In Summer 2020, I participated in the Learning, Design and Technology (LDT) programs’ community of practice, Higher Education’s Big Rethink. The Big Rethink is an experiential learning initiative that connects students, faculty, and alumni with the wider higher education community to explore the most pressing questions and themes shaping the future of higher education.
The Openings
For the Summer 2020 iteration of the Big Rethink, we conducted a series of interviews with leaders in higher education, exploring the transformational impacts of the unprecedented events of 2020 and focusing in particular on the “openings” provided by these challenges. The interviews are available to watch on the Big Rethink Webinar page here. In Fall 2020, the Big Rethink community of practice continued editing these interviews and produced a publication, The Openings.
In our collaborative analysis of these interviews, we identified a set of three transformational openings for change:
- The pivot to remote instruction opened higher education’s eyes to the inequitable circumstances surrounding students and technology.
- The violent deaths of Black men and women, and subsequent protests, opened an unprecedented conversation about systemic racism and racial justice at colleges and universities everywhere.
- The consequential emerging demands for educational adaptation, as well as the call for racial justice on campuses, gives higher education new openings for creating and sustaining meaningful change.
The complete publication is available for free on the Big Rethink website here.
