Angela DeBarger - #OpenEd19 Keynote

I first met Angela two years ago at this very conference when she joined the hewlett team and through the k-12 community i'd heard of great work and she had led at the george lucas educational research foundation so I was really excited for her to join our community as well since then we have toasted in Delft we have had coffee and Lisbon and we've shared many laughs at various events and meetings I'm so grateful to call her a colleague in this work and for her support of pre k12 we are throughout all of our our work that we do here more officially she serves as a program officer in education at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation her portfolio addresses Oh er and where she's finding the connective tissue between we are and teaching and learning so please join me in giving a warm welcome to miss Angela departure Thank You Kristina for that warm and kind introduction I'm really honored to be here and I want to thank David and the program committee for putting together a really wonderful set of sessions for the community to come together and learn and speaking of learning and community thought I'd start by admitting that sometimes I feel like an open ed newbie or new as my kids would say if I'm being generous I've been working in the field now about five years but really only deeply so these last two years since I've been at the Hewlett Foundation and I want to share that mostly for those of you who are also feeling new to open education trying to make sense of the multiple ideas and perspectives that you're hearing your work and your role in the space I'm so glad you found your way here you belong here and I'm excited to learn along with you so for this talk I thought I'd share how I've been learning my way into open education being a program officer or funder at Hewlett is only one of my identities I've been learning about this work as an african-american woman as a working mom and as a researcher my background in education and I can't help but bring these experiences from my lips then to the work that I do and sometimes I even think about how the work that I'm doing that we're doing would have affected me as a kid growing up I grew up in West Los Angeles in a family of educators my mom was an elementary teacher for her whole career my dad started out as a high school math teacher and basketball coach and then worked for many years as a principal and I left that my parents were educators I thought it was great that they were helping children learn I liked learning I liked school growing up maybe sometimes a little too much my mom being the elementary teacher that she was would sometimes have extra workbooks lying around the house and I remember little like playdates on the weekend with my friend at the time we'd like teach each other handwriting so like super nerdy so I like school but I can't always say that I felt like I belonged my parents sent me to a small elementary school so we had like 25 kids per class kindergarten through sixth grade and they like this they sent us there they liked it because it was small and structured and I remember this art project that we had to do in kindergarten once where we each got these giant sheets of butcher paper and we had to find a partner and take turns lying down on our butcher paper and tracing ourselves and we were supposed to like color ourselves in what we were wearing what our hair looked like and all of that and I remember I didn't want to color in my skin because I didn't want my picture to look different from everyone else's when the teacher is gonna post them around the class I've always been kind of embarrassed to admit that like why didn't I value who I was why was I shame to look different from the rest of my class and as I've gotten older I've come to understand like it's so much more complex and complicated I wonder what messages I was hearing were there even crayons that looked like my skin color did I have books with pictures that look like me and my family and who was explicitly encouraging me to explore and express my unique identity and I almost forgot about this experience until more recently I had the opportunity to visit a school in Oakland called roses in concrete and the founder director of Jeff Duncan Andrade was taking us around on a tour and we went to the art classroom and he was telling us that one of the projects that the students have to do is to paint a portrait of themselves and to do that they have to find and mix colors that match their skin tone and boy did I wish that that was the art class that I had had when I was in elementary school and I reflect on this experience sometimes when I think about our work in open education creating meaningful and inclusive classrooms is more than putting an open license on a material or a product requires thoughtful attention and planning so that every student is seen included and appreciated I think making students feel included is a good first step I also think that our work in open education opens up so many more possibilities for students to be sense makers in our world and creators of knowledge and one of the most transformative experiences for me and realizing this was a trip that I got to take to Africa so in my work I get to collaborate with teams who are working on open education all over the world and some of my colleagues Neil butcher Kirsty van Gogh Liz levy are working on early literacy efforts in Africa so I'd been talking with the team and reading their reports I really wanted to get out there and meet the people the community's doing this work so we traveled to Kampala Uganda and we met with a man named is Cornelius school year and Cornelius had started up community libraries and I learned that community libraries in Uganda are really important because there isn't as much public funding for for school and and public libraries so Cornelius actually started up this community library initially out of the trunk of his car he would load up storybooks for the children many of them openly licensed so that they could be more easily translated into the children's home languages he would take these in this car to church services and after services invite the children over to find books to read and enjoy Cornelius also like to encourage the children to tell their own stories and he showed us the shoebox filled with little books written and illustrated by the children so now we really wanted to get out and meet some of the children he'd been working with and we traveled with Cornelius to st. Mark's Community Library and Cornelius brought after brief introductions brought out his bin of storybooks and asked the children to pick out a book that they're their favourite and tell us why it's their favorite so the children were sorting through the books bit of a skirmish broke out between two girls they were kind of arguing over this one book that they had both decided was their favorite it turned out Tecla won the battle and for a good reason this was her favorite book because she had written it Cornelius worked with Tecla to get her book published through the African storybook project and to me this was one of the most powerful moments I've seen of a child's experiences and ideas validated and Tesla was so proud of her work as she should be at the same time I wonder about those dozens of other books in that shoebox I'm like what it would take to get those stories published and talking about this with the team and questions about quality and readiness for publication start to surface who gets to decide about quality the children their teacher the community the publishers and so we you know when we talked about like how we can get the community more involved in this work and what's the opportunities for local editors and local illustrators so it's most definitely still a work in progress but I think we were all really motivated by what we saw because we think through these experiences children can become inspired to lead and hopefully one day become leaders in their own communities so another group I've been following is the student perks our student Public Interest Research Group if if you haven't heard of the student perks they have chapters on campuses all around the country and they advocate for issues that matter to their communities one of those being college affordability and open textbooks so when I was in college I was proud to say that I played trumpet in the band now that I have met the student PIRG I feel like I was kind of a slacker this the student prairies are out there advocating on behalf of their communities to make their world our world a better place to live in and it's because of their work on open textbooks that more faculty understand how and why oh we are matters to their students on their campus I had the opportunity to attend a couple of trainings with the student purves this year one of them was with the CalPERS and it was really cool students from all over the state of California drove to UC Davis for the weekend to work with each other to figure out how to build more effective campaigns they talked about how to create and tell effective stories they shared ideas about how to bring in and connect with new communities on campus to help them understand how and why these issues should matter to them the Hewlett Foundation we talked a lot about deeper learning well if this isn't deeper learning then I don't know what is students are out there creating change in their communities around issues that matter to them and as I was reflecting on this experience with the student perks I realized students don't need us to give them agency power or voice they come as competent curious resourceful sometimes they just need us to listen and follow their lead and when our work in open education is meeting their needs they get excited to join in the fight so we have to continue to make sure that the work we're doing is responsive to how students want to learn I was sharing these stories with a friend of mine who's newer to open education she's like wow that's great because this kind of work where students are publishing an openly licensed books and advocating for the kind of learning they want to see like something happening like all around the country all around the world and open education now it's kind of sad to say like not enough and it got me thinking about okay well like what are the challenges that we need to address in our work so that this kind of learning is possible for more students everywhere and I started thinking personally too like what are the questions and areas that I need to be more intentional about dressing in my own work and so I came to these three questions really wanting to think about like who are the learners in our schools that were intending to serve what are we doing now to engage them in productive or maybe not as productive ways you need to address that and what are the barriers that we should name explicitly that we can address them in our work when I take up this first question it's hard for me not to think about it in a very personal way I think about myself and my role as a parent these are my two boys when they were little and now older they're 11 and 14 and I've always wanted them to love school to love learning I remember when my older son was just starting kindergarten and I imagine we felt like most parents like excited to be going to the big school and nervous about joining a new community and what to expect there and the first week I have to say like started off pretty well easy drop-offs in the morning no tears and then about day three we got a call from the principal and she said you know your son wouldn't come in from recess today the teacher was trying to round up the rest of the class and she got everyone to go back but he wouldn't listen we had to get another teacher to come out and carry him back to his room I wanted to tell you about this so that could nip it in the bud and we can't have this become a habit and so I wanted you to know and let's let's fix this my husband and I were kind of horrified like a call from the principal on the first week of school so we followed up and talked with his teacher Miss green who is awesome by the way and she explained to us that there was something they were working on in class that day that he was unhappy about that made him upset he was anxious and that's probably why he wanted to stay out on the playground and I can kind of empathize I think sometimes we all have days when we wish we could stay out on the playground so anyway we worked with Miss green and she was flexible and adapted assignments and our son ended up having a great first a great year in in kindergarten but I think about like what if we didn't have miss green would have been a really different experience for us and I think about the other kids like what if they don't have a Miss Green when they're struggling I recently read a report by forward together and I learned that one in five students have learning and attention issues so these are many of the students in their general education classrooms today and according to the survey only 17% of teachers well they may care deeply for these students only 17% felt very well prepared to support their students with mild to moderate learning and attention issues I also think about our learners and the diversity of English learners in our schools there's an organization called English learner success forum that works with curriculum and professional development providers and according to their analyses most materials openly licensed are not lack adequate supports for the diversity of English learners in our schools I think about this when I reflect on our work in open education we might theorize about the potential of our to meet every every learners needs because they're flexible and adaptable but we're not intentional from very beginning about including inclusive principles and practice is in the design of materials and we're not actively working with teachers with educators to anticipate what productive adaptations might look like probably not doing enough to help I also appreciate like that this is hard and when we think about engaging with how we engage with students there are so many options in play in our schools and this tweet from a parent really resonated with me she was lamenting about this consent form that she felt pressured to sign that listed like over 58 different learning technologies that might be in play in her son's or child's school and questioning like the appropriateness of some of these for her child and I do worry when digital solutions and data analytics are promoted as the solution for student success I think there are a lot of great options out there Norman might even speak to some of these in a few moments but I think we we do need to better understand like what are the options for open and ethical learning technologies and I think if we really want to cut through the noise with our work in open education through the confusing choices that are out there which many of which lack a rigorous pedagogical approach compromise student privacy and limit the potential of students to explore and express their unique identities if we want to cut through the noise with our work in open education we have to showcase what makes open educational resources and practices different what ethical and open learning technologies look like I think we need more examples of open pedagogy and practice that show the creativity of teachers and students as creators of knowledge and I'm really excited that a lot of this work is starting to bubble up and is underway and I think it's really gonna be important to make it visible and to demonstrate how and why this is deeper learning I also appreciate that this work is really challenging and that sometimes it can feel like we're trying to run up a down escalator I think it's because a lot of our schools and systems are not currently set up to support open pedagogy and practice that put students at the center I think that we have to you know think about this in terms of cultural and systemic barriers that we're going to have to address and changing financing and shifting policy is a good first step but if we're really talking about shifting mindsets and sustaining change then the work that we have to do is about supporting people I think there are some really interesting models and approaches that are emerging and this work is going to look different in different institutions and different places but I want to share if you haven't seen yet SUNY has put together really a wonderful set of tools and resources that really think taken on sustainability in a more holistic way support institutions in looking at both shifts in policy as well as shifts in how people are supported for example in professional development I think these kinds of tools are great for sparking conversations about the connections and disconnects perhaps between our work in open education and institutional mission statements policies and metrics for student success I've been thinking about all of this and reflecting on these questions about who are the learners that we want to serve how are we engaging them what are these barriers in the cultural and systemic that we need to address in our work I've been thinking about this also in my role as a program officer at the Hewlett Foundation because the schools and institutions that we want to make sure to support we want to make sure they're really thinking about and keeping students at the center of their work and we've been refreshing our open education strategy with all of this in mind and one of the best parts for me about working and being participating and this strategy refresh has been getting out to meet people to learn and listen listen to and learn about what brings people to work in open education where they see challenges what they're excited about what opportunities they see ahead and how that work can be supported so I've had the chance to for example meet with k12 teachers and administrators who've been leaders and champions in this work for years had we've had the chance to talk with educators who don't know much at all about oh we are and to see what ideas and messages resonate with them I got to visit the University of Houston and auroria campus in Denver to learn more about the core role that libraries play in moving oer initiatives forward and I got to talk with oh we are skeptics who are not convinced of the potential of open education and the promise of open education yet and and so we've been taking all of this in and revising and reflecting on how we can improve our work in open education going forward and our plan is to share out our new strategy in March 2020 and I think but what you're going to see is our be centering around teaching and learning we want to make sure that it's really clear that the work our work in open education supports every student in experiencing relevant meaningful engaging learning and in terms of operationalizing the strategy I think we're thinking about it in a number of different levels the work that happens in the classroom the interactions between educators and their students the work that has happened at the system level to create support of conditions and context for what we hope will happen in classrooms and then the field building work that's going to need to continue to evolve and expand so with related to each of those those levels I think we have some questions in mind that we I anticipate we will address going forward so getting into the classroom level I think and looking more deeply at how can able in fact open educational resources and practices I don't think we know enough about how and under what conditions open educational resources and practices result in deeper learning we don't know enough about how open and ethical technologies can support students in learning about core disciplinary ideas and practices and we don't know enough about how we are can support students social and emotional growth so I think to answer this kind of question it's going to involve deeper work in classrooms implementation research that really helps us gather the evidence about how students and when students are experienced in inclusive learning opportunities the second question really gets at the system's level work how do we support coherent equitable and sustainable practices given where we are in the movement the work that all of us are doing now is the time to really dig in and figure out how institutions and schools can own this work of open up education adapting creating enhancing open educational resources and practices and I can imagine that what this might look like it might be deeper partnerships with post-secondary institutions and networks of institutions to figure out how to move policy into practice to figure out how libraries centers for teaching and learning disciplinary and scholarly societies can play a more active role in supporting our work in open education I'm the k-12 side I think this might look like deeper partnerships with districts so we're working together collaboratively to figure out how to coordinate curriculum assessment professional learning for educators so students experience coherent instruction and then the last question here around the field building efforts how can we support the growth of diverse and inclusive communities I'm thinking about this in a few ways I think on one like in a global level there's so many opportunities to learn about what open scholarship and open education look like in different context and communities with the UNESCO recommend a our recommendation that hopefully will pass in November countries around the world are going to be looking for guidelines and support and information about how to integrate open education in their educational systems I also think about this work on a much more personal and intimate local level the work that each of us is doing individually and through our organizations to really build our understanding about what equity and inclusion means in our work and to illustrate what I mean by that I wanted to share an experience that I had recently we brought together a group of grantees who are working on diversity equity and inclusion in their organizations and what brought each team to this work really varied some teams we're trying to figure out how to build awareness and understanding among their staff about what diversity equity inclusion mean others were trying to figure out how to connect with different communities to make sure they're responsive to these communities in their work so two very awesome people facilitated the session just Mitchel from the inclusive design Research Center and Kevin Crouch our program fellow at the time and what the session wasn't it wasn't a training on diversity equity and inclusion and it wasn't a facilitated share out of each of the projects really what the work involved was a lot of personal reflection time like trying to figure out how we each individually are making sense of the work and then we had some really great group conversations about like how we can create create brave spaces how we don't always have to feel pressure to bring our whole selves if that's not what's comfortable and we talked about how just as important to work on how we are supporting relationships and building identities and that's just as important as the work we're doing around creating systems and structures to support sharing ideas this is really hard work and I have to admit like sometimes I struggle with it sometimes I feel stuck paralyzed almost about what to say or not to say worried I'm going to get the ideas wrong and we're going to reflect poorly on me on the foundation like I've seriously spent 30 minutes working on a single tweet trying to figure out all the ways it can be misunderstood and misinterpreted so yeah you know I feel it and this community on that day reminded me that it's okay to not have all the answers it's okay to enter with curiosity to ask questions that we're all in this learning together and we're all going to be in there helping each other learn along the way and I felt cared for that day and for that I'm forever grateful to this community and I it does matter to me how we care for each other in this work I worry when I see my friends our colleagues in this community fresh frustrated and fatigued because give so much of yourselves to this work your time your time being here this week your time your hearts your spirit because that's what this work takes and we have to remember to care for ourselves as Audrey Lord said caring for myself is not self-indulgence it is self-preservation and that is an act of political warfare we have to remember to care for ourselves so that we can care for the learners who we hope will benefit from open education and by learners I mean from those of us all of us in this to the learners in the classroom and I'm hopeful about what's to come because I'm hopeful when learners are leading the way forward because when learners are leading we find Tecla we find the student perks I think we find each other and we find ourselves I'm so glad to be here learning alongside all of you and I'm proud to be in this work with all of you thank you [Applause]