Supported by the Equity Enhancement Fund at UBC Okanagan, the RESPECT magazine is a digital space coordinated and edited by students.
The objective of this interdisciplinary project is to plan and produce a student-facing and UBC student-run e-magazine titled, RESPECT that publishes their understanding of equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) issues as essays, interviews, artwork, photographs, multimodal, and interactive presentations to enhance UBC’s Inclusive Action Plan (IAP). By promoting conversations around sensitive topics that are current and impactful, this e-magazine will develop opportunities for engagement, development of ideas, individual and shared understanding with fellow UBC students and the community at large.
RESPECT magazine is an Educational Leadership project as it informs the teaching and learning process at UBC. It is an example of immersive learning for students who are project coordinators and part of the editorial team as well as contributors who choose to go above and beyond their classrooms to share informed perspective with diverse stakeholders. It is experiential in nature as the team of instructors and students have created a digital platform and a dialogic space for EDI matters which will allow reflection in this area and generate ideas to inform the challenges that face all of us.
RESPECT is also an open educational resource (OER) that hopes to prepare UBC students to not only run an open access publication but also share their “perspectives on the inclusiveness of their learning experiences” (IAP, Goal 4) and network with peer groups and EDI scholars. Representation of student voice in the published texts will advance learning opportunities in EDI as instructors from multiple disciplines can direct course learning goals towards, for instance, researching community needs and sharing of cross-cultural experiences.
Photo by Miles Peacock on Unsplash