There is an urgent need to address the gaps in the professional development of teacher educators and teachers in South Asia, particularly in response to the requirements of the evolving educational reforms in the region. The use of distance learning technologies, action research and professional communities of practice remain largely untapped opportunities for teacher professional development in these countries.

This project will implement elements of two innovative approaches on Teacher Professional Development (TPD) developed by the Centre of Excellence in Teacher Education(CETE), Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS). It is designed for under-resourced and developing contexts where it will be collaboratively adapted to suit the national contexts of the participating countries in South Asia. It will entail the usage of diverse technologies and modalities for TPD that are context-appropriate, combined with action research and social learning through the formation of Professional Learning Communities while building on the communities of practice that exist or get developed through mobile-based chat groups.

The consortium is a South-South collaboration of higher education institutions and a global non-profit entity to address the poor quality of teacher professional development for distance teaching and learning. CETE, Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) India is the co-lead and knowledge partner for the proposed innovation. The learnings from the CETE’s award-winning and globally recognized initiatives on TPD developed in and for under-resourced and developing contexts will be adapted, piloted, and researched in Afghanistan, Maldives and Nepal.