Material Detail

The revelations of 2020 were not news to everyone. At the societal level, racial trauma and violence, with their roots in structural injustice, have been well-known to those who are the subject of that violence for a long time and excruciatingly present and visible in recent years with repeated violence to Black lives. In higher education, the inequitable circumstances of our students and the complicated needs—and distinctive assets—they bring to college and university campuses have all been well-known to the people on those campuses whose daily work focuses on equity and inclusion. In the realm of teaching and learning, the transcendent importance of core pedagogical values that can make virtual and remote learning successful, such as care, community, active learning and designed engagement, have all been part of the collective and growing wisdom promoted by educational developers for decades.

What made 2020 (and beyond) an unprecedented moment in the history of higher education is the act of making these revelations widely known to people whose daily lived existence was not already defined by them, especially in the context of higher education. It is this phenomenon, the radical widening of the aperture of awareness, understanding and response, that we are calling Openings. Ever since the start of the COVID crisis, the idea of “opening” has loomed, whether in talk about opening the country, the economy, or re-opening schools and campuses to students. But the crises of 2020 have generated a set of potentially transformational openings:

• ● The violent deaths of Black men and women at the hands of police, and subsequent protests have opened an unprecedented conversation about systemic racism; ● Pivoting to remote instruction has opened everyone’s eyes to the inequitable circumstances of our students; and ● The consequential emerging demands for educational adaptation, as well as racial justice, on campuses gives higher education new openings for creating and sustaining meaningful change.

This first publication from the project, Higher Education’s Big Rethink, is focused on what these openings might mean for the future of higher education. This publication is a snapshot in time; it is a modest record of the adaptations of 2020, capturing the thinking and voices of a group of national experts reflecting on the lessons of the pandemic shift to remote instruction and the national reckoning around racial justice.

This will delete the comment from the database. This operation is not reversible. Are you sure you want to do it?

Thank you for reporting a broken "Go to Material" link in MERLOT to help us maintain a collection of valuable learning materials.

If you feel this material is inappropriate for the MERLOT Collection, please click SEND REPORT, and the MERLOT Team will investigate. Thank you!

You are being taken to the material on another site. This will open a new window.

Do not show me this again