ARTICLE - TEACHERS WITHOUT BORDERS

TEACHERS WITHOUT BORDERS LAUNCH TEACHER DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM IN HAITI
(Defend Haiti) - By TWB

SEATTLE - On Monday, August 8th, Teachers Without Borders launched an innovative, demand-driven teacher professional development program in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

Titled, "Building Capacity for Teaching and Learning" (Renforcement des cadres pour l'enseignement et l'apprentissage), the French-language program will help Haitian teachers improve their professional knowledge and classroom practice, become mentors and leaders in their schools and communities, learn how to apply their new skills in their classrooms by completing practice-based projects, and become mentors and facilitators in subsequent editions of the program, planned for 2012 and 2013.

Offered in cooperation with the Haitian Ministry of Education, this Teachers Without Borders professional development program was made possible by the Department of Human Development, Education and Culture (DHDEC) of the Organization of American States, which funded scholarships for thirty K-12 Haitian teachers. The scholarship program will be offered throughout 2011, 2012, and 2013. Two more sessions are planned for the Fall of 2011 and six more for the following two years.

As the name of the program suggests, its goal is to help develop a cadre of local teacher leaders who will gradually assume leadership over the program in Haiti.

According to Dr. Konrad Glogowski, Executive Director of Teachers Without Borders, the capacity-building part of the program is one of its key elements and an important part of the organization's approach to teacher development: "We know that professional development imposed by an outside program or entity is not a sustainable strategy, and a largely ineffective one. This is why we worked closely with the Organization of American States and the Haitian Ministry of Education to ensure that the program meets local needs, that it builds upon local expertise, and provides opportunities for local leaders and program graduates to take ownership of the program. No one knows the Haitian context better than the teachers who work there every day. That's why they will soon become mentors and facilitators of the program, online and offline."

The first edition of the Building Capacity for Teaching and Learning program will be facilitated by experienced educators and TWB members from around the world. The onsite part of the program, facilitated by an experienced Haitian teacher educator and a Fulbright grant recipient, will take place at the Organization of American States Computer Center, located at Ecole Supérieure d’Informatique d’Haiti (ESIH) in Port-au-Prince. The online component will be delivered remotely by three facilitators (from Seattle, Lille, and Montreal) using an online community created specifically for this purpose. This first session of the program will conclude at the end of September 2011.