TESS-India OER: Collaborative practices to improve teacher education

As the numbers of children attending school in India rises rapidly ensuring a productive learning experience for every student is a huge challenge. Quality is central to the Government of India’s education policy; major education goals recognise that changes in teachers’ classroom practice are critical to improving students’ learning in elementary and secondary schools across India. This paper describes the rationale and pedagogy of an innovative response to these challenges harnessing contemporary ideas on ‘open’, learning and the increasing availability of network technology in the form of a multilingual Open Educational Resources (OER) teacher education toolkit. The main section of the paper then describes the processes for multi-stakeholder participation in the development of the elements of the OER toolkit and the paper concludes with a discussion of the ‘open’ dimension of the project and how this enables ‘local’ authentication and mediation of use of the OER in each of the project states

The TESSA OER Experience: Building sustainable models of production and user implementation

This paper offers a review of the origins, design strategy and implementation plans of the Teacher Education in Sub-Saharan Africa (TESSA) research and development programme. The programme is working to develop new models of teacher education, particularly school based training, including the creation of a programme webspace and an extensive bank of Open Educational Resources. This paper identifies key research findings and literature which informed the TESSA approach and activity design. Drawing on participant experiences in different development activities and data generated in development testing activities, I offer a personal account of the programme to date. The paper concludes by suggesting a pattern of resource making and design that could be adopted by other programmes serving parallel development needs

A new paradigm for teacher education: supported, open teaching and learning at the Open University

In this paper we draw on our experience over the last twelve years with three large scale distance education programmes for UK teachers to suggest factors which need to be considered by those embarking on large scale distance learning teacher education programmes. We focus on three programmes: a pre-service programme in initial teacher education, the Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE); and two in-service programmes, the Learning Schools Programme (LSP) and TeachandLearn.net. which have made been significant in promoting access, entitlement and diversity. We suggest that in each case the programme structure and design was influenced by the interplay of a number of factors: the nature of teacher professionalism; current policies and priorities; financial constructs; technological tools and the regulatory framework. A number of themes emerge from analysis of participant data together with evaluation evidence back from institutions and individuals participating in these programmes. These can be identified as: (1) linear versus modular structures; (2) the importance of broking between the university and the school settings; (3) interactions of programme elements; (4) the role played by contemporary forms of ICTs. We draw together our experiences and research data for these programmes to suggest characteristics of the next generation of teacher education programmes

Building new modes of teacher education: research analyses for the Teacher in Education in Sub Saharan Africa programme

The provision of basic education for all children by 2015 is now one of the world’s major educational objectives. Through UNESCO’s Education for All (EFA) commitments and the UN’s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) national and international attention has been focussed on measures to achieve this end. There has been some progress. The number of school age children with no access to schooling is dropping (from x to y in the period 1999–2005?). There is, however, some way to go in terms of the basic provision and the gender parity that the MDGs seek to achieve. Most significantly attention has now turned to the challenge of providing sufficient teachers of the appropriate quality to staff such rapid expansion. The focus of enquiry of this proposed keynote symposium is the ways in which different forms of research are contributing to: • analyses of factors impacting on teacher supply and retention; • developing conceptual understanding of the ‘life’ experiences of teachers working in challenging circumstances, with a special emphasis on female teachers in rural communities; • evidence about the nature and effectiveness of new modes of education and training. The symposium papers will explore the different research and investigative methodologies being drawn on and the different forms of international co-operation and collaboration being used. The papers will explore the issues of teacher supply, retention and education through educational and development studies, theories of change and intervention. A key issue the symposium will address is the need to bring together theoretically and through research practice the related separate specialist domains of education and development enquiry. In doing this the papers will provide a new patterning or mapping of the literature. The five papers draw particularly on the work of UNESCO, including the widely respected annual monitoring reports evaluation the progress to EFA and the new Teacher Training in Sub-Saharan Africa (TESSA) initiative (see tessaprogramme.org). One of the papers will look at the research around teachers in Sub-Saharan Africa by reference to developing country contexts in other parts of the world. It has been argued that the challenge to provide schooling and teachers for the children of Sub-Saharan Africa represents the world’s biggest educational challenge (Moon, 2007). In identifying key research findings, for example significant variables impacting on teacher supply and retention, the relationship between teacher quality and pupil achievement and comparative evidence on the effectiveness of different modes of education and training, the symposium will point to the ways in which researchers in the field of education and the research community generally can contribute to increasing capacity in this enormously important area

The Canadian ‘Model Forest’ approach : a way forward for Tasmania?

Forest policy and forestry management in Tasmania have undergone a number of changes in the last thirty years, many explicitly aimed at improving industry sustainability, job security, and forest biodiversity conservation. Yet forestry remains a contentious issue in Tasmania, due to a number of interacting factors, most significant of which is the prevalence of a ‘command and control’ governance approach by policymakers and managers. New approaches such as multiple-stakeholder decision-making, adaptive management, and direct public participation in policymaking are needed. Such an approach has been attempted in Canada in the last decade, through the Canadian Model Forest Program, and may be suitable for Tasmania. This paper seeks to describe what the Canadian Model Forest approach is, how it may be implemented in Tasmania, and what role it may play in the shift to a new forestry paradigm. Until such a paradigm shift occurs contentions and confrontations are likely to continue

MOOC adaptation and translation to improve equity in participation

There is an urgent need to improve elementary and secondary school classroom practices across India and the scale of this challenge is argued to demand new approaches to teacher professional learning.  Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) represent one such approach and which, in the context of this study, is considered to provide a means by which to transcend traditional training processes and disrupt conventional pedagogic practices. This paper offers a critical review of a large-scale MOOC deployed in English, and then in Hindi, to support targeted sustainable capacity building within an education development initiative (TESS-India) across seven states in India.  The study draws on multiple sources of participant data to identify and examine features which stimulated a buzz around the MOOCs, leading to over 40,000 registrations and a completion rate of approximately 50% for each of the two MOOCs

It takes a village to raise a teacher: the Learning Assistant programme in Sierra Leone

This is a report on research funded by Plan International on the impact of Learning Assistant (LA) component of Girls Education Challenge Sierra Leone. The LA programme has enabled nearly 500 young women to train as teachers in remote rural areas where schools are understaffed and there are few female teachers. The LA programme provides a pathway to teaching through guided distance study and in-school work experience. This research examines empowering and constraining factors of the LA programme. The research draws on interviews in two rural locations with 18 participants: Learning Assistants themselves, and those who work alongside and support them: headteachers, class teachers, subject tutors, community leaders, family members and programme staff

Vulnerability and Post-Stroke Experiences of Working-Age Survivors During Recovery

Survivors who experience stroke of mild to moderate severity are typically discharged home quickly, with only minimal referral for rehabilitation follow-up or support to meet specific needs in recovery. Particular vulnerabilities of younger, higher functioning stroke survivors have received some recognition in international literature in recent years. This article reports on findings of a small Australian qualitative study focusing on recovery and return to work experiences of young higher functioning female stroke survivors, in particular exploring experiences of post-stroke vulnerability from participants’ own perspectives. Our research adds depth and nuance to this developing area of interest and research. Our findings include survivors’ reflections on the consequences of delayed diagnosis, the impacts of empowering and disempowering interactions with health care professionals, a general lack of access to psychosocial rehabilitation, and frustrations of financial hardship. Implications for health professionals, service systems, and income support provision are discussed, along with directions for future research

Education Workforce Initiative: Initial Research

The purpose of this initial research is to offer evidenced possibilities in the key areas of education workforce roles, recruitment, training, deployment and leadership, along with suggested areas for further research to inform innovation in the design and strengthening of the public sector education workforce. The examples described were identified through the process outlined in the methodology section of this report, whilst we recognise that separation of examples from their context is problematic – effective innovations are highly sensitive to context and uncritical transfer of initiatives is rarely successful. The research aims to support the Education Workforce Initiative (EWI) in moving forward with engaging education leaders and other key actors in radical thinking around the design and strengthening of the education workforce to meet the demands of the 21st century. EWI policy recommendations will be drawn from a number of country level workforce reform activities and research activity associated with the production of an Education Workforce Report (EWR). This research has informed the key questions, approach and structure of the EWR as outlined in the Education Workforce Report Proposal. Issues pertaining to teaching and learning in primary and secondary education are at the centre of the research reported here; the focus is on moving towards schools as safe places where all children/ young people are able to engage in meaningful activity. The majority of the evidence shared here relates to teachers and school leaders; evidence on learning support staff, district officials and the wider education workforce is scant. Many of the issues examined are also pertinent to the early childhood care and education sector but these are being examined in depth by the Early Childhood Workforce Initiative. Resourcing for the Education Workforce was out of scope of this initial research but the EC recognises, as outlined in the Learning Generation Report, that provision of additional finance is a critical factor in achieving a sustainable, strong and well-motivated education workforce, particularly but not exclusively, in low and middle income countries. The next stage of EWI work will consider the relative costs of current initiatives and modelling of the cost implications of proposed reforms. EWI aims to complement the work on teacher policy design and teacher career frameworks (including salary structures) being undertaken by other bodies and institutions such as Education International, the International Task Force on Teachers for 2030 and the Teachers’ Alliance, most particularly by bringing a focus on school and district leadership, the role of Education Support Professionals (ESPs) and inter-agency working