Digital media are increasingly used in classrooms and in different instructional settings finding their way into the lives of teachers and students (Brandhofer & Wiesner, 2018; Brüggemann, 2019). In the context of increasingly heterogeneous classrooms, digital media and technology can open up new, exciting opportunities for teaching and learning. However, taking advantage of these opportunities is not an easy task since teachers see themselves confronted with the need to overcome rigid classroom structures in order to meet the students' different learning needs. Especially in inclusive schooling, teachers are required to create an environment that provides possibilities for individualized learning with differentiated and cooperative learning approaches (Thiele & Bosse, 2019).

Open Educational Resources (OER) have a great potential for usage in inclusive teaching. The aim of OER is to encourage the creation and exchange of free, openly licensed, digitally available, and adaptable teaching materials. The possibility of using and adapting the materials for individual needs and sharing them with other teachers has the potential to create a diverse offer that can be used internationally. Since OER can be any educational material, there are no restrictions in terms of form or medium, the materials can range from course materials and textbooks to audio and video materials (Butcher, 2015). However, the pedagogical competences, the knowledge and skills of teachers, as well as the teachers' attitude towards technologies and digital media (Schmidt-Hertha, 2020) play a significant role in the successful use of (digital) OER in the classroom (Brüggemann, 2019, Schmidt-Hertha, 2020).

The numerous possibilities of OER for teaching and learning and the concrete application have so far been studied mainly in the field of higher education (e.g. Baas, Admiraal & van den Berg, 2019; Zagdragchaa & Trotter, 2017). There have been far fewer studies up to now regarding the school sector (Buchner & Höfler, 2020), and even less studies concerning the area of inclusive education. In particular, the perspective of teachers has been rarely explored on a qualitative scientific level (Otto, Schröder, Dieckmann & Sander, 2021), e.g. by involving them as experts in the pedagogical-practical implementation. In terms of teachers' knowledge on the topic of OER in general, as well as regarding the legal issues, the possibilities of use and the development of OER, only very few publications can be found in the current German- and English-language research literature. Nevertheless, those existing international studies point out that there is a clear lack of knowledge about the concept of OER among teachers (e.g. Hildah & Kinuya, 2021; Orwenjo & Erastus, 2018; Tang, Lin & Qian, 2021), although particularly for teachers in inclusive settings, OER can be an important design element of individualised teaching. To date, research on teachers’ needs and concerns with regard to OER and, in particular, on how teachers can be supported in implementing OER in the classroom is scarce. The present study aims to take a first step to fill this gap and lay the foundation for further research projects in this area.

To do so, the following research questions are addressed:

1. What do primary and secondary school teachers know about OER?
2. How do primary and secondary school teachers find, develop, implement, and share OER?
3. What knowledge gaps to be filled and training needs do primary and secondary school teachers report to effectively use OER in their teaching, create OER, and share them?

In the present study, we conducted semi-structured guided interviews with teachers that were actively teaching in a primary or secondary school in Austria. The interviews took place in spring/summer of 2022 (April to June) via the online tool Cisco Webex. Prior to the interview, an online questionnaire (LimeSurvey) for gathering information on their demographic data as well as teaching experience, type of school and teaching subjects was filled in by the interview partners. The interview guideline was developed based on an exhaustive literature review, went through feedback loops within the research team, and was pre-tested with a teacher. The final version of the guideline consists of the following ten core areas: (1) inclusion in the classroom, (2) inclusive teaching and software used, (3) defining OER, (4) experiences with OER, (5) usage of OER in the lessons, (6) seeking behavior and quality assessment of OER, (7) demands on the materials and evaluation of quality, (8) good examples of OER in the lessons, (9) producing and sharing OER, and (10) wishes and demands. A total of eleven teachers (10 female, 1 m) were interviewed. At the time of the interview, the teachers were on average 48 years old (SD=10.27) and worked at schools in the four Austrian provinces of Vorarlberg (45.5%), Styria (36.4%), Vienna (9.1%) and Burgenland (9.1%). Eight of them (72.7%) stated that they were working in an inclusive context. Two teachers stated that they teach in both primary and secondary schools, while two other teachers worked at a university college for teacher education in addition to a primary or secondary school. One teacher taught in a primary school with an integrated special needs school. On average, the teachers had 21 years of teaching experience (M=21.45; SD=13.19), with an average of 8 years (M=7.91; SD=7.73) of teaching in an inclusive context. The interviews lasted on average 99.73 minutes (SD=23.51, Min=70, Max=152). The transcription and analysis of the interviews was carried out using MAXQDA 2020 software. The analysis process followed the methodology of qualitative content analysis, based on Rädiker and Kuckartz (2019).

Based on the interviews, a clear lack of knowledge regarding the concept of OER is apparent among the teachers. Thus, the majority of the interviewees (n=9) indicated that they had never heard of this topic or at least had not dealt with it yet. Even the teachers (n=2), who reported to have some experience with OER, showed uncertainties about clearly defining and identifying OER. Since we expected this pattern, we provided a comprehensive definition of OER (UNESCO, 2012) during the interview (as part of the interview guide) to have a common understanding for further discussion of the topic. In general, all interviewed teachers expressed a positive attitude regarding the use of OER. Regarding the availability of materials, they expressed a strong desire to expand the range and quantity of the materials. Additionally, they reported difficulties in distinguishing OER from other (conditionally) free teaching materials, as many German language repositories provide a mixed offer. Individualisation of lessons and differentiation of materials are crucial parts of high-quality (inclusive) teaching and all teachers expressed a strong preference for file formats that allow easy adaptation of the materials. Furthermore, all eleven teachers stated that they create their own materials for teaching and would be basically willing to share them as OER. However, they actually refrained from doing so because of uncertainties regarding the process of publication and licensing. This fits well with the teachers' desire to address the concept OER in teacher education and further training, linking theory and practice. In summary, three major areas of demand were identified in our study: (1) an expansion and consolidation of available, quality-assured OER in a well-structured repository, (2) guidelines and support for sharing their own OER and (3) an expansion of teacher training and further education regarding OER.

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