Where It's Needed Most
Quality professional development for all teachers
This guide is based on rich information that emerged from the INEE-hosted online forum on Teacher Professional Development in Crisis. Experts from around the world participated in this forum to discuss the status of teacher professional development (TPD) in fragile and crisis-affected contexts. The forum resulted in the ideas and recommendations that are presented throughout the guide, including TPD standards; continued support of teachers; the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT); and the definition of quality teachers in such contexts, among others. The guide is organized into the following sections:
- Fragility and Education: This section discusses our working view of fragility, providing a more expansive definition than may be found in existing literature.
- Teaching, Learning and Professional Development in Fragile Contexts: This section describes barriers to effective teacher professional development as gathered through content analysis of authors' articles and the ensuing discussion in the Teacher Professional Development in Crisis (TPD in Crisis) series.
- Recommendations: This section presents a set of seven recommendations that emerged from the TPD in Crisis series on how to improve teacher professional development in fragile contexts. The recommendations are listed below.
- Professional Development Cannot Wait: A summary of recommendations and other themes that emerged from the TPD in Crisis discussion series.
- Annotated Bibliography: The guide includes an online list of annotated resources that touch on issues of teacher professional development in fragile contexts (http://www.ineesite.org/en/annotated-bibliography-teacher-professional-development-in-crisis)
From January to May 2013, the Inter-Agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE) hosted a 19-week online forum, Teacher Professional Development in Crisis, (referred to throughout this guide as TPD in Crisis) to discuss the state of professional development in some of the world's most fragile contexts. Nineteen nationally- and internationally-known professional development experts participated in this forum. They were asked to address the following question: How can we improve teacher professional development in the world's poorest and most fragile places? Authors shared their views on effective professional development or teacher learning in "fragile" contexts – in post-conflict contexts like Lebanon, newly formed and politically vulnerable nations such as South Sudan, low-income contexts in Sub-Saharan Africa and urban, at-risk schools in the United States. These experts touched on a range of factors that contribute to effective professional development – leadership, resources, using appropriate professional development models, appropriate uses of technology and the need for skilled teacher educators.
Below are the seven major recommendations emerging from the Teacher Professional Development in Crisis online forum:
- Recommendation 1: Focus on teachers in fragile contexts – as professionals, learners and individuals
- Recommendation 2: Develop, apply, measure and institutionalize standards for teacher professional development
- Recommendation 3: Create professional development opportunities that promote teacher collaboration
- Recommendation 4: Provide teachers with ongoing support
- Recommendation 5: Invest in high-quality teacher educators
- Recommendation 6: Build instructional leadership at all levels of the educational system
- Recommendation 7: Use ICT to provide access to content, professional development and professional learning communities