Community colleges, as open access institutions, shoulder most of the responsibility in serving marginalized individuals accessing higher education. Therefore, community colleges play a critical role. But what are new and incoming community colleges students' needs, in their own words? In this project, we explored an innovative component of a…

The OER Research Hub has been investigating the impact of OER, using eleven hypotheses, and a mixed methods approach to establish an evidence base. This paper explores the findings relating to teaching and learning. The findings reveal a set of direct impacts, including an increase in factors relating to student performance, increased reflection…

This paper is based on phenomenological interviews with teachers who worked with underachieving students in South Africa, Russia, and the United States. It focuses on the analysis of meanings that teachers constructed while describing their relationship with underachieving students and how metaphors worked to construct such meanings. The…

In my years as a student and as a teacher, I have come to understand that what matters most in schools are teachers. This is not a new phenomenon, nor is it a view I alone hold. It has become a mantra among academics, the media and politicians. All too frequently we are held accountable for all that is wrong with schools. Yet as teachers we…