In Brazil, the Covid-19 pandemic has deeply impacted and disrupted the lives of both teachers and students of the public basic education sector. All face-to-face classes were suspended in March, 2020 and teachers were required to resort to emergency remote teaching with little or no funds, guidance, resources, skills and knowledge to do so. In most states, emergency remote teaching and learning was the primary mode of education delivery until May, 2021. As the Covid-19 vaccine only began to be offered to teachers in June, 2021, most basic public education schools across the country began as of this date to offer a mix of blended learning or face-to-face classes. In February, 2022, with high vaccination rates among public school teachers and children (ages 5 to 11) currently receiving their first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine, all students are now required to attend face-to-face classes following basic sanitary protocols such as use of masks, social distancing and testing for suspect cases. In this context, it’s imperative we understand the myriad of obstacles faced by teachers and if, at all, basic public education teachers who had received prior professional development on the use of OER and OEPs did indeed resort to their use and which ways during this pandemic period. This study, funded by the Global OER Graduate Network’s (GO-GN) Fellowship program, is aimed at exploring these questions. To achieve the outcome of the study, fifteen potential participants were initially invited to participate in the study. Criteria for inclusion was participants’ prior familiarity with OER. However, only six teachers volunteered to participate in forty-five-to-sixty-minute online interviews. Interviews were structured around questions regarding participants’ perspectives of challenges and actions required to teach during the pandemic and how existing obstacles were overcome; what kind of instructional material they resorted to (i.e. OER, others?); which pedagogies were used to teach remotely; which collaborative practices they engaged in (i.e. OEPs, others?); how they assessed student engagement and learning, to cite a few. This presentation explores preliminary findings, which were presented at OER 22.

1. Investigating the use of OER and OEPs by Brazilian
public basic education teachers during the Covid-19
pandemic
Viviane Vladimirschi – Independent Researcher
vvladimirschi@gmail.com
@vvladi
GO-GN Fellow
OER 2022

2. Except where otherwise noted, this work is licensed under CC BY 4.0

3. Overview of the Project
Goals & Outcomes
of the Study
(Phase 1)
Validation of
Preliminary
Findings – Member
checking (Phase 2)
Process and
Methodology
(Online Interview
Questions &
Population
Demographics
(Phase 1)
Framework or
Guidelines based
on data collected
(Final phase)
Preliminary
Findings (Phase 1)
3
About this Presentation

4. • GO-GN Fellowship (Funded by the
Global OER Graduate Network) and
supported by the Hewlett
Foundation
• Criteria for inclusion: be a K-12
public school teacher & possess
knowledge of OER
– To better understand the
challenges faced by K-12
Brazilian public school teachers
during Emergency Remote
Teaching (ERT).
– To assess if teachers used OER
and/or OEPs during ERT.
– To incorporate perspectives &
experiences of teachers during
this period of crisis.
– To develop a framework and/or
guidelines to catalyse a better
path for the future. 4
Goals &
Outcomes of
the Study

5. Process and Methodology
• Interviews: 60 minute interviews with 6 Brazilian basic
education public school teachers.
• Categorisation (coding) and analysis of data undertaken
using NVivo.
• Dissemination of results through presentations, blog posts
and publications.
5

6. Online Interview Questions
- Demographic data (grade, subject, years teaching, location,
skills & knowledge with ERT, who participants resorted to
help with ERT)
- Technology, instructional material & pedagogical practices
used to deliver ERT
- Main obstacles faced
- How student engagement & learning was assessed
- Use of OER
- Use of OEPs
- Plan to use OER & OEPs in F2F classes
- Lessons learned
6

7. Population Demographics
7
Participants Location Grades
Taught/
Years
Teaching
Subjects Education Skills &
Knowledge
with ERT?
Who Participant
Resorted to
help for ERT
P1 South Elementary
and high
school- +10
years of
experience
Portuguese,
Literature and
Foreign
Languages
Master’s
Degree
Prior experience
with Moodle
Professional
education on
Google Classroom
offered by State
government
P2 North Childhood
education–
over 20 years
of
experience
Literacy Master’s
Degree
No prior
experience, only
as a student
Learned on her
own
P3 Northeastern Elementary
school- 7
years
History &
Geography
Master’s
Degree
No prior
experience
Learned on his
own
P4 South Elementary
& High
school-14
years
Science &
Biology
Master’s
Degree
Prior experience
as a tutor for the
Open University
of Brazil (UAB)
Did not need to
resort to anyone
P5 South Elementary
school- 10
years
Ethics &
Citizenship,
Religion &
History
Master’s
Degree
Prior experience
as a tutor for a
online Bachelor’s
Degree
Did not need to
resort to anyone
P6 South Elementary
school- 12
years
Portuguese
Language
Bachelor’s
Degree
No prior
experience, only
as a student
Did not need to
resort to anyone

8. Preliminary Findings
Technologies used
for ERT
• WhatsApp to exchange info between teachers and to
provide accessibility to digitally excluded students for
learning purposes;
• Google Classroom;
• Google Meet for synchronous classes;
• YouTube Channels;
• TV programs created by State Governments (Northern
region of Brazil);
• Printed textbooks/activities delivered to students at
schools;
• Email.
8

9. Preliminary Findings
Instructional
material used and
pedagogical
practices
• WhatsApp to practice pronunciation;
• Textbooks and sheets of activities (student kits);
• Jamboard;
• YouTube videos (songs, stories, fables, chemistry,
physics, history & geography);
• Games;
• Cartoons;
• Comic strips;
• News articles;
• PDFs;
• Feedback provided via email or Google’s text editor;
• Synchronous meetings (interaction with students was
limited to students responding using chat tool);
• Students used email for doubts;
• One teacher produced his own instructional materials for
History & Geography lessons (i.e., primary sources,
fragment of existing texts, maps, texts from experts in
the area);
• Teachers reported replicating f2f pedagogical practices
in the online environment.
9

10. Preliminary Findings
Challenges faced by
teachers
• No directives from the Ministry of Education at the
beginning of the pandemic;
• In 2020, teachers were required to go to the school, pick
up assignments and correct them at home
(asynchronous classes started to be offered only in
2021);
• In 2021, some State Governments required used of
Google Classroom but not all teachers had previous
experience with it (some teacher education was
provided);
• Work overload; need to upgrade WI-FI; deal with family
at home and noise; need to deal with students’ cognitive
loss and evasion; loss of bond; student interaction and
participation was a challenge; exposing themselves in
camera was new and challenging;
• Little time to produce instructional material;
• Challenges for students: they needed to learn how to
use ICTs for learning purposes despite being digital
natives;
• How to deal with digital exclusion;
• Learning by doing due to lack of knowledge and skills
with ICTs and remote learning.
10

11. Preliminary Findings
Challenges faced by
teachers
• Lack of knowledge and skills of school director and
pedagogical coordinator for ERT (political aspects often
dominate);
• Problems with distribution of printed material;
• The Brazilian National Curriculum (BNCC) has many gaps
and went into effect in 2020 and teachers did not
receive any professional development to implement it.
11

12. Preliminary Findings
Use of OER
• Development of an eBook;
• Use of repositories with material on History (with no
clear indication of CC licenses);
• Use of books available on the Internet and texts and
images in the public domain;
• Use of OER to produce Literature, Portuguese and
Spanish instructional materials;
• Development of a video and fruit cards from scratch for
literacy;
• It’s still a challenge for teachers to use CC licenses and
attribute them correctly (i.e., one participant reported
copying and pasting the CC logo);
• Use of repository from Universities and other
educational institutions (some with open licenses);
• Complaints that there was no feedback from the the
MEC RED * (Ministry of Education Repository of Digital
Resources) repository.
*Plataforma MEC de Recursos Digitais (Ministery of
Education Repository of Digital Resources)
https://plataformaintegrada.mec.gov.br
12
Image “OER” by Karen and Brad Emerson
licensed under CC BY 2.0

13. Preliminary Findings
Collaboration with
other teachers and
use of OEPs
• Use of OEPs to share material and for help;
• Sharing of instructional material, images and audio via
WhatsApp or Facebook;
• Joining of subject-specific groups to share materials;
• Sharing of tools with colleagues;
• One teacher reported difficulty in sharing ideas and
instructional material because there are no regular
meetings held between teachers who teach the same
subjects;
• One participant stated there is a lack of a culture of
collaboration and many teachers develop things and
don’t like to share them.
13

14. Preliminary Findings
How students were
assessed for
engagement and
learning
• Difficulty in assessing students during synchronous
classes;
• Students who did not use Google Classroom had a lower
engagement rate;
• Project-based learning (development of comic strips
based on news);
• Collaborative and cooperative learning (development of
avatars and cartoons);
• By obtaining regular student feedback on activities;
• 20% of students appeared to have not engaged in
remote learning;
• Participants reported ERT exacerbated the existing
digital exclusion, so it was difficult to assess engagement
and learning of some of the students.
14

15. Preliminary Findings
Plans to use OER
and OEPs in F2F
classes
• One teacher stated she has already begun developing all
her classes using OER;
• Another teacher stated it’s necessary to create OER
because there is a lack of instructional material in the
Amazon region and OER could cater better to student’s
needs;
• All participants plan to use OER in their F2F classes and
acknowledge there is need to disseminate OER use and
open license use. Most plan to do this in their own
schools.
15

16. Preliminary Findings
Suggestions and
lessons learned
• Professional development should be offered more
consistently and with higher quality;
• Better salaries (teachers have not received salary raises
since 2013);
• Public policies need to be revisited and changed;
• Lack of infrastructure in public schools (teachers still
need to use their own computers and WI-FI);
• Currently teachers can use their mobile phones in
school;
• Easier to work with students remotely than in schools
due to more reliable access to the Internet;
• Older teachers who were more resistant to technology
are now better adapted;
• Students now know how to use email;
• Teachers are now more prepared to use digital resources
and escape traditional classes by use of OER;
• Students need teacher’s mediation to use digital
resources;
• There is need to disseminate OER and OEPs and provide
incentives (not monetary but rather in prizes or awards)
for those teachers who create or use them;
• Politics hamper collaboration and co-creation efforts.
16

17. Phase 2 & Final Phase
• Recruit more participants;
• Validate preliminary findings with
participants (member checking);
• Add concepts of open pedagogies and
potential factors to catalyse a better path
for the future and how collaborative work
can support a different scope in the future;
• Develop a framework/guidelines aimed at
improving future educational practices
focused on better coping with times of crisis.
17
Photo “Remote Teaching” by François Phillip licensed under CC BY 2.0

18. Questions?
Thanks!!
@GOGN_OER
@vvladi
Image “Question” by Cesar Bojorquez licenced under CC BY 2.0