OER and OEP in the Global South: Implications and recommendations for social inclusion
Patricia Arinto
Cheryl-Ann Hodgkinson-Williams
Henry Trotter
10.25375/uct.10006889.v1
https://zivahub.uct.ac.za/articles/book/OER_and_OEP_in_the_Global_South_Implications_and_recommendations_for_social_inclusion/10006889
<p>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.</p>
<p><br></p><p>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.</p>
<p><br></p><p>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.</p>
2019-10-24 09:17:46
access
adoption
development
global south
oep
oer
open education
Open educational resources
open educational practices
recommendations
ROER4D
social inclusion
Education
Higher Education