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.
Highlights
As ever more open education resources (OER) are produced with the aim of widening access to learning in international contexts, debates around the localisation of OER have been increasingly voiced (e.g. West, Taylor & Teemant, 2011)
Access and enrolment have been a key focus of government strategies to meet the international Education for All (EFA) targets and Millennium Development Goals for education: primary enrolment in Sub-Saharan Africa increased five times faster between 1990–2005 than between 1975–1990 (UNESCO, 2010)
A decline in pupil achievement has been reported across expanding systems in low income countries (LICs), and targets for increasing the number of teachers and improving the quality of teaching are gaining momentum: “quality” education is increasingly understood in relation to its appropriateness and relevance to learners (UNESCO, 2005; Tikly & Barrett, 2011; Buckler, 2012)
Summary
As ever more open education resources (OER) are produced with the aim of widening access to learning in international contexts, debates around the localisation of OER have been increasingly voiced (e.g. West, Taylor & Teemant, 2011). This paper explores the work of two projects which are working to maximise access to and appropriateness of the OER they create It describes and debates the localisation processes of the Teacher Education in Sub-Saharan Africa (TESSA) and Teacher Education through School-based Support in India (TESS-India) programmes—two international collaborations developing materials for teachers and teacher educators. It aims to extend the global conversation about the localisation of OER through adaptation and repurposing with the aim of contributing to an emerging framework for localisation to ensure more equitable and sustainable OER development and use
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
