OU Associate Lecturer Elissa Williams

To mark World Teacher's Day 2022, the Strategic Research Area in International Development and Inclusive Innovation (SRA-IDII) has commissioned a series to celebrate the exceptional Associate Lecturers who teach Global Development at The Open University. The SRA-IDII is a multi-million pound, interdisciplinary research network led by Professor Giles Mohan, leading ground-breaking research designed to feed directly into OU teaching.

In this interview, we feature Elissa Williams who spent 12 years working in development in East Africa, using grass-roots tourism as a tool for poverty alleviation. Her background is unusual in that she came to teaching development studies in a somewhat backward way – gaining the practical experience before learning the theory and academic material. She has been an Open University tutor for 18 years, using stories based on her own experience as a teaching tool. 

How did you become a tutor with the OU?

At the University of Chester I managed an experiential learning programme as well as teaching Development Studies in the Geography department. A colleague who was giving up her OU role asked if would I be interested in teaching as an AL at the OU. I said ‘Yes!’.

I started teaching with U213 (International development: challenges for a world in transition), the earlier version of TD223 that I now teach - and it was in teaching this module that I was able to put theory and practice together. 

I hadn’t known all the key terms, definitions and theories while in Kenya and Uganda, I just got things done. I share this with the students to help reassure them that they can bring all types of knowledge to their studies. 

Tell us about your time in Africa…

I was sent to Kenya by my college in Canada to set up a Tourism and Hospitality College. I travelled around and ended up in Uganda just after the civil war, where I was asked to set up their first tourism college. By chance I met the head of USAID and was given funding to develop community-based tourism. 

After the war there was no tourism left and Idi Amin had done his best to destroy the wildlife. At the same time, Gorilla and Chimpanzee tourism was coming up, so we could really build this in the communities’ activities. Part-way through USAID introduced me to the North Carolina Zoo who gave me a ‘blank cheque’ to develop community conservation programmes throughout Uganda.

By the time I left we had 52 groups, all in villages, all finding their own way out of poverty through tourism and handcraft activities. They determined their own development priorities, through tourism and related employment, communities were developing schools and clinics, people were even eating a more varied diet as they became familiar with the food that their visitors liked to eat. 

What do you teach at the OU? 

I teach TD223 the undergraduate module in International Development and DD870 Understanding Global Development, which is the first module in the OU’s new Masters programme in Global Development. I’m also part of the DD870 module team. I’ve retired from my full-time job in charge of International Education at Keele University, so having a little more free time has allowed me to do interesting things like work on designing curriculum, act as the plagiarism officer for DD870, work on a Scholarship project and complete my HEA Fellowship.

What do you like about it?

DD870 is designed so that you don’t need to have studied development before you study the module. Students in starting the module say apologetically ‘I’ve only got a business degree’ or ‘I’ve only worked in the NHS’ and I say ‘Perfect. You’ll have a focus of where development fits in’.

The key shift in DD870 is looking at development globally, not internationally – that is, development can be needed and take place at home, in your own community, as much it is needed internationally. Over the years development has been something somewhere else, so this concept can be one for students to get to grips with during the module. 

What kinds of students do you have? 

In my latest group I have two people who are 75 years of age and quite a few under 25. Only two or three did an undergraduate degree involving development studies. In the past I’ve had students studying from Japan, New Zealand, Cape Town, Rio de Janeiro and Washington DC and across Europe. Some are working in development-related roles. Some have no idea what they are going to do with their module or degree, but are studying DD870 because it looks interesting. 

Any students whose stories stand out for you? 

In my group last year I had six prisoners. Certainly with Covid, there was the challenge of communication with them, but also studying inside the prison was not straightforward under Covid lockdown. One student achieved a Distinction, and the five that completed the module have registered for DD871 this year.

What do you feel makes the OU distinctive? 

The quality of the teaching and resource materials. 

What is the most rewarding part of the role?

One: when the student gets it. I really enjoy interacting with students as much as possible, helping them to bring out their ideas and understanding. Watching students grow through the module and tutorials is very rewarding.

Two, which is a bit selfish: I do like to travel and with the OU I can tutor and be available to my students almost anywhere I might be in the world.