Fostering inclusive education through Open Educational Practices

There is a widespread consensus that open education encompasses both Open Educational Resources (OER) and Open Educational Practices (OEP), with the understanding that sharing learning is crucial. According to the Cape Town Open Education Declaration (2007) “...open education movement combines the established tradition of sharing good ideas with fellow educators and the collaborative, interactive culture of the Internet. It is built on the belief that everyone should be free to use, customize, improve and redistribute educational resources without constraint.”.

To realise these freedoms, we must consider open educational practices from a social justice perspective. Questions arise: 

• Can open education promote inclusivity and diversity? 
• What guidance does Open Education offer our higher education community? 
• And what impact does adopting Open Educational Practices have on student learning experiences and teaching practices?

To address these questions and delve into deeper discussion, we will kick off UTS 2024 Open Education Week with a panel discussion event to shed light on Fostering inclusive education through Open Educational Practices. On this panel, we welcome Associate Professor Glenda Cox, UNESCO Chair on Open Education and Social Justice, University of Cape Town (South Africa) and Yasser Tamer, The American University in Cairo (Egypt). Glenda and Yasser will share their insights and experiences to address this topic.

Associate Professor Dr Glenda Cox is an associate professor in the Centre for Innovation in Learning and Teaching (CILT) at the University of Cape Town, and her portfolio includes Teaching in postgraduate courses, supervision, Teaching innovation grants, Open Education Resources and Staff development. She completed her PhD in Education (2016) and her research focused on using the theoretical approach of Social Realism to explain why academic staff choose to contribute or not to contribute their teaching resources as open educational resources.

She believes supporting and showcasing UCT staff who are excellent teachers in traditional face-to-face classrooms and the online world is very important. She is passionate about the role of Open Education in the changing world of Higher Education. Dr Glenda Cox is the Principal Investigator in the Digital Open Textbooks for Development (DOT4D) project, funded by the Canadian International Development Research Centre (IDRC).

Yasser Tamer is a strong disability advocate and researcher deeply interested in exploring the interplay between disability and accessibility. His achievements in openness are less about resources and content and more as an active communicator in public online spaces. For example, Yasser participates in Twitter/X conversations related to disability not in a way that shames people, like “shame on you for not putting alt text”, but in a way that “calls people in, not calling them out”. This advocacy helps truly move conversations forward.

In 2022, Yasser participated in Equity Unbound’s MYFest (mid-year festival, the open professional development program) and joined many conversations. Building on this experience, in January 2023, he became a co-facilitator of the IEH (Intentionally Equitable Hospitality) series at Equity Unbound. In this role, he helped participants understand and notice what it would be like to design for and with a facilitator who is blind.

Yasser continued as a co-organizer of MYFest23, helping conceptualize it and supporting other facilitators and participants. His presence and contributions remind everyone of his capabilities and the challenges people may have towards three marginalized/minority groups in this context: undergraduate students (most others are educators or grad students), the visually impaired, and Egyptian/Global South people. Currently, Yasser is pursuing an undergraduate degree in English and Comparative Literature at the American University in Cairo.