Envisioning Hopeful Futures: Designing Racially Just Online Learning

This autoethnographic study examines the influence of my positionality in designing a hopeful, racially just online learning. Hope stems from an innate belief in the possibilities for a brighter future. Therefore, hope involves embracing strengths. In this paper, I explore the influence of my positionality on my online course design through autoethnography. I analyze how feminism has impacted my online course design and strategies for cultivating teaching, social, and cognitive presence for racially just online learning. Racially just online learning aims for representational justice, recognitive justice, and representational justice to restore to people their history, culture, language, and dignity. I describe how my online course design is rooted in human-centered learning design with empathy where learners’ cultural capital, lived experiences, and funds of knowledge are valued and honored. In this trusting, caring online community, open educational practices and appreciative inquiry empower learners with learner agency for a hopeful and racially just future.