Teachers’ pedagogical experiences in the context of Open Educational Practices

Abstract

This thesis explores the experiences of teachers who are engaged with Open Educational Resources (OERs) and Open Educational Practices (OEPs) in the Mauritian context. It discusses their contextual pedagogical experiences, approaches, and silences as they engage with free online OERs. To date, little has been written about how Mauritian teachers explore OERs in the context of their professional practice; and voices from the southern hemisphere, in which Mauritius is situated, have been underrepresented, for OER-related discussions are dominated by the North and West. This study addresses this gap by representing the voices and silences of teachers from Mauritius in relation to their experience with OERs.

Given that Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) synthesises technology and pedagogy as a model, I used it as a theoretical lens to critically evaluate its relevance and appropriateness given the complex context within which teachers in Mauritius work with OERs and OEPs.

I used a narrative inquiry approach to elicit teachers’ stories, including the often silenced and marginalised elements therein, to gain insights into their perspectives relating to how they conceptualise teaching today, and how they perceive that this view has been influenced by their engagement with OEPs. I conducted in-depth interviews with 14 practising teachers in Mauritius. The findings revealed that teachers are mindful, but not exclusively passionate about OEPs, and that their experiences are dominated by contextual truths and sensibilities emanating from their professional practice. These are expressed through the contextual characteristics as experienced by the teachers and the three themes namely working with OERs and OEPs, working with OERs using technology, and teaching techniques of teachers who work with OERs. The findings also revealed added insights through the analytical lens of commonplace as context; temporality, sociality and place.

A key finding from the study is that unless ‘context’ as subjectively lived and experienced by teachers is taken into consideration, TPACK as an education model will be misinterpreted by education professionals and teachers. The context in which teachers are situated, its complex and dynamic form influences the pedagogy of teachers as they work with OEPs today. The study proposes the emergence of a ‘framework of pedagogy in context’ that acknowledges the value of temporality, sociality and place, and situates ‘context’ at the centre of teachers’ pedagogy in the current Mauritian educational landscape.

Date of Award	Feb 2020
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Brighton
Supervisor	Avril Loveless (Supervisor), Michael Hayler (Supervisor) & Dr Brinda Oogarah-Pratapat (Supervisor)