Azim Premji Foundation

Towards a just equitable humane and sustainable society

Voluntary Spaces for Teacher

Professional Development

Contents

Azim Premji Foundation: Vision, Focus and Institutions

Voluntary Teacher Forum – A short Film

Voluntary Teacher Forum – History, Concept and Learnings

Teacher Learning Center – History, Concept and Learnings

Scalability

3

Azim Premji Foundation

• Vision: Towards a just, equitable, humane and sustainable society

• Good education for such a society

• Work for improving public schooling system (Kindergarten to 12th standard)

– Operating Organization

– Equity & Quality in public schools

– Focus is on systemic improvement

– Where possible, contribute to other fields of Human Development

• Two integrated strands of work (Ex: The two cases)

– Field Work – in collaboration with states

– University – Develop talent and knowledge for Education &

Development sector

Driving Systemic Change

• Long term, sustained By establishing “Institutions”

• Work at all levels Block, District, State, Centre

• Work on all strands e.g. Teacher Preparation, Professional Development,

Education Management, Curriculum, Assessment, Policy, Teacher & Learning

Material

• Advocacy & Communication Be ready to do it/have done it – what you are

advocating

• Strength is integration

– Field Work – action-driven yet thoughtful & knowledge generating

– University connected to ground, real issues

• Focused engagement with communities for Education

• At scale work models that can work at scale

High intensity work in relatively backward areas

Azim Premji University – clear social purpose

• University focused on Education and Development

– Teaching programs to prepare committed, capable people for Education &

Development sectors

– Research – relevant to India

– Deeply integrated with field work

• Faculty multidisciplinary : Humanity, Social Science, Science, Education,

Livelihoods, Law, etc.

• Over the long term offer programs through all our field institutes

• 2.6 million sq. ft. , 90 acre campus planned

Voluntary Spaces For Teacher

Professional Development

Voluntary Teacher Forum

Both are not separate

Teacher Learning Centers/BAC

Availability of space and

resources for discussion

Residential VTF/Worksho

p

Voluntary Teacher Forum

Voluntary Teacher Forum – A short Film

History

• The genesis of teacher forums is rooted in concerns of teachers, organizational

priorities and joint initiative

• Foundation believes that teacher professional development is an experiential,

organic and long term process

• A group of teachers were concerned about the way trainings take place and the

value that they add

• Mutual discussions evolved a platform for sharing and learning.

• The first collective dialogue between teachers started on 30th July 2009 in

Malpura Block, District Tonk-Rajasthan

• Since then it has spread in 4 states (Rajasthan, Uttrakhand, Karnataka and

Chhatisgarh), 9 Districts and all blocks of these districts

• The range of issues that gets discussed ranges from philosophical, pedagogical

to Knowing. Issues like why do we need schools to how do we know earth is

spherical etc.

Concept

• Teacher Forum is conceptualized as a self-help commune, a group, which

undertakes responsibility for its own professional development. (Developed

Profession as Doctors and Accountants)

• The central assumption behind the forum is that there is no absolute expert who

can provide solutions and address the needs of the group. Instead every

member should work together to seek collective solutions

• Problems encountered are not theoretical or hypothetical in nature, they are

burning problems which every practitioner wants to address to make their

classroom processes more effective and inclusive in nature

Concept

• The Teachers' Forum is a flat, democratic and informal platform where there is no

hierarchy between different participants. Everyone has the same stake over the

issues and their strength to influence a discussion or dialogue is based on their

logic and reasoning strength rather than their power or position

• This is a voluntary platform based on the whims of the members of the group.

The group decides when to meet, where to meet, what to discuss, and how to

take the forum ahead. The forum functions based on the norms decided by the

group

• Foundation plays a facilitator’s role, an important one

• Discussion time 2-3 hours

Some data to reflect

S. N State Number

of VTFs

Blocks Initiated in Teachers

enrolled

Number of

Teachers

who have

been regular

in 50% and

more VTFs

Total

Number of

VTFs since

inception

Number of

VTFs

facilitated by

Govt.

Teachers

Oldest Newest

1 Rajasthan 30

Operating in all

twenty-one blocks of

three districts viz.

Tonk, Sirohi and

Barmer

2009 2014 1016 396 420 41

2 Uttarakhand

10

Operating in _ blocks

of three districts viz.

Udham Singh Nagar,

Uttarkashi,

Champawat and

Almora

2009 2014 343 183 240 64

3

Chhattisgarh

*(Intensive

engagement

with

teachers)

9

Operating in all three

blocks of Dhamtari

district

2012 2013 150 125 48 -

4 Karnataka 24 All three block

Total 9 TLC

2009

(3)

2011(3 )

Total 9

TLCs

2012 (3

TLC)

1745 320 45 6

Total 73 Total 3254 1015 742 111

What makes it work? Most critical factors

• Commitment and Belief – We have experienced that forums where we had an

initial core of members who were committed and had a belief in collective action

for common good, are the ones where we can see a marked difference in people

capacities

• Ownership, Initiative and No Compulsion – Forums which were jointly

initiated by Foundation and Teachers initially are now owned by teaching

community as compared to forums where we had significant role in initiating

forums

• Quality of Transactions – What you choose to discuss, subject knowledge of

facilitator, and Facilitation.

• Resource Mobilization – This has been a critical factor in ensuring the

continuity of forums. Forums where more local resources (Resource Person,

TLM, Content etc) have been mobilized are the ones which are more regular

• Availability of resources at Teacher Learning Center/Block Activity Center

• Escalation of unresolved issues to Residential Teacher Forum Workshop

of longer duration (3 days)

How voluntary is voluntary?

• We must see its evolution in continuum rather than two distinct ends.

• Anchor is a must (Chakmak Clubs and Football Team)

Voluntary Spaces For Teacher

Professional Development

Teacher Learning Centre

Background - TLCs

• Emerged out of growing concern of the organization and teachers

-Internal capacity building – no adequate space like library,

laboratory, articles, magazines, internet

-Limited need based capacity building efforts

-Very few opportunities for teachers – sharing their experiences and

learn from others best practices

• Our understanding that capacity building is not one time affair but

integrated, consistent and organic

• In some states TLCs have evolved out of VTFs and in some states VTFs

have followed TLCs

• Professional development of teachers - Informal spaces play key

role/Learnings from VTFs and other interventions

• Access to educational resources is critical for teacher professional

development

• Hence Azim Premji Foundation thought of establishing Teacher Learning

Centre across the location

Teacher Learning Centre

• It is an open space for teachers with resources- books, Science and

Maths equipment's, e-resources, computer with internet facilities and

sports materials

• Creates a voluntary and free space for the professional development of

the teachers’ community

• Space for the teachers to engage in improving their conceptual, technical

and human relation skills

• A place where democratic values are visible

• Free space for teachers to share their experiences and learn from each

other.

• Building provided by Govt. in a school premises/BRC campus and

resources by Azim Premji Foundation. At some places buildings are

rented places.

• Established 47 Teacher Learning Centers in four states (Rajasthan,

Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka) with a bottom up approach

Teacher Learning Centre Activities ( TLC)

Formal

• Workshops - bimonthly, Seminars – weekly, Subject forums, Newsletter, demonstrations

Informal

• VTFs, Regular visit in the evening (15-20 every day evening) borrowing books and equipment, chatting, discussing, sharing, reading, browsing, developing TLMs, playing games

Teachers in action in TLC

Number of Teacher Learning Centres

State No. of district No. of blocks No. of TLCs

Rajasthan 3 21 21

Uttarakhand 3 13 13

Chhattisgarh 1 3 3

Karnataka 2 4 10

Total 9 41 47

Challenges

• It was assumed that centre will be run by group of teachers. It did

not happen for a year. We had to appoint coordinator for the

centre. The coordinators also were not able to attract teachers

initially

• It would be difficult to convert Cluster Resource Centre into active

TLC

• Limited involvement of ladies teachers (they are 30%) – after

school hours

• It is difficult to sustain excitement in every activity

• Expanding reach, coverage - non resident, distance factor

• Continuing as a volunteer space for teachers to develop

Insights

• Providing free and non-threatening space and a voluntary involvement is the

key

• Teachers own the process/material when it will be designed, planned and

prepared by them.

• The personal interaction and rapport building play significant role in attracting

teachers

• Subject forums can play a vital role in meaningful engagement of teachers

• Demand based – bottom up approach, organic growth

• Informal interactions, along with formal interventions, play a very important role in

building the capacity of the teachers

• TLC run by teachers group and CRP, expanding to other block

Scalability

Conceptually and Potentially these concepts are very much scalable as the

concept is built as a self help commune. But this will have 6 essential pre-

requisites.

• Long term commitment from an anchor and human interactions

• An initial group of committed teachers at each place

• Some internal mechanism to ensure the quality of discussions

• Availability of space

• Ability of govt./non govt. institutions to find good people

• 3 Lakhs to invest initially and maintenance cost

Thank you!

Language

Education Initiatives

Education in election manifesto

Indus valley civilization

Mathematical operations

Number system

Giju Bhai’s work Origin of the earth

Earth is

spherical?

Photosynthesis

Acid and Base

Pedagogy of reading and writing

Bilingualism

Whole Language Approach

Story telling Vocabulary building

Science pedagogy Identifying Sanskrit word in

Kannada

RTE CCE

NCF Role of teacher

Theatre in Education

School Development Plan

Quality Education

Aims of Education

Contextualizing

Learning

Language Teaching Approaches Algorithms & Concepts

Nature of

Subjects

Concept of light

For more information, please visit:

www.azimpremjifoundation.org

www.azimpremjiuniversity.edu.in