UNESCO’s Section for Teacher Development and the International Task Force on Teachers for Education 2030 are organizing a workshop on adult educators and literacy practitioners: recasting the profession as part of the Seventh International Conference on Adult Education (CONFINTEA VII).
The workshop will examine the working conditions and professional development of adult education teachers, particularly at the literacy and basic education level, and will identify key challenges to improve the quality of teaching and the social standing of the profession. The session will explore examples -from different world regions- concerning the institutionalization of adult education in teacher training and higher education institutions, and policy measures that have been implemented to harness the social standing, labor standards and professional development of adult education practitioners.
Recent studies and analyses of the impact of the COVID-19 on adult learning confirm that youth and adult literacy educators still find themselves in the most precarious position of any group of educators; they receive much less policy attention compared to schoolteachers; and are among the lowest paid teachers and receive the least training (UNESCO, 2020, p.2). In addition, in many world regions, adult educators are usually characterized by low -or a lack of- qualifications and specific training on the education of young people and adults who have been marginalized from basic education.
Against this background, and inspired by the renewed role of teachers depicted in the Futures of Education Commission Report (UNESCO, 2021) the panel will explore alternatives for the institutionalization and professional development of adult education teachers and will provide policy recommendations in order to recast the profession.
Guiding questions:
Format and languages:
The workshop will be fully in person. It will consist of a brief presentation of the current challenges facing adult education teachers followed by a conversation and examples of policies and education programmes aimed at improving the social standing and professional development of adult educators.
The discussion will have a global geographical scope with interpretation in English and French.
Speakers
The workshops will be moderated by Mr. Carlos Vargas, Chief of Section for Teacher Development at UNESCO and Head of Secretariat for the Teacher Task Force and it aims to bring together voices from universities, teacher education institutions, civil society, teacher organizations and regional intergovernmental organizations.
For more information please see here.
The session can be followed on-line here.
Please register here
In the lead-up to the Transforming Education Summit 2022 two public consultations are being organized as part of the Action Track 3 on “Teachers, teaching and the teaching profession”.
The first global consultation held on 24 May involved a discussion of the draft issues paper and focused on teacher shortages, working conditions and teacher preparation and training and development of teacher leadership.
The second consultation will dive deeper into these topics and focus on two questions:
Action Track 3 of the Transforming Education Summit on “Teachers, teaching and the teaching profession” will address the following key issues: (a) addressing teacher shortages; (b) improving working and professional conditions for teachers; (c) improving teacher preparation and training and (d) foster teacher leadership. It will identify successful policy interventions, compile a catalogue of good practices to inspire, and, crucially, to mobilize the global education community to make concrete commitments and to take action, building where possible on existing initiatives, partnerships and coalitions.
It is being led by representatives of two member states (Nigeria and Romania) and the International Task Force on Teachers for Education 2030 which has been officially designated as the co-lead stakeholder. The work of the Action Track is being supported by the UN Support team, comprised of the International Labor Organisation (anchor), and UNESCO (alternate), UNICEF, UNHCR, UNRWA and the World Bank.
As part of its new main line of action on national and regional policy learning, The Teacher Task Force is co-organising a series of workshops for the Asia Pacific Region with the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organisation (SEAMEO), in cooperation with Philippines. The first workshop will be held on 1 July, followed by a second workshop in October/November. Between the two workshops, additional reflection by the TTF Secretariat and the regional Steering Committee members will take place to verify assumptions and refine regional policy learning needs for the second workshop.
In particular, the workshops aim to foster exchange and discussion in support of holistic and comprehensive teacher policy development as illustrated in the Teacher Policy Development Guide (TPDG) and its nine interconnected dimensions as a framework. This workshop will focus on common policy learning need related to teacher education and teacher standards including issues related to capacity building, teacher training, qualifications, licensing, and its relationship to the professionalisation of the teaching career framed in regional framework to establish teacher standards. In addition to this, countries demonstrated an interest in the ICT dimension of teacher education including ICT skills and pedagogies for remote and distance teaching. They also demonstrated learning needs related to social dialogue and school leadership.
Country focal points and deputies, including both country and organisational members, will be invited to the Asia Pacific regional workshop. Other key partners with regional remits will be consulted and invited to actively participate as they are familiar with regional policy learning needs.
For more information contact Thomas, Yael (y.thomas@unesco.org) or Algohani, Maram (m.algohani@unesco.org).
This 11th KIX EAP Webinar will cover the topic of “Building the Capacity of Teachers at Scale for Inclusive and Equitable Quality Education”.
The webinar draws upon the work done by the Teacher Professional Development at Scale (TPD@Scale) Coalition for the Global South to examine how the capacity of teachers could be built at scale for inclusive and equitable quality education. It first explains how TPD@Scale has been conceptualized based on research evidence from effective TPD and learning at scale. This conceptualization then drives the development of sustainable, inclusive, equity-focused, and large scale TPD programs at the national, provincial or district level.
By studying these programs in different countries including the Philippines, Indonesia, and India, three key insights are discussed:
The case study of Uzbekistan will be shared to demonstrate how these three key insights and the TPD@Scale conceptualization have been adapted and localized to ensure the capacity building of teachers at scale.
Organized by NORRAG, in partnership with the Teacher Professional Development at Scale (TPD@Scale) Coalition for the Global South, the webinar will be conducted in English with interpretation into Arabic and Russian.
Time: 4:00-5:30 ET / 9:00-10:30 GMT / 10:00-11:30 CET
To mark the 2022 International Day of Education, Linda Darling-Hammond* reflects on the challenges and opportunities for teachers brought about by the global pandemic.
The education systems of today are too often inherited from decades-old structures and procedures, born in the industrial era, which have not evolved to meet the educational needs of the 21st century. However, the disruptions caused by the global pandemic have created a wide range of opportunities to reinvent education by opening up new roles for teachers to recreate schools. The COVID-19 pandemic has also made clear the urgency of capitalizing on innovations that have emerged for creating child-centred approaches to foster 21st century education systems.
In many countries, schools are being reinvented under the leadership of teachers. During the pandemic, teachers joined hands to innovate and support each other during school closures - by exchanging technical assistance in using new technologies, curating resources, using digital platforms, and developing innovative pedagogies, including those that build independence and resilience in learning. Novel approaches to education are appearing in teaching, teacher preparation and development, and school design.
During the crisis, teachers around the world led the efforts to connect students and their families to schools digitally (and in other ways) by ensuring access, sharing ideas with other teachers and with parents, and by creating partnerships. Many teachers demonstrated resourcefulness during the crisis leading content design, facilitating capacity building as peer leaders, mentoring and readily adopting and catalysing change within their schools.
Ashok Pandy wrote that “teacher leadership has been redefined, reflecting a shift from conventional positional roles – coordinators, faculty heads, headmistresses, or vice-principals – ascribing power and authority to the holder. Teacher leadership is now determined by the proactive roles that teachers play, initiatives they undertake, and the support they render to leadership, students, and parents.”
Countries are urged to support teachers to develop and share their innovations for the future of education, advancing the necessary change to build back better education systems.
During this time there has also been a growing awareness of new discoveries in the science of learning and child development, including the ways in which relationships and contexts determine brain development and learning. These insights emphasize the need for a whole child approach to education that takes into consideration each student's academic, social, and emotional development in learner-centred and culturally relevant ways.
When this occurs, students thrive, as innovative schools in the United States have demonstrated. Educators in cities from New York to Los Angeles have created personalized school models that rethink the factory model we inherited, which produces large anonymous schools with high dropout rates. These schools, which are run democratically and organized around teaching teams and advisory systems, allow teams of teachers to plan interdisciplinary, project-based curriculum for a shared group of students, while supporting them emotionally as well as academically.
Many of these sites that rely on teacher leadership are community schools which help make education more relevant to students’ lives through an aligned curriculum that provides experiential education rooted in community concerns. Such schools engage in strong partnerships with families, along with connections to local organizations that partner on afterschool activities and a wide range of health and social service supports. As schools have built their capacity to more fully meet student needs, their students – especially those in low-income communities -- have experienced stronger academic success, graduation rates, and access to college.
A key aspect of building this capacity is developing environments that foster teacher collaboration, leadership, and decision-making as core elements of the school design, while involving teachers themselves in the process. In countries participating in the 2018 Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS), teachers who reported opportunities to participate in decision-making at the school level had higher levels of job satisfaction and were more likely to see teaching as a valued profession in their countries. However, only 42% of principals reported that their teachers have significant responsibility over a large share of tasks related to school policies, curriculum, and instruction, and just 56% reported that teachers have a role in the school management team.
Professional and collaborative working environments proved to be vital building blocks for developing collective teacher efficacy, which research suggests is one of the most crucial factors influencing student achievement. The TALIS survey data show that, around the world, opportunities for teacher collaboration are strongly associated with their sense of efficacy and effectiveness. Such opportunities are also associated with teachers’ willingness and ability to implement innovative practices like project-based learning, the use of new technologies, and the higher order skills needed for 21st century economies and societies.
A growing body of research has established that effective professional development, which produces gains in student achievement, is intensive, collaborative, job-embedded and classroom focused. In the TALIS study, while three quarters of teachers globally reported that their teaching practice was positively influenced by collaborative forms of professional development, only 44% reported participating in such professional learning.
Successful education systems prioritise time and other resources for teachers to collaborate, share knowledge and practices, and engage in collective decision-making to enable innovation, improve effectiveness, and build shared knowledge and collective efficacy in their teaching. This requires change in how we conceptualise and invest in teacher preparation, working conditions, professional learning, career pathways, remuneration and evaluation systems.
Preparing the next generation of teachers, with the best knowledge and support that our systems can offer, is ultimately the most powerful approach to enable student learning and directly contribute to transforming education. This is particularly true when those teachers adopt whole-child education strategies and pedagogies. To ensure teachers can innovate and that these can be scaled up effectively based on a whole-child paradigm, education systems need to listen to teachers and provide them with the tools they need - including effective training and various means of support. This includes integrating the family, community, and societal dimensions into curriculum, pedagogy, and organizational design. Systems will also benefit by enabling teachers to innovate and lead in schools organized for professional collaboration, with opportunities to connect across schools and communities to share what they have invented and learned. It is only by building on and expanding the creativity and capacity of teachers that we can design 21st century schools that truly meet students’ and societies’ needs.
*Linda Darling Hammond is the Charles E. Ducommun Professor of Education Emeritus at Stanford University and founding president of the Learning Policy Institute. You can access her full presentation at the following link: See ‘36:21.
References
Pandey, A. K. (2021). Teacher leadership during COVID-19. Teacher India, 15(1): 10-12. https://research.acer.edu.au/teacher_india/39/
OECD (2020), TALIS 2018 Results (Volume II): Teachers and School Leaders as Valued Professionals, TALIS, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/19cf08df-en
OECD Education and Skills Today. (2020, January 22). Reflections on the Forum for World Education. OECD Education and Skills Today. Retrieved January 8, 2022, from https://oecdedutoday.com/reflections-forum-for-world-education/