ProTEEM provides Professionalisation of Teacher Educators in English and Mathematics for students’ academic equity and success through quality literacy and numeracy education. More than 30 senior or junior teacher educators from four universities in the DR Congo (UNIKIN, UNILU, UCB) and Zambia (KNU), will profit from the expertise in scarce resource education from Antwerp University (B), Kaunas University of Technology (LT), Stellenbosch University (SA) and Rhodes University (SA). ProTEEM focuses on continuous professional development (CPD) in inclusive, autonomy-enhancing and blended learning environments for English and Maths to increase gender equality and reduce poverty through quality education.
Next to teacher training, the Inspectorate and teacher associations are also involved in the dissemination of project outputs: lesson plans and materials for flipped classrooms, blended learning, gender-responsive tasks, low-tech digital tools, etc. Research into the project outcomes has added capacity building value that all our HEIs as education and research institutions with a community service mission benefit from: the partners collaborate in PhD projects on the effectiveness of the project’s hybrid CPD approach in the specific context of low-income countries. Four female PhD students, affiliated to each DRC HEI and to UNZA (Zambia), will collect and analyse CPD (transfer) data from the CPD participants and their students.
ProTEEM efficiently (1) focuses on CPD of teacher educators, capitalising on their multiplier effect (train the trainer & trickle-down effects), (2) improves both literacy and numeracy, because quality English and Maths education is crucial for educational equity and socioeconomic emancipation, and (3) adopts a sustainable hybrid on-site/online training approach, with evidence-informed modular blended learning.