TESSA/Commonwealth of Learning collaboration supports Inclusive Education

Building on a partnership that delivered the hugely successful Pan Commonwealth Forum (PCF9) in Edinburgh in 2019, two MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) were developed by WELS colleagues to support Professional Development of Inclusive Education.

The two courses initially ran on the Open Learn Create platform in early 2021, structured around the UNICEF Wave Model for Inclusive Education. The first course, Inclusive Teaching and Learning, was based on ‘Wave 1’ (the things that all teachers can do to support inclusive education) and the second course, Creating an Inclusive School, based on ‘Wave 2’ (the things that people can do together to support inclusive education). Collectively, over 1,200 participants registered for the courses.  

Dr Kris Stutchbury, Senior Lecturer in Teacher Education and Academic Director of the TESSA (Teacher Education in sub-Saharan Africa) programme, Dr Helen Hendry and Dr Deborah Cooper, both Lecturers in Education (Masters), developed the courses with the support of Olivier Biard and Claire Furlong from the OU’s International Development Office (IDO) and alongside colleagues from the Kenya Institute of Special Education (KISE), Kenyatta University (Kenya), Gulu University (Uganda), and school-based colleagues from Jamaica.  

Speaking about the success of the project, Dr Stutchbury said: 

“This project draws on research and learning from the TESS-India MOOC and the award-winning TESSA MOOC (2017-2019). New learning and research data has emerged, particularly around the issue of online facilitation. It represents an asset which I hope can be used in other projects.” 

A key innovation for this programme was the facilitation; a deliberate attempt was made to build facilitation capacity within the TESSA network. While the course was running, there were weekly remote meetings to discuss what facilitators had noticed, possible discussion threads to start, and any issues that had arisen. Facilitators confidently provided weekly summaries of the comments, summarised threads, and posed reflective questions to support participants’ learning. They all commented that being a facilitator had helped them to engage more deeply with the content and changed their practice.  

Comments from participants: 

“What I would take away from this course is a better understanding of how inclusion can be developed in the classroom, school, and wider community. Also, how I as an educator can create an atmosphere within my classroom that would make all my students feel welcomed and accepted.” 

“Inclusivity covers so much more than I originally thought. I learnt that it is much more than infrastructure and materials. The importance of creating a good ethos in the school is just as important as creating a safe environment.” 

“A big thank you to the course facilitators and our tutors for this course. It was very educating and uplifting. Learning about the inclusive school, creating an inclusive ethos and culture, creating a learning organization and working with communities, families and stakeholders; I gained a lot of new knowledge.” 

These courses will remain available on the Open Learn Create website indefinitely, adding to the suite of TESSA courses available to support the professional development of teacher and teacher educators in Africa, which also includes Making Teacher Education Relevant for 21st Century Africa, and TESSA Teaching Early Reading with African Storybook. A further six courses are planned during 2021, which have been developed in partnership with World Vision Zambia and the Ministry of General Education, providing a two-year programme of activities to support school-based professional development for Primary School teachers and can be studied at any time, by anyone.