Localizing OER in Afghanistan : developing a multilingual digital library for Afghan teachers

The Darakht-e Danesh (‘knowledge tree’) Online Library is the first open educational resource (OER) initiative in Afghanistan, established to enhance teacher subject-area knowledge, access and use of learning materials, and to foster more diverse teaching methodologies in order to improve learning outcomes in Afghan classrooms. This paper describes our experience developing this local language digital library, buildings its responsiveness to our audience of users as we progressed, customizing both the interface and the resources for Afghanistan’s education environment. We innovated methods to devise relevant local content, localized usability, developed different access models to reach different populations of users, integrated impact measurement, and opted to openly license material in the library’s collection. By making digital educational content open from the first introduction of digital repositories of learning objects in Afghan languages, we have an opportunity to establish the principle of openness and to promote open practices in teacher professional development in Afghanistan. The paper aims to share lessons on how OER can be customized for multilingual, resource-scarce contexts drawing from our experience to date in Afghanistan, and seeking to contribute to the literature on localization and multilingual OER

ICT, multilingual primary education and classroom pedagogy in Northern Uganda

The goal of achieving Universal Primary Education (UPE) has found resonance throughout Africa as governments embark on ambitious development agendas, and in Uganda specifically. Yet, arguably the fundamental prerequisite for attaining quality UPE, literacy, has had limited success: one in three Ugandans cannot read or write in any language. Illiteracy is especially acute in post-conflict Gulu, in the north, illustrative of how closely intertwined human security is to the ability to offer relevant, culturally appropriate and high quality education. Some argue that the poor progress on raising literacy levels is a consequence of education systems’ disconnections from the cultures of their learners (Prah 2008), including quality multilingual education. The need to integrate the mother tongue into the classroom, including into second language learning is well established (Cummins 1981, 1993; 2000; Egbokhare 2004; Garcia, 2009). Identifying the best tools to accomplish this in African contexts, particularly where conflict is a factor, however, is much less well explored. This research seeks to understand how Gulu's primary teachers can use specific information communication technology (ICT) tools to support teachers who are struggling to teach the mother tongue with limited traditional literacy resources. It forms part of a larger project led by Dr. Bonny Norton, Dr. Maureen Kendrick and Dr. Margaret Early, to address language and literacy challenges in diverse African communities. In particular, this study serves as a response to the finding (Mutonyi & Norton, 2007) that ICTs offer untapped potential to raise learning outcomes.Education, Faculty ofLanguage and Literacy Education (LLED), Department ofGraduat

A closer look : the policy and lawmaking process behind the Shiite personal status law

Lauryn Oate

My voice is my identity : the role of voice for trans women’s participation in sport

Objective: This study explored trans women's experience and awareness of their vocal communication and voice use within sporting environments. Study design: Mixed methods study. Methods: Twenty trans women were interviewed about their voice use and vocal communication during sport and its impact on their level of participation. The participants also completed the Transsexual Voice Questionnaire for Male-to-Female Transsexuals. Results: Three core themes emerged from analysis of the interview data. These were: importance of voice in a sport setting, voice production in sporting environments, and psychosocial moderators of voice within the sporting environment. Trans women perceived their voices to be the main barrier to their participation in sport. These women reported that the strong gendered environment of sport made them anxious that they would not be identified as women because their voice was not always congruent with their physical appearance. However, maintaining feminine voice was deemed less critical if participants felt comfortable at their sporting club and had strong relationships with their teammates and coaches. Findings from the Transsexual Voice Questionnaire for Male-to-Female Transsexuals supported the interview data as to the impact that voice has in the lives of trans women. Conclusion: Voice is critical for trans women who wish to integrate and be accepted as women in sporting environments. Participants suggested that voice training should target achieving a gender congruent voice and include minimalizing perceived barriers such as vocal fatigue and maintaining adequate breath support

Investigating the social integration and wellbeing of transgender individuals : A meta-synthesis

Introduction: There is growing literature about the experiences of social integration and wellbeing of transgender individuals. However, there has been no synthesis across this body of research. Accordingly, the aim of this review was to aggregate, interpret, and synthesize findings from qualitative studies pertaining to the social integration and wellbeing of transgender individuals. Methods: This study synthesized findings from 18 qualitative and mixed method studies which had explored the social integration and wellbeing of transgender individuals, using Noblit and Hare's meta-ethnography method. The Critical Appraisal Skills Programme was also used to appraise the 18 included studies. Results: Data from the included 18 individual studies ranged from moderate to strong in quality. Data analysis revealed five major themes which influenced transgender individuals' daily lives. These were gender transition and disclosing gender identity, health and self-isolation, living with stigma and discrimination: health care, leisure and work, the importance of relationships, and last, overcoming adversity: stories of what can work. Conclusion: This meta-synthesis reinforces many preconceived notions about transgender individuals. These include being at high risk of social exclusion, experiencing discrimination and stigma across many social situations, and last, being at high risk of poor wellbeing. This study also found that there is further need for studies that investigate the self-isolation of transgender individuals as well as this group's relationship and experiences with health care professionals and providers

Developing trans-athlete policy in Australian National Sport Organizations

The purpose of this study was to explore the way Australian national sport organisations (NSOs) create, develop and implement their policies relevant to trans athletes. Representatives of nine NSOs were interviewed utilising in-depth semi-structured interviews. Four key themes emerged from the organisation spokespersons’ accounts: a) finding the right policy, b) underfunded and under resourced, c) challenges of educating employees and the public, and lastly, d) communication between NSOs and the trans athletic community. Findings revealed that only two NSOs reported had specific policies directed at trans athlete’s sport participation. Several NSOs indicated that they had plans to develop separate policies for the different levels of competition to assist trans athletes to participate in their sport as their identified gender. This is the first study to explore the perspective and views of NSOs on the participation of trans athletes in sport

An early stage impact study of localised OER in Afghanistan

This study evaluates a group of Afghan teachers’ use of Open Educational Resources (OER) from the Darakht-e Danesh Library (DDL) – a digital library comprised of educational materials in English, Dari and Pashto – investigating whether these resources enabled improvements in teaching practice and led to improved subject knowledge. Conducted with secondary-school teachers in Parwan, Afghanistan, who accessed the DDL over a four-week period in 2016, the study asked the following research questions: To what extent did teachers in this study access and use OER in the DDL? Did access and use of OER in the DDL enhance teachers’ subjectarea content knowledge? Did access and use of DDL resources enhance teachers’ instructional practices? To what extent did teachers’ understanding of OER and its value change? The study utilised quantitative and qualitative methods to examine the behaviour and practices of 51 teachers in rural Afghanistan, all of whom were teaching at the secondary level or affiliated with a local teacher training college. The study collected data from server logs, pre- and post-treatment questionnaires, lesson plan analyses, teacher interviews and classroom observation. A purposive sampling technique was utilised to select the teachers, drawing from educational institutions with which the Canadian Women for Women in Afghanistan non-governmental organisation had previously interacted. Findings indicate that when the DDL was used by teachers, the OER accessed positively impacted teachers’ knowledge and helped them in lesson preparation. On average, the 33 teachers who visited the lab at least three times downloaded 12 OER each over the course of the study. However, a number of teachers did not download or use any OER, and many more preferred to continue using only the traditional textbook to prepare their lesson plans even after exposure to the DDL. Furthermore, while teachers found the OER helpful in creating assessment activities for their students, there was no observed improvement in teacher understanding and use of formative or summative assessment. Lastly, there was limited understanding among the teachers of the exact meaning of “open”, with most viewing OER as learning materials obtained from the internet, libraries or simply from outside of their school. Teachers made little reference to licensing or to the accessibility characteristics of OER. Thus, while teachers who used OER appeared to benefit from these resources, the concept was new to them, representing a disruption to the familiar way of preparing and delivering lessons. For further diffusion of OER as an innovation in teachers’ learning and practice, concerted action will be required to build the collection of OER available in Afghan languages, provide support in how teachers might integrate OER into their teaching, and ensure connectivity in the context of limited internet access in rural areas and a teacher population with widely varying levels of proficiency in using digital technology. The dataset arising from this study can be accessed at: https://www.datafirst.uct.ac.za/dataportal/index.php/catalog/622</p

Early stage impact study of localised OER in Afghanistan 2016, ROER4D Sub-project 10.4

The Darakht-e Danesh Library (DDL) is a young digital repository of Open Educational Resources (OER). Intended for use by school teachers in Afghanistan, it was developed on the premise that increased access to a growing collection of OER will improve teachers’ subject matter knowledge as well as their teaching practice. This impact study sought to determine whether the OER accessed via the DDL would enable teachers’ better use of supplementary educational content in their teaching practice; and, whether this content would positively impact the educators’ subject knowledge and pedagogical practice. The study utilised a mixed methods approach in order to examine the behaviour and practices of a group of 51 secondary school teachers in the rural province of Parwan in Afghanistan.The study found that when the library was used, the OER in the DDL positively impacted teachers’ knowledge and helped them in lesson preparation; however, many teachers stuck to using only the traditional textbook to prepare their lesson plans even after exposure to the DDL. Teachers also found the OER helpful in creating assessment activities for their students, but there was no observed improvement in teacher understanding or use of formative or summative assessments. There was limited understanding among the teachers of the exact meaning of “open”, with most viewing OER as learning materials obtained from the internet, libraries, or simply from outside of their school; teachers made little reference to licensing or to the accessibility characteristics of OER. Thus, while teachers who used OER appeared to benefit from these resources, the concept was new to them, representing a disruption to the familiar way of preparing and delivering lessons. For further diffusion of OER as an innovation in teachers’ learning and practice, concerted actions will be required, focused on building the collection of OER available in Afghan languages, explicit support in how to integrate OER into teaching, and on ensuring accessibility in the context of limited internet access in rural areas and a teacher population with widely varying levels of proficiency in using digital technology.This study asked the following research questions:1. To what extent did teachers in this study access and use OER in the DDL?2. Did access and use of OER in the DDL enhance teachers’ subject area content knowledge?3. Did access and use of DDL resources enhance teacher instructional practices?4. To what extent did teachers’ understanding of OER and its value change?In order to address these research questions, the researchers utilised the following data collection processes: server log data, lesson plan analyses, teacher interviews, classroom observation, and pre- and post-intervention surveys. This dataset represents the micro-data captured in the pre- and post-intervention lesson plan analyses and surveys, and the classroom observation sessions. Surveys were administered in English and Pashto, and all resulting micro-data was translated into EnglishThis dataset makes a unique contribution to establishing empirical evidence about the potential of OER to improve Afghan teachers’ subject matter knowledge as well as their teaching practice. It will be of use to researchers and practitioners working in the areas of OER, Open Education, and Open Educational Practices. It will also be of interest to Open Education researchers, advocates, and policy-makers operating in the Afghan context.This dataset was originally published on DataFirst.</div