Reimagining Citizenship Online: A Collaborative Process to Design Culturally Relevant Online Curriculum

• In Event: Enacting Equity-Focused, Student-Centered Pedagogy in Virtual Learning Environments

Abstract

Objectives. This study documents and evaluates the ongoing redesign of an online citizenship course required for high school graduation within an antiracist, culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP) framework and how exposure to CRP opportunities within the partnering school district impacts students’ learning experiences. We also establish the extent to which – and under what conditions – these types of progressive instructional strategies can be successfully facilitated in an asynchronous, technology-based environment.

Theoretical framework. We relied on the work of Ladson-Billings (1995, 2014) and Paris (2012) to define the goals, tenets, and practices of CRP. Critical studies (Bourdieu & Passeron, 1990; Bernstein, 1996; Ladson-Billings, 1995) also provided a guide to understanding how elements of courses create or disrupt spaces of inequity. These frameworks helped us make sense of the ways in which the official knowledge contained in school curricula is a subjective collection of truths from the perspective of dominant social groups designed to support and provide legitimacy to the status quo (Apple, 1993; Ladson-Billings, 1995).

Methods and data sources. Data for this paper is collected in a large, urban Midwestern district that contracts with one of the largest online course vendors in the country. Thematic coding of course videos, activities, and assessments are corroborated with findings from student advisory meetings, focus groups, and classroom observations. Amplifying the voices and experiences of students belonging to marginalized and minoritized groups enrolled in the types of online courses studied is a core component of the research process.

Findings. The study first documents how the citizenship course administered prior to the redesign process reflected a culture of power (i.e. the ideas, attitudes, or activities that are regarded as normal or conventional, often aligned with dominant cultural norms and practices). Specifically, the instructor and course content assumed normative cultural experiences and identities, centered the experiences of white men, downplayed traumatic events and dynamics in American history, failed to acknowledge and wrestle with complexities in history, and – most egregiously – perpetuated explicitly racist, sexist, and xenophobic narratives.

We then document the redesign process that took place in partnership with the school district and vendor, as well as students’ responses to the new course content. We examine the extent to which this process removed offensive content and instead led to course content that acknowledges and disrupts the culture of power, contextualizes knowledge, centers the experiences of minoritized groups, demonstrates real-world relevance, and facilitates critical thinking.

Significance. The partnering online course developer, which contracts with over 16,000 schools nationwide, intends to integrate the new course within their online course library. Through this design-based study, we aim to improve the experiences of students from historically marginalized communities while providing a model for other public-private research partnerships focused on developing and enacting CRP-grounded curricula in a virtual learning environment in a manner that centers student voice and agency.

Authors

• Jennifer Suzanne Darling-Aduana, Georgia State University

• Annalee G. Good, University of Wisconsin - Madison

• Kathy Villalón, University of Wisconsin - Madison