Harnessing ICTs to improving equity in teacher professional learning systems

Group Submission Type: Workshop

Description of Session

The provision of quality TPD at scale is imperative to support movement towards equity in learning for all students across the globe. But scaling quality TPD to make it available and productive for all teachers poses a considerable challenge. Evidence from our work in KIX and ETI suggests digital technologies can support in improving equity in TPD if selected and used in ways which are appropriate to local contexts and professional needs.

Workshop Learning Objectives:
- deliberating on how we understand equity in teacher professional learning,
-considering different design options for integrating ICTs into large scale TPD programmes in a range of contexts; and
-reflecting on opportunities and challenges that arise in the field for ensuring that TPD mediated by ICTs is equitable.
Workshop delivery
This in-person, activity-based workshop will offer an interactive space for practitioners, researchers and funders to learn about conceptions of equity in TPD and approaches to ICT mediated TPD; discuss experiences with peers and consider how they might apply these ideas to TPD programmes or studies,
The workshop will start with a short presentation of findings from a synthesis study carried out by the Global Partnership for Education Knowledge and Innovation Exchange (KIX) on recent TPD focussed studies - nine KIX research projects and two projects funded by IDRC. The projects analysed in this synthesis implemented innovative strategies to improve TPD across the Global South including through the introduction of ICT-components with different objectives and intensities.
Margarita's presentation will provide evidence on how innovative practices on TPD can be adapted and scaled. Focusing on lessons learned from different approaches in diverse contexts, the presentation will provide the opportunity for participants to discuss in groups how these find-ings resonate with their own experiences. What are challenges in creating and consolidating expertise, like mentorship practices, to support the process of teacher professional develop-ment? What is the potential and realistic options of the use of ICTs for teacher professional development in Southern countries?

This will be followed by a series of short presentations from the Empowering Teachers Initiative ( (IDRC funded):

John and Kris' presentation will focus on improving access to quality TPD in in remote, sparsely populated areas in Zambia. He will share how the use of Raspberry Pi computers (with solar chargers) have provided off line access to digital materials via teachers’ smart phones to support collaborative professional learning leading to more equitable relationships in schools.
Eliane will present an online TPD methodology, its impact on teachers’ agency and the stress test it has passed in the most challenging circumstance that Lebanon has been through in its modern history, albeit, linking teacher agency to system change.
The TPD model being implemented at national scale in Tanzania is founded on blended learning in school-based Communities of Learning (CoL), supported by CoL modules available on a Swahili-language LMS via mobile app and web browser. The Tanzania team’s presentation will share promising innovations to ensure that all teachers, including women and men, teachers with disabilities and chronic illnesses,and those in rural schools can equitably engage in blended Communities of Learning.
Marzia will focus on contextual and equitable TPD for English language teachers who teach in the multilingual and multicultural context of government-run higher primary schools that cater to students of religious and linguistic minority populations in India. It will discuss the role that EdTech and Open Educational Resources (OER) are playing in scaling TPD for integrating digital story-based pedagogy in language learning.
Presentations will be interspersed with a range of activities to explore the ways in which digital tools support transformation of Global South TPD while centring the professional needs of teachers.

Sub Unit

• Book launches and Workshops / Workshop

Chair

• Freda Wolfenden, The Open University, UK

Workshop Organizer

• Freda Wolfenden, The Open University, UK

Presenters

• MARGARITA PEÑA, Independent

• Marzia Ibrahim, IT for Change

• Kristeen Chachage, Independent Consultant

• Fika Burton Mwakabungu, EdTech Hub

• Kris Stutchbury, The Open University (UK)

• Eliane Metni, International Education Association

• John Phiri, World Vision Zambia