The ROER4D project is a cross-regional research project, with 18 sub-projects in South America, Sub-Saharan Africa, and South and Southeast Asia. It sets out to establish a baseline of empirical research on the adoption of Open Educational Resources (OER), the associated Open Educational Practices (OEP), and their impact upon access to education, the affordability of educational materials, the quality of student engagement, educator practices, and educational materials, as well as on policy imperatives in the education sector. This presentation advances the initial theoretical and conceptual framework of the meta-analysis of the empirical studies. It locates the overall ontological assumptions within a critical realist framework, argues for the use of a social realist perspective to explain engagement with OEP and adoption of OER, and explains the key concepts and methodology adopted in the meta-analysis of the ROER4D sub-project outputs.
