While it is acknowledged that content and process (curriculum and pedagogy) are the two intertwined components of learning (Eisner,1991), the role of content has often been privileged over the processes of learning. Many programmes tend to to over-valorise content and see the teacher as a ‘minor technician’ in the process of education (Scheffler 1973).
This paper examines whether and how a professional learning community of teachers can enable an environment for Open Educational Resources (OER) access – creation – curation – publishing (henceforth ACCP), that can become a method of teacher professional development (henceforth TPD) in the public education system, through engagement in the Subject Teacher Forum and Karnataka Open Educational Resources programme in the state of Karnataka, India (henceforth STF-KOER). The programme follows participatory action research (PAR) methodology and participants include teachers, teacher educators and officers from the state academic authority. An NGO in Karnataka, IT for Change, designs and conducts capacity building workshops of the teachers and participates in the virtual forums.
In STF-KOER, mathematics, science and social science teachers in Government high schools
across Karnataka, have been trained to adopt and adapt digital technologies for their professional development. This includes joining virtual forums (mailing lists) of teachers (for each of these subjects), for regular sharing of ideas, experiences and resources, and seeking support and feedback through emails. The virtual forum provides an opportunity for continuing conversations beyond physical interactions in workshops. A sub-section of teachers have also engaged with creation and curation of OERs, pertaining to their disciplines and published the same on a wiki portal.
The paper analyses emails exchanged on the mathematics and science forum during August 2014 (towards the beginning of the academic year, when teacher training programmes are in progress). The mail analysis is complemented by focus group discussions with selected teachers (who actively participate on the forums) on how they understand their learning paths. The analysis explores which issues have yielded the most discussion (size of the mail threads), the formats of resources shared, the nature of resources (OER/ non-OER), the manner of sharing resources (file attachments, web links), the nature of interactions (seeking help, sharing ideas, sharing resources, giving feedback etc.) as well as the subject matter being discussed.
Based on the analyses, a framework of TPD based on OER ACCP is presented in the paper. It explores if and how the processes of accessing digital resources, creation of resources, their curation (including review/ feedback/ refinement) and publishing, support TPD. TPD elements include digital literacy skills, accessing / processing resources, creating / writing, storing and sharing, exploring and seeking resources. Broader aspects such as teacher self esteem, teacher imagination as active agents in educational processes and as active citizens in a maturing democracy are explored.
In India, teaching-learning processes are often centered around the textbook culture (Kumar 1988), which can reduce the teacher’s role to transmission of information in the prescribed text books. The exploration of OERs in enhancing teacher autonomy, agency and capacities, within the context of PLC, it is hoped, can provide inputs to restore the role of the teacher in school education.
References
Eisner, E. E. (1991). What Really Counts in Schools. Educational Leadership, 5(48), 10-17. Available online: http://academic.wsc.edu/education/curtiss_j/eisner.htm
Kumar, K. (1988). Origins of India’s Textbook Culture. Comparative Education Review, 32(4), 453.
Scheffler. I. (1973). Reason and teaching.Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill.