openpedagogy.org/open-pedagogy/ ↵
  3. Maha Bali, Catherine Cronin, & Rajiv S. Jhangiani. (2020). Framing open educational practices from a social justice perspective. Journal of Interactive Media in Education, 2020(1), Article 10. https://doi.org/10.5334/jime.565 ↵

License

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Open Voices, Just Choices: OER for Social Justice Faculty Handbook Copyright © 2025 by Theresa Huff and Karna Younger is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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