We won’t take this lying down. No, we will join together, combine our voices, and raise our own kind of hell. The 2016 U.S. presidential election is still a fresh wound for many in our readership. For others, lamenting its outcome sounds like whining. But when the victor’s platform runs against the foundations of this journal, to be silent about the outcome is akin to quitting. And we shall not quit.

Since its inception in 2012, Hybrid Pedagogy has stood for advocacy, agency, and critical consciousness. The incoming administration’s platform is built upon domination, oppression, and exclusion. Though we might as conscientious citizens accept the election’s outcome, we needn’t accept the racism and xenophobia that allowed it to happen. The incoming administration threatens to dismantle the abilities Hybrid Pedagogy fosters in students and teachers — indeed, in the international network of educators. But this election does not change our convictions. Instead, this journal will redouble its efforts to bring about meaningful change in the way students and teachers work together around the globe. Those efforts only begin with articles.

The Most-Read Hybrid Pedagogy Articles

To provide some context for our renewed efforts, let’s first look at the Hybrid Pedagogy articles that have garnered the most views this year. These articles draw and maintain attention because they draw on a balance that is distinctly, quintessentially HybridPed: Each of these articles examines the use of technology in education as an opportunity to empower. These pieces show how we should see the role of ed tech as a tool to boost — not restrict or surveill — learners. As these authors all demonstrate, ed tech should be examined and critiqued, not mandated and measured.

  1. Rick Godden and Anne-Marie Womack’s “Making Disability Part of the Conversation: Combatting Inaccessible Spaces and Logics”
  2. Jesse Stommel’s “The Twitter Essay”
  3. Jonathan Rees’s “How Long Will Your Class Remain Yours? Academic Freedom and Control of the Classroom”
  4. The HybridPod’s “Collaboration” episode, with Chris Friend, Maha Bali, Sarah Honeychurch, and Kevin Hodgson
  5. Leila Walker’s “Beyond Academic Twitter: Social Media and the Evolution of Scholarly Publication”
  6. Michelle Reale’s “Hands-Off” Teaching: Facilitating Conversation as Pedagogy in Library Instruction”
  7. Sean Michael Morris’s “Decoding Digital Pedagogy, Part 1: Beyond the LMS”

Yet these articles signal only a beginning of what Hybrid Pedagogy was built to do. We have the opportunity — indeed, the obligation as critical pedagogues — to be advocates for the oppressed. As we move forward into a new year and new administration, we resolve to devote our attentions to the work, the people, and the empowerment that are being threatened. Specifically, we’ll explore technology as a site of liberation, networks as a tool for empowerment, and pedagogy as an act of resistance.

Authors Who Inspire the Work Ahead

Toward our goal of increasing empowerment, we offer a new perspective on our mission — a fresh take on how we can benefit learners. To identify and present the best of vehement advocacy and compassionate support. Several learners and pedagogues do this already, offering a vision of social justice that positions conversational spaces like Hybrid Pedagogy as a protest space, a site for the work of resistance to gain traction and find cohesion. In 2017, we will use these pieces as guides to help us be more determined in our work and more steadfast in our convictions.

1. Sean Michael Morris

In his closing keynote at Digital Pedagogy Lab Institute 2016, Sean Michael Morris argued that there are “Not Enough Voices” in education and in social justice. He spoke — softly — of our need to “amplify silenced voices by listening.” We will continue to listen for the voices of the oppressed, and we will use the pages of this journal to create a space where their voices can be heard. It will continue to be a “daring space. Because it’s never safe to speak.” We will do the work of advocacy by amplifying. We will boost the voices that need to be heard above the roar of domination. As Sean reminds us, this process will not be easy. He says, “It’s hard work. It’s good work, but it’s hard work. Like learning.”

2. Kris Shaffer

In a recent article about the manipulation of truth and lies on the modern Internet, Kris Shaffer offers “A Plea for Critical Digital Literacies” that calls us to help our students build their facility as digital citizens. Kris works to equip an army of educators to fight back — “While the appropriate response in any situation is highly contextual, oppression demands a response.” He suggests a strong, confident, outspoken stance that might draw criticism. Our response, he says, should be to “check your behavior … but then get back to work.” That work is the work of this journal. The work of speaking truth to power, more important now than ever before. Like Sean, Kris also warns that this work will unquestionably be difficult, asking, “What is right? What is true? That’s the stuff of education. It never has been easy.”

3. Clementine Bowles

In “The Train,” Clem writes emotionally about the election, combining her convictions with her reactions, asking how we’ve arrived at this place we now call reality, how we find ourselves in a position of having to choose between empowering one group and marginalizing another. “If you’re questioning if the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, then you’re already fucked.” In her view — a common one, to be sure — things were already screwed up before this election ever happened. “Something has had to go very wrong for us to have come to this point.” Clem shared her response as a call to respond, not to take this one sitting down. She encourages us to find strength in one another instead of hopelessness in isolation. “One person yelling at the sky is pointless, but a thousand make a protest.” We would do well to see her intentions play out. Hybrid Pedagogy intends to exist as a site of protest, a space for the thousand to come together. But, she warns, “we are going to have to yell.”

So yell we shall. Let us yell about saving education and saving learning and saving society. Let us yell about fixing problems and speaking out and standing up against domination and discrimination and harm. Let us yell about our hope and our confidence and our convictions. In 2017, let us raise our voices and raise some hell.

To fuel our actions, we must hold on to our optimism. To that end, let’s look at this year’s articles that have left the strongest impression on our editorial staff. We started the idea of Editor’s Picks in December 2015, and you may have noticed the list of Editor’s Picks at the top of our sidebar. We’re happy to expand that list this year with these pieces that have moved or inspired the staff of Hybrid Pedagogy:

2016 Editor’s Picks

From Daniel Lynds

From Elizabeth Lenaghan

From Jessica Knott

From Sean Hackney

From Phil Edwards

Exiting 2016, I return to these articles as reminders to weave perspective-taking into our work with colleagues and students.

From Robin DeRosa

From Maha Bali