The culture of education

At the heart of the open educational resources (OER) movement is the intention to provide affordable access to culturally relevant education to all. This imperative could be described as a desire to provide education in a manner consistent with social justice which, according to Fraser (2005), is understood as “parity of participation”. Drawing on her concept of social justice, we suggest a slight modification of Fraser’s framework for critically analysing ways in which the adoption and impact of OER and their undergirding open educational practices (OEP) might be considered socially just. We then provide illustrative examples from the cross-regional Research on Open Educational Resources for Development (ROER4D) project (2014-2017) to show how this framework can assist in determining in what ways, if at all, the adoption of OER and enactment of OEP have responded to economic inequalities, cultural inequities and political exclusions in education. Furthermore, we employ Fraser’s (2005) concepts to identify whether these social changes are either “affirmative” (i.e., ameliorative) or “transformative” in their economic, cultural and political effects in the Global South education context.

/pdf/a-social-justice-framework-for-understanding-open-58hcbjb336.pdf

A Social Justice Framework for Understanding Open Educational Resources and Practices in the Global South

Designing for Educational Technology.

The Research on Open Educational Resources for Development (ROER4D) 
project was undertaken to provide a better understanding of the uptake 
of Open Educational Resources (OER) and their impact on education in the
 Global South. The 18 sub-projects that comprise the larger project 
investigated the extent of OER adoption by educators and students; the 
factors influencing OER adoption; and the impact of OER adoption on 
access to educational resources, the quality of teaching and learning, 
and some of the costs of education provision in 21 countries in South 
America, Sub-Saharan Africa, and South and Southeast Asia.

The findings of each of the sub-projects are discussed in the various
 chapters comprising this volume, and a meta-synthesis of these findings
 is presented in Chapter 2. Using a social realist lens, the 
meta-synthesis provides a comparative analysis of OER use, adaptation 
and creation across the research sites, and identifies the structural, 
cultural and agential factors that enable and constrain these Open 
Educational Practices (OEP). It points out disjunctures in adoption 
processes in the countries and institutions studied, and draws insights 
regarding the extent to which OER adoption can expand access to 
educational materials, enhance the quality of educational resources and 
educators’ pedagogical perspectives and practices, and improve the 
affordability and sustainability of education in the Global South.

This concluding chapter explores the implications of the main 
research findings presented in the meta-synthesis for the attainment of 
social inclusion, which lies at the heart of the Open Education 
movement. The Paris OER Declaration of 2012 explicitly calls upon states
 to “[p]romote and use OER to … contribut[e] to social inclusion, gender
 equity and special needs education [and i]mprove both cost-efficiency 
and quality of teaching and learning outcomes” (emphasis added). The 
Ljubljana OER Action Plan of 2017 likewise recognises that, “[t]oward 
the realization of inclusive Knowledge Societies ... [OER] support 
quality education that is equitable, inclusive, open and participatory”.
 Understanding how OER, OEP and Open Education more generally, can help 
to achieve social inclusion is particularly critical in the Global South
 where increased demand, lack of resources and high costs limit the 
capacity of education systems to provide accessible, relevant, 
highquality and affordable education. This chapter aims to contribute to
 this understanding the potential of OER and their accompanying OEP 
through a critical exploration of the ROER4D findings in terms of 
whether and how OER adoption promotes equitable access, participatory 
education and empowerment of teachers and students, and thus helps to 
achieve social inclusion. The chapter begins with a brief overview of 
the relationship between OER and social inclusion, details the 
implications of ROER4D’s findings as they pertain to social inclusion, 
and concludes with recommendations for advocacy, policy, practice and 
further research in OER and OEP in the Global South.

OER and OEP in the Global South: Implications and recommendations for social inclusion

A Country-Level Research Review: EdTech in Tanzania

This study examines the use of Open Educational Resources (OER) in 
six teacher education institutions in three contrasting East African 
settings – Mauritius, Tanzania and Uganda – all of which had previous 
engagement with OER initiatives. Drawing primarily on interviews with 
teacher educators, the study examines how and when teacher educators 
engage with OER, the factors that support and constrain sustained OER 
engagement, and the influence of such engagement on their teaching 
practice. It seeks to answer the following three research questions: 
What kinds of OER are teacher educators aware of and how do they access 
them? How and for what purpose are they using the OER? What intended and
 enacted pedagogic practices are associated with OER use?

The study takes a sociocultural approach, paying attention to the 
practices of teacher educators and the context and culture of the 
teacher education institutions within which they work, as well as the 
national policies relevant to these institutions. Surveys were sent to 
academic staff at each of the participating institutions who were, or 
had been, involved in curriculum development work involving OER. Male 
and female educators from different disciplinary backgrounds and with 
varying roles and periods of service within the institutions were 
targeted. From the respondents, selected individuals were asked to 
participate in semi-structured interviews concerning OER and their 
pedagogical practices. A total of 58 surveys were completed by teacher 
educators along with 36 in-depth teacher educator interviews and six 
institutional stakeholder interviews.

The results of the study indicate that teacher educators’ 
understanding and use of OER is highly fragmented, with little traction 
at department or institutional level. At all the study sites there was 
dissonance between the ways in which individual educators are using OER 
and the dominant institutional values and discourse. There were also 
numerous structural and cultural factors acting to limit agency with 
regards to OER use. The demands of curriculum and assessment, 
professional identity, digital skills, provision of equipment and 
connectivity, values and weak cultures of collaboration all exerted an 
influence and enabled or constrained teacher educators’ efforts to 
achieve agency with OER.

For a small number of teacher educators (OER “champions”), OER 
provides a tool for extending their agency to move towards more 
participatory practices. In their interviews, several of these educators
 spoke of the formative role of academic training and many were linked 
to external OER networks. These elements of historic identity formation 
influence how they respond to OER, and enhance their confidence to take 
risks in moving beyond conventional practice.

Enabling educators to act in an agentive way with OER is not easy. 
Moving forward, attention should be given to issues of access so that 
educators are able to locate and view OER relatively easily and 
experiment with their use. This study recommends that time be made 
available for educators to enhance their skills in working digitally and
 to become familiar with principles of learning design such that these 
become integral dimensions of their professional identity. It is also 
argued that extending and deepening engagement with OER requires 
opportunities for professional dialogue and collaboration to support the
 development of productive educator identities with OER and 
transformation of the community’s field of practice.

Teacher educators and OER in East Africa: Interrogating pedagogic change

Continuous professional development is an integral part of the professional life of teachers since learning is a life-long activity. Lesson study is a practical approach to promoting teachers’ professional development. Lesson study refers to teachers’ classroom-based collaborative research to bring teachers together to work collaboratively to plan a lesson. In South Africa, there is a dire need for teachers’ professional development due to many challenges in professional development in this country. However, there is very little documented research into the implementation of lesson study in South Africa. This study explored the Japanese Lesson Study to improve teaching quality and to learn in South Africa. The researchers adopted qualitative research with an interpretivist paradigm to explicit participants’ experiences of lesson study. A purposive sampling technique was employed to select three participants in a school from Gauteng Province, South Africa. The findings revealed that participants appreciated the workshop and gained knowledge of a good understanding of the lesson study. All the participants acknowledged the awareness of their professional development as a motivating factor for them to continue to plan and work together. The researchers recommended that lesson studies be implemented with teachers from different grades and phases. School leaders should become ambassadors for setting up communities of practice within their schools, districts and provinces. Further studies should be carried out with similar grades in a phase and also in phase planning.

/pdf/implementing-japanese-lesson-study-as-a-professional-3sri4wo1.pdf

Implementing Japanese lesson study as a professional development tool in South Africa

Teacher educators and OER in East Africa: Interrogating pedagogic change (Advance online publication)

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Teacher educators and OER in East Africa: Interrogating pedagogic change

Implementing Japanese lesson study as a professional development tool in South Africa

Teacher educators and OER in East Africa: Interrogating pedagogic change (Advance online publication)