The role of OER localisation in building a knowledge partnership for development: insights from the TESSA and TESS-India teacher education projects

Abstract

Open educational resources (OER) continue to support the needs of educators and learners globally. However, it is clear that to maximise their potential more focus is needed on reuse and repurposing. Accordingly, adapting OER for local contexts remains one of the greatest challenges of the open education movement, with little written about how to support communities of users to adapt materials. This paper emerges from the ongoing debate around education quality in low income countries (LICs), taking as its focus two OER projects led by the Open University -TESSA and TESS-India. These projects have collaboratively developed core banks of OER for teacher education that respond to regional and national priorities and pedagogies. In this paper we explore how the projects have supported localisation of the OER and how processes of OER localisation can contribute to more equal knowledge partnerships in the pursuit of education quality.

AlternationSpecial Edition 21 (2018) 159–184159Print ISSN 1023-1757; Electronic ISSN: 2519-5476; DOI https://doi.org/10.29086/2519-5476/2018/sp21a8The Impact of Using Geography Open Education Resources (OER) to Capacitate Natural Science Teachers Teaching the Earth and BeyondStrand in South African Schools

“…There is also a dearth of research on the influence of OERs in teacher professional development in South Africa. In Africa and India respectively TESSA and TESS-India projects are run by the Open University in the UK, where OERs are being utilised to upgrade teacher knowledge and skills with very positive results (Buckler, Perryman, Seal & Musafir 2014).…”

Online training of teachers using OER: Promises and potential strategies

“…This clearly indicates that OER in regional and local languages will be more useful to fulfill teaching learning needs of teachers. Initiatives like TESSA and TESS-India (Buckler, Perryman, Seal & Musafir, 2014) have some teacher training materials available as OER in various languages but much more is needed on this front. In addition to these regional initiatives, stakeholders must come forward to motivate and pursue experienced teachers and researchers, particularly from developing countries, to adapt and develop useful OER for teacher training based on local content, culture and language.…”

Open Praxis, volumen 6 issue 4

“…Initiatives like TESSA and TESS-India (Buckler, Perryman, Seal & Musafir, 2014) have some teacher training materials available as OER in various languages but much more is needed on this front. In addition to these regional initiatives, stakeholders must come forward to motivate and pursue experienced teachers and researchers, particularly from developing countries, to adapt and develop useful OER for teacher training based on local content, culture and language.…”