What Do We Need?

Listening to Dr. Amy Bradshaw was really eye-opening to see this connection between IST and Social Justice that is only recently beginning to unfold. I appreciated hearing how Bradshaw's (2018) article came to be and what a pioneer she sounds like. To have so many people encouraging her to publish her conference piece truly shows the direction IST is wanting to head.

Dr. Bonk asked Dr. Bradshaw a great question about what can our field do to promote, acknowledge, incorporate, and so forth the lens of social justice. Her response was absolutely perfect--we can't just say what can we do, but "what do we need?" She went on to further explain we don't want to passively plan and engage (do to) others, but rather what do we, as IST professionals, need to learn so we can provide something useful, beneficial, and meaningful to our learners. Bradshaw (2018) spoke on this thought in her article as well, "We must seek and learn other ways of engaging, such as dialectics instead of debates, cultural synthesis instead of cultural invasion" (p. 342).

I think what I found so interesting about this intersection of Social Justice and IST is there are no templates for how to incorporate D.E.I., rather guides, supports and methods. However, IST is a field very reliant on templates, so I can see why the social justice piece had been missing up until recently. And one more interesting thing, Dr. Klein mentioned how the student with a career as a Consultant for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for NY Health Dept. was very unique and unexpected, but really this is what IST should be shooting for as a regular position.

Bradshaw, Amy C. (2018, March 23). Reconsidering the instructional design and technology timeline through a lens of social justice. Tech Trends, 62, 336-344.