Leveraging open-source technology in materials development: A theoretical application of Sen’s capability approach and Freire’s critical agency

• In Event: Utilizing open-source technology platforms to interrupt traditional norms of development

Proposal

Materials development for Transforming Teacher Education (TTE) Zambia, a project funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) began in June 2021. It was during this time that two pilot modules (one each for literacy and language) were to be written using a synchronous writing process in which teams of writers, lecturers from Zambian colleges of education, were led by national (University of Zambia) and international (Florida State University) technical experts. Unfortunately, the commencement of this activity coincided with the country’s third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. This necessitated a change of plans while continuing the activity remotely with consideration of the technologies with which participants were most familiar.
Therefore, participants used Microsoft Word to draft chapters and e-mail to communicate, submit drafts, and receive feedback from writing leads. While this approach did facilitate the writing process, it inadvertently created a dynamic in which information was exchanged in a hierarchical and abstract way in which the line between technical expert and writer was more pronounced. This materials development experience coupled with other situational challenges, caused the team leaders to reconsider the processes used to facilitate the activity. Thus, the circumstance provided an opportunity to transform the processes for the remaining four modules written over several months the following year and resulted in a hybrid model of collaboration. We refer to hybrid as meaning both synchronous and asynchronous, supported by open-source technologies – Google Classroom and Google Live Docs.
Reflection on this materials development process reveals that the technological tools utilized created a capabilities space (Frediani, 2010) that shifted power dynamics between international, national, and local stakeholders in ways that increased human agency. For example, participants were taught to use Google Classroom to access writing resources, reference materials, and communicative tools which gave them greater capacity to act independently in producing writing products. This is a foundational concept in Amartya Sen’s human development capability approach, which views human development as freedom and has been applied within the context of comparative international education (Seeberg, 2019).
This presentation, inspired by Poveda & Robert’s (2017) work in information communication technology for development (ICT4D), applies Sen’s framework of human development and Freire’s (1970) critical agency to materials development tools and processes by sharing lessons from our experiences as facilitators by drawing comparisons between the processes used to develop the piloted modules and on how using Google Classroom and Google Live Docs became that capability space for us and our participants in the development of the remaining modules.

Authors

• Adrienne Barnes-Story, Learning Systems Institute at Florida State University

• Rachel Keune Mincey, Florida State University

• Joseph Mwenya Mwansa, University of Zambia

• David Sani Mwanza, The University of Zambia