Second Online Conversation: Analysis and use of a new framework tool from the TPD@Scale Coalition that utilizes ICTs to strengthen TPD systems
December 12, 2024
On Wednesday, December 4, the second Online Conversation from the Empowering Teachers Initiative (ETI) entitled: “Harnessing ICT for Large-Scale Teacher Professional Development: A Framework to Help Users Think, Design, and Implement TPD Strategies” was held.
The event, organized by FIT-ED, Foundation for Information Technology Education and Development, SUMMA, the Laboratory for Education Research and Innovation in Latin America and the Caribbean, and the TPD@Scale Coalition, featured the presentation of the new tool from the TPD@Scale Coalition: “A framework for strengthening teacher professional development systems with ICT”.
The conversation began with welcoming remarks by Florencio Ceballos, Senior Program Specialist with the Knowledge Innovation Exchange (KIX), International Development Research Centre (IDRC), who, through a previously recorded video, commented: “Working around scaling is not an easy thing, we believe that scaling happens sometimes in ways that are unpredictable by nature, that windows of opportunity for scaling in innovation happen or occur at a time where we are not prepared, or we are not looking at, or in ways that are not the ones we originally thought. Being prepared for that and having scaling strategies help that purpose”.
Dante Castillo, Director of Policy and Innovative Practices at SUMMA and ETI Program Leader, gave a brief introduction on the project “Adapting and scaling teacher professional development approaches in Ghana, Honduras and Uzbekistan”, implemented from 2022 to 2023, and commented on how the framework has been implemented in these 3 countries.
This was followed by a presentation from Freda Wolfenden, Professor of Education and International Development at The Open University, and Research Lead of ETI, who explained the framework and its pillars, as well as how to apply it.
Afterwards, a panel discussion was held with the participation of Nidia R. Montoya Arias, Technical Assistant for International Cooperation Programs and Projects, Secretariat of Education of Honduras, and Hiyas Clamor-Torneo, Specialist at SEAMEO Innotech, who discussed in depth how this framework has been used in Honduras and Southeast Asia.
The event ended with the words of Dante Castillo, who thanked the presence of the panelists as well as the participation of those who connected to the event and concluded that “a broader, wider perspective I think is key in order to think about TPD as a whole system and that is connected precisely with the idea of this framework as a learning tool, is how this analytical framework can help decision makers, practitioners, designers to think and having this wider perspective.”
Background
The Online Conversations Series, organized by ETI, brings together high-level experts, policymakers, organizations, researchers, among other key actors from the international educational arena to analyze and discuss how to improve teacher professional development at scale in the Global South.
Learn more about this series of conversations here.
