The Teacher Education in Sub-Saharan Africa (TESSA) project is a multi-country project that serves the development and research needs of teachers through open education resources (OER) made available both through the Internet and other traditional print resources (Moon, 2010). Using TESSA, teachers can find locally made teaching materials that were created using both their curriculum and language. As of 2010 it was estimated that over 400,000 teachers have benefited from TESSA in 19 teacher education programs across sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) (Murphy & Wolfenden, 2013). Survey results from the various institutions show significant impact. For example 82% of participants in South Africa saw improvements in student engagement after implementing pedagogical approaches learned through TESSA (Moon, 2010). TESSA is a good example of the benefits of promoting local at-will adoption of pedagogical change that is more likely to be sustainable. Because TESSA is locally driven, it allows for teachers to truly engage with their learning in a meaningful way that studies have shown has a strong impact on student learning. The use of TESSA facilitates a range of training opportunities (e.g. communities of practice) and with the additional support from local teacher educators or coaches has the potential to foster the development of new, locally developed solutions for classroom pedagogical reform. OERs would help to provide substantial support to refugee teachers. 

Learn more about TESSA here: http://www.tessafrica.net/files/tessafrica/Briefing_note_general_June_2012.pdf