Author ORCID Identifier

https://orcid.org/0009-0003-1885-117X

Semester

Spring

Date of Graduation

2024

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Type

PhD

College

College of Applied Human Sciences

Department

Not Listed

Committee Chair

Melissa Luna

Committee Member

Verena Roberts

Committee Member

Jiangmei Yuan

Committee Member

Johnna Bolyard

Abstract

This research project centers on in-service K-12 teachers’ experiences of a continuing education course about open education resources (OER) and how to use them in ways that support students’ ability to use identity resources while engaging with disciplinary learning experiences. Using a qualitative design-based research approach, I sought to both improve the course and examine how teachers took up the ideas from the course in their planning and teaching. While OER are valuable resources for K-12 teachers in and of themselves because they are free and often available in easily adapted formats, their licensing typically allows edited versions to be reshared, meaning other teachers can benefit from the adaptations teachers have made. It also means that students can adapt their curricular materials in ways that better reflect their lived experiences, interests, and funds of knowledge. Seeking to resist the standardization of learning by providing teachers with the tools to work with students in the localization of OER, while simultaneously resisting the deprofessionalization of teaching by introducing sociocultural theories as ways to interpret classroom experiences, I offered this course in the hopes that teachers will find sustainable ways to engage their students in work that reflects their identities.

Six teachers completed the Ready OER Not course, a credit-bearing continuing education course, and the research. Each teacher completed a pre-, peri-, and post-interview with me, and these were the primary data source for the study. I used activity theory to analyze the data, visualizing how knowledge from the course moved through their individual contexts, interacting with their identity and practice. After examining each teacher’s individual activity system via a case study approach, I looked across cases to identify themes that emerged from the data. Key findings were that teachers’ experiences as students (both in the course and memories from their childhood and young adulthood) inform their practice and that sharing resources publicly is not regularly part of their teaching practice. This is significant, because without sharing resources they have created or adapted, it limits the potential of OER to benefit other teachers and students. Additionally, I discuss the ways that deficit-based thinking emerged in our interviews, teachers’ perceptions of the research process, and how teachers view their workloads as increasing. In the final chapter, I discuss how these themes can be connected to the literature around professional learning experiences and open pedagogy, exploring the role of empathy, research, and deficit-based thinking on teacher practice.

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