Digital library
Textbooks, references and open learning resources.
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Race and Ethnic Relations in the U.S.: An Intersectional Approach
Janét Hund et al. · Long Beach City College, Cerritos College, & Saddleback College
In the contents: 1.05: Social Stratification and Intersectionality · 1.06: Social Change and Resistance · 3.04: Social Institutions
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Immigrant and Refugee Families
Ballard, Wieling, and Solheim · University of Minnesota and University of Georgia
Immigrant and Refugee Families: Global Perspectives on Displacement and Resettlement Experiences offers an interdisciplinary perspective on immigrant and refugee families' challenges and resilience across multiple domains, including economic, political, health, and human rights.This text uses a family systems lens to discuss challenges and strengths of immigrant and refugee families in the United States.
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Inequality and Interdependence
Kimberly Puttman, Kathryn Burrows, Patricia Halleran, Bethany Grace Howe, Nora Karena, Kelly Szott, and Avery Temple · LibreTexts
In the contents: 01: What Is a Social Problem · 1.02: Defining a Social Problem · 1.03: Constructing a Social Problem
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Dress, Appearance, and Diversity in U.S. Society (Reddy-Best, Elder and Hassall)
Kelly L. Reddy-Best, Abbey K Elder, and Lesya Hassall · Iowa State University
In the contents: 1.03: Identity Social Justice and Dress · 1.04: Social Science Theories
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Changing Society
Aimee Krouskop; Ben Cushing; Kimberly Puttman; Avery Temple · Open Oregon Educational Resources · 2025
Changing Society offers a foundational exploration of the causes, impacts, and dynamics of social change. Informed by the tenets of universal design, equity and belonging, and a commitment to a decolonizing approach, it is written for undergraduate students majoring in social sciences, social work, ethnic studies, or social justice studies.
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Research Methods for Criminal Justice Students
Monica Williams · Monica Williams · 2022
This book is based on two open-access textbooks: Bhattacherjee’s (2012) Social science research: Principles, methods, and practices and Blackstone’s (2012) Principles of sociological inquiry: Qualitative and quantitative methods. I first used Bhattacherjee’s book in a graduate-level criminal justice research methods course. I chose the book because it was an open educational resource that covered the major topics of my course. While I found the book adequate for my purposes, the business school perspective did not always fit with my criminal justice focus. I decided to rewrite the textbook for undergraduate and graduate students in my criminal justice research methods courses. As I researched other open- educational resources for teaching social science research methods, I found Blackstone’s book, which covered more of the social science and qualitative methods perspectives that I wanted to incorporate into my book. As a result, this open-access textbook includes some content from both previous works along with my own additions based on my extensive experience and expertise in conducting qualitative and quantitative research in social science settings and in mentoring students through the research process. My Ph.D. is in Sociology, and I currently teach undergraduates and graduate students in a criminal justice program at Weber State University. Throughout my career, I have conducted and published the results of research projects using a variety of methods, including surveys, case studies, in-depth interviews, participant observation, content analysis, and secondary analysis of quantitative data. I have also mentored undergraduates in conducting community-based research projects using many of these same methods with the addition of focus groups and program evaluations.
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World Regional Geography
Caitlin Finlayson · Caitlin Finlayson · 2016
Rather than present students with a broad, novice-level introduction to geography, emphasizing places and vocabulary terms, this text approaches geography as experts understand the discipline, focusing on connections and an in-depth understanding of core themes. This thematic approach, informed by pedagogical research, provides students with an introduction to thinking geographically. Instead of repeating the same several themes each chapter, this text emphasizes depth over breadth by arranging each chapter around a central theme and then exploring that theme in detail as it applies to the particular region. In addition, while chapters are designed to stand alone and be rearranged or eliminated at the instructor's discretion, the theme of globalization and inequality unites all of the regions discussed. This core focus enables students to draw connections between regions and to better understand the interconnectedness of our world. Furthermore, the focus on both globalization and inequality helps demonstrate the real-world application of the concepts discussed. Colonialism, for instance, rather than a historical relict, becomes a force that has shaped geography and informs social justice. This thematic approach is also intended to facilitate active learning and would be suitable for a flipped or team-based learning-style course since it more easily integrates case studies and higher-order thinking than the traditional model. Each chapter begins with a list of learning objectives. This text was written with the backward course design model in mind and the content of each chapter was structured around these learning objectives. Because of this backward design focus, the length of each chapter is considerably shorter than most traditional textbooks. The intention is for the instructor to supplement the text with problems, case studies, and news articles and to use the text as a springboard for discussing deeper issues. The chapters are written in an accessible style, o
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Contextualised open educational practices: Towards student agency and self-directed learning
Jako Olivier; Charlene du Toit-Brits; Byron Bunt; Amit Dhakulkar · AOSIS Publishing · 2022
This book covers original research on the implementation of open educational practices through the use of open educational resources at the university level. The emphasis on open education in this book is on contextualising resources, supporting student agency and fostering self-directed learning specifically within a South African milieu. The envisaged chapters cover conceptual and review research and empirical work focussing on open educational practices and the use of renewable assessments. The work starts off with an overview of an institutional-wide open education project that prompted the research followed by research on open education in terms of various modules in the health science, music education, law, philosophy, dietetics, anthropology, French language learning, journalism and political science. There is a clear gap in the literature on open education in terms of open educational practices, specifically in terms of contextualising resources, supporting student agency and fostering self-directed learning in a South African context. Despite the existence of some general works on open education in terms of policy, social justice and open textbooks, this book will be unique in exploring the intersections of openness, specifically with contextualisation, student agency and self-directedness.
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Using Open Educational Resources to Promote Social Justice
Kevin Adams; Murray Anderson; Elissah Becknell; CJ Ivory · Association of College and Research Libraries · 2022
As so often is the case, the idea for this book came from a twisting path. Not long after we began collaborating and presenting together at conferences, we were invited to draft a chapter on critical race theory (CRT) in academic libraries. An invited chapter is, of course, very flattering, so we proceeded without much thought to who the publisher would be. Angela had been working on social justice issues for a while at that point, while CJ had a wealth of expertise on open educational resources (OER). We merged our two areas of expertise in drafting that chapter, discussing OER as an opportunity to not only save students money but incorporate CRT into the curriculum—both in content and in practice. We submitted the final draft and were dismayed when we received the publication agreement. The publisher was unwilling to allow us to retain the copyright, even after we shared the licensing agreement that the Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL) Press uses as an example. In discussing how to proceed—should we submit this chapter somewhere else?—we realized that we were really excited about extending the discussion of OER beyond just ensuring that all students can afford to access their course materials. So we pitched the idea of an edited volume on this topic to a publisher that we know has publishing practices we support (chapter authors retain copyright and select the Creative Commons license they prefer for their work), and here we are! Our entrance to academic work on social justice was through a focus on CRT. We outline this background here but wish to emphasize that it explicitly addresses only one aspect of social justice. For us, the structural understanding of racism in the United States creates a foundation upon which to understand other structures of oppression as well as intersectionality.
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Introduction to Ethnic Studies
Kay Fischer, Mario Alberto Viveros Espinoza-Kulick, Ulysses Acevedo, Teresa Hodges, Melissa Leal, and Tamara Cheshire · LibreTexts
In the contents: 1.01: Ethnic Studies is Home · 02: The Ongoing Struggle for Ethnic Studies · 2.02: Ethnic Studies Frameworks
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Appearance and Behavior: A Sociology of Race and Ethnicity
Salvador Jiménez Murguía · Taft College
In the contents: 1.01: Of Social Institutions Race Ethnicity Dogs and Cats · 1.03: A Sociological Overview of Race Ethnicity and Social Constructions · 4.03: Social Darwinism and Scientific Racism
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Introduction to the American Criminal Justice System
Burke et al. · Southern Oregon University
In the contents: 01: Crime Criminal Justice and Criminology · 1.01: Crime and the Criminal Justice System · 1.03: Social Norms- Folkways Mores Taboo and Laws
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Introduction to California Government and Politics
Steven Reti · College of the Canyons
In the contents: 3.04: You Decide- Case Studies in Federalism · 10.07: Former Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye · 12.09: California Public Policy Case Studies- Student Papers
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Changing Society
Aimee Samara Krouskop, Ben Cushing, Kimberly Puttman, and Avery Temple · Open Oregon
In the contents: 01: How Does Social Change Matter to You · 1.03: Diverse Experiences of Social Change · 02: The Study of Social Change
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A People’s History of Structural Racism in Academia
Susan Rahman, Prateek Sunder, and Dahmitra Jackson · CC ECHO
In the contents: 2.01: Administration of Justice · 2.15: CTE - Multimedia Studies · 2.25: Ethnic Studies
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Critical Thinking and Social Problems: A Sociological Perspectiv
Rodolfo Rodriguez · Coalinga College
In the contents: 01: Understanding Social Problems · 1.02: What Is a Social Problem · 1.03: Sociological Perspectives on Social Problems
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Introduction to Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies
Kang, Lessard, & Heston · University of Massachusett Amherst
In the contents: 01: An Introduction to Women Gender Sexuality Studies - Grounding Theoretical Frameworks and Concepts · 1.05: Social Constructionism · 3.04: Medicine Health and Reproductive Justice
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Global Issues: Power, Culture, and Change in a Connected Planet
Miloni Gandhi · De Anza College
In the contents: 3.05: Climate Justice - Who Bears the Burden · 04: Power to the People- Democracy Peace and Justice · 4.04: Justice - Beyond the Courts
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New Directions in Chicanx and Latinx Studies
Amber Rose González, Mario Alberto Viveros Espinoza-Kulick, Melissa Moreno, Lucha Arévalo, Eddy Francisco Alvarez Jr. · LibreTexts
In the contents: 1.01: Introduction to Chicanx and Latinx Studies · 1.02: Struggle and Protest for Chicanx and Latinx Studies · 1.03: New Directions in Chicanx and Latinx Studies
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Human Security in World Affairs: Problems and Opportunities
Alexander Lautensach and Sabina Lautensach · BC Campus
In the contents: 9.5: Achieving Climate Justice as the Way Forward · 10.05: Social Traps · 10.09: Case Studies in Water Scarcity