Grenzenlos Deutsch: Co-creating Open Educational Resources through Feminist Collaboration

Abstract:Dedicated to Ron Joslin (1960–2019), a founding member of the Grenzenlos Deutsch collectiveCollaborative practices reflect distinctive pedagogical, professional, and interpersonal patterns congruent with feminist thought. Grenzenlos Deutsch (German without borders) is a collectively authored and edited introductory German curriculum available as an open educational resource. The project, which is still a work in progress, is committed to an ongoing dialogue about diversity, inclusivity, and social justice in its representation of the German-speaking world; such aspects are still largely absent from traditional textbooks. In this article, nine members of the Grenzenlos Deutsch collective share their experiences and reflect on feminist collaborative practices as they pertain to the creation of Grenzenlos Deutsch. The first section discusses a shared understanding of this collaboration as a feminist endeavor and considers the overlaps and dissonances between the team members’ positionalities and pedagogical strategies. The second section addresses the benefits and challenges of collaboration, particularly the complex questions of collective ownership and attribution of credit. The essay concludes with reflections on the future of this project and offers suggestions for other teams of collaborators.