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Faculty of Education and Language Studies > People Profiles > Freda Wolfenden

Freda Wolfenden

Assoc Dean/Senior Lecturer

The Open University Faculty of Education and Language Studies Department of Education

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Profile

I am currently Associate Dean in the Faculty of Education and Language Studies responsible for Curriculum, Qualifications and Scholarship.   

I came to the OU in 3004 from a background in secondary science teaching in London and overseas.  I have also worked as an Advisor for a local Education Authority in England, materials producer, project director and manager in a number of education organisations in the UK and in Asia. 

Since joining the OU I have directed a number of teacher education programmes including the online professional development programme for teachers, teachandlearn.net, and the Masters in Education programme.  

From 2008 to 2012 I was Director of the TESSA programme.  TESSA – Teacher Education in Sub Saharan Africa, is a large research and development initiative exploring the use of Open Educational Resources to improve the quality of pre-and in-service teacher education at scale. Having embedded TESSA use in teacher education programmes across 10 countries, I is now focussing on leading research associated with the programme. In 2009 the Open University was awarded a Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education for TESSA and in 2011 TESSA was a WISE Award winner (http://www.wise-qatar.org/awards).

Teaching Interests

I teach on the Masters in Education  at the OU and between 2007-2010  directed this programme.  My particular interest is in Education for Development (ET821) and I have taught on a number of other courses in the programme.  I am currently also teaching on the Foundation Degree in Primary Teaching and Learning.

Current Research

TESSA (Teacher Education in Sub Saharan Africa):  Continuing research on teacher education, in particular the use of Open Educational Resources (OER) to support teacher educators and teachers in developing new pedagogic practices in countries in Sub Saharan Africa (www.tessafrica.net). Publications on OER( creation and adaptation for different contexts), teacher professional development and developing women teachers, particularly in rural areas.

Publications

Book Chapter
Moon, Bob and Wolfenden, Freda (2012). Brazil: building national regulatory frameworks. In: Moon, Bob ed. Teacher Education and the Challenge of Development: a Global Analysis. Education, Poverty and International Development . Abingdon: Routledge, pp. 101–110.
Anamuah-Mensah, Jophus ; Banks, Frank; Moon, Robert and Wolfenden, Freda (2012). New modes of teacher pre-service training and professional support. In: Moon, Robert ed. Teacher Education and the Challenge of Development: A global analysis. Abingdon: Routledge , (In press).
Wolfenden, Freda and Buckler, Alison (2012). Adapting OERs for professional communities: The Teacher Education in Sub-Saharan Africa experience. In: Connolly, Teresa; Okada, Alexandra and Scott, Peter eds. Collaborative Learning 2.0 - Open Educational Resources. IGI Global (In Press).
Wolfenden, Freda (2012). OER production and adaptation through networking across Sub–Saharan Africa: learning from TESSA. In: Glennie, Jennie; Harley, Ken and Van Wyk, Trudi eds. Perspectives on Open Educational Resources (OER) as a Catalyst for Educational Change: Case Studies and Reflections of Practice. Vancouver, Canada : Commonwealth of Learning, (In press).
Moon, Robert and Wolfenden, Freda (2012). Teacher education in Sub-Saharan Africa: issues and challenges around teacher resources and practices. In: Griffin, Rosarii ed. Teacher Education in Sub Saharan Africa. Oxford: Symposium books, (In press).
Wolfenden, Freda (2008). Harnessing OER's, mobiles and other technologies for teacher education in Africa: the TESSA and DEEP projects. In: Needham, Gill and Ally, Mohamed eds. M-libraries: Libraries on the Move to Provide Virtual Access. London: Facet Publishing, pp. 71–82.
Conference Item
Wolfenden, F.; Gallastegi, Lore and Chitsulo, J. (2011). Supporting induction to the teaching profession for women in Malawi. In: DETA (Distance Education and Teacher Training in Africa) 2011, 3-5 August 2011, Eduardo Mondlane University, Maputo, Mozambique.
Wolfenden, Freda; Umar , Abdurrahman ; Aguti , Jessica and Abdel Gafar, Amani (2010). Using OERs to improve teacher quality: emerging findings from TESSA. In: Sixth Pan Commonwealth Forum on Open Learning, 24-28 Nov 2010, Kochi, India .
Wolfenden, Freda; Buckler, Alison and Keraro, Fred (2010). OER adaptation and reuse across cultural contexts in sub Saharan Africa: lessons from the TESSA consortium. In: OER10, 22-24 March 2010, Cambridge, UK.
Banks, Frank; Moon, Bob and Wolfenden, Freda (2009). New modes of communication technologies and the reform of open and distance learning programmes: A response to the global crisis in teacher education and training. In: 23rd ICDE World Conference on Open and Distance Learning, 8-10 June 2009, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
Banks, F.; Moon, B. and Wolfenden, F. (2009). New modes of communication technologies and the reform of open and distance learning programmes: A response to the global crisis in teacher education and training. In: 23rd ICDE World Conference on Open and Distance Learning, 8-10 June 2009, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
Wolfenden, Freda (2008). Building new modes of teacher education: research analyses for the Teacher in Education in Sub Saharan Africa programme. In: BERA Annual Conference 2008, 3-6 Sep 2008, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, UK.
Wolfenden, Freda (2008). TESSA: an open educational resource site for teacher education in Africa. In: eLearning Africa: 3rd International Conference on ICT for Development, Education and Training, 28-30 May 2008, Accra, Ghana.
Moon, Robert and Wolfenden, Freda (2007). Open educational resources, international co-operation and teacher education in Sub-Saharan Africa. In: EADTU's 20th Anniversary Conference, 8-9 Nov 2007, Lisbon, Portugal.
Hutchinson, Steven and Wolfenden, Freda (2006). A new paradigm for teacher education: supported, open teaching and learning at the Open University. In: European Educational Research Association Annual Conference, 13-16 Sep 2006, Geneva.
Journal Article
Murphy, Patricia and Wolfenden, Freda (2013). Developing a pedagogy of mutuality in a capability approach - teachers' experiences of using the open educational resources (OER) of the teacher education in sub-Saharan Africa (TESSA) programme. International Journal of Educational Development (In press).
Wolfenden, Freda and Buckler, Alison (2013). Capturing changes in Sudanese teachers' teaching using reflective photography. Teaching and Teacher Education (in press).
Wolfenden, Freda ; Buckler, Alison and Keraro, Fred (2012). OER Adaptation and Reuse across cultural contexts in Sub Saharan Africa: Lessons from TESSA (Teacher Education in Sub Saharan Africa). Journal of Interactive Media in Education
Safford, Kimberly; Cooper, Deborah; Wolfenden, Freda and Chitsulo, Joyce (2012). ‘Give courage to the ladies’: expansive apprenticeship for women in rural Malawi. Journal of Vocational Education & Training (early access).
Thakrar, Jayshree; Wolfenden, Freda and Zinn, Denise (2009). Harnessing open educational resources to the challenges of teacher education in Sub-Saharan Africa. International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 10(4),
Wolfenden, F. (2008). The TESSA OER Experience: Building sustainable models of production and user implementation. Journal of Interactive Media in Education(3),
Other
Storey, Anne; Banks, Frank; Cooper, Deborah; Cunningham, Peter; Ebbutt, Dave; Fox, Alison; Morgan, Bethan; Pedder, David and Wolfenden, Freda (2008). Schools and continuing professional development(CPD) in England - State of the Nation research project (T34718): Qualitative Research Summary. Cambridge University/The Open University.