OU Associate Lecturer Professor Moira Laidlaw

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 Professor Moira Laidlaw who told us she can’t remember a time when she didn’t want to be a teacher. She started her career in a comprehensive school in Shropshire, then took an MEd at Bath University where she went on to teach Postgraduate Certificate of Education students and do a PhD in Living Educational Theory. She spent six years in China on a UK VSO (Voluntary Service Overseas) programme.

Why did you become an Open University tutor?

I signed up for a two-year VSO programme in China, which turned into a six-year programme because we opened an international centre at a very rural Chinese university, doing action research to help teacher trainers help their students to become good teachers.

I developed problems with my feet and had to return to the UK. I was in a wheelchair for six years. It was an incredibly difficult time; I was in so much pain, and I thought I’d lost my vocation. Then my sister said: ‘Why don’t you apply to teach at the OU?’ I started teaching Development Management modules in October 2009. It was a real revelation – I didn’t realise I could love teaching adults so much. And I haven’t looked back.

Why did you choose Development?

It was influenced by what I’d seen in China. The lack of infrastructure; lack of healthcare; lack of educational opportunities, which was devastating to someone like me who’d had their education handed to them on a plate. 

What do you teach at the OU?

I’ve been teaching on the very last presentation of TU874, the Development Management Project module, the final module in the old Masters in the Development Management programme. In October I’m starting on the first presentation of the new module DD872 Researching Global Development, which is the final module in the new Masters in Global Development. It’s new territory for all us tutors, so I started preparing for it three months ago. 

What I really like is the breadth of choice that students are being offered. Also it’s exceptionally rigorous. From what I’ve seen so far it offers students a very well-thought-through structure in which they can be researching something of genuine interest to themselves. 

And at important points in the module there are scheduled one-to-one conversations that tutors need to have with students. That has always been my favourite part of the job. It seems to me the absolute linchpin of what the Open University stands for.

Your doctorate is in Living Educational Theory. What is that?

It’s a highly qualitative paradigm where the investigator starts from their own self - how can “I” improve what I’m doing? So what I bring to my students is a sense of wanting to learn from them, as well as helping them to learn. Its underlying principles are about bringing certain kinds of values into the world, like democracy, social justice, fairness, hope, co-operation; and helping students to home in on those values.

Who are your students

They’re based all over the world, from many different backgrounds, ethnicities, cultures, religions; what unifies them is the desire to do something that will improve the quality of their lives. 

I would say the majority are working in some form of professional occupation that is around development, but some are studying for pure interest.

One of the things that I say to students in my introductory letter is that I will support them whatever their motives for doing the module. If they want to get the certificate, brilliant. Let's work on that. If they're seizing a personal opportunity, fantastic. Let's work on that.

What makes the OU distinctive for you? 

It really is the openness. The OU wants people to join in, and it tries to put up very few boundaries. In terms of entrance requirements, for example: you don’t have to have a first degree if you’re going to do a Masters. You need to have qualifications of some kind, but they don’t have to be the usually registered ones.

Do you ever find out what your students do after they leave?

Yes, quite a few of them keep in touch, which is really nice.