Key findings: social justice relating to cost and contents of textbooks matter to students and staff

February 10, 2021

Social justice principles relating to the cost and contents of textbooks and readings matter to Australian students and staff.

While we are at early stage of OER awareness, Australian staff are beginning to use OER and open-access reading lists to address the injustices of uneven resourcing and negative racial, gender and disability stereotyping in the curriculum.

In the Australian context, there is great potential to invest in more inclusive and representative OER texts as a concrete action in support of a wide range of strategic and policy intentions – from digital delivery and accessibility, indigenising curriculum, student equity, gender equity and inclusive education.

These are some of the key findings that I am writing up as part of delivering the final report to this project. We interviewed 19 students at 2 institutions, 43 staff at 5 institutions and surveyed 131 staff nationally – so there is a lot to draw together.

More information can be found in the following recordings and slides from recent presentations:

• Student data and perspectives, presentation to CAVAL on 10/11/20
• Staff perspectives and interview data with examples of how they diversify readings and curriculum, presentation for World Access to Higher Education Day (WAHED) at USQ on 17/11/20