Final celebration and team presentations

The original plan for the end of the project (pre-pandemic) was to hold a conference in Abidjan where teachers, mentors and guests could all come together to celebrate the journey we have been on and make plans for the future. Because of Covid, we had to think of alternative ways to bring this phase of …

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Preparing for final presentations

This project has twisted and turned throughout its life and we are coming to the end of what we hope might only be a first phase. The 20 March, 21 meeting was a preparation day for what will be a mini conference where the teacher groups will present the activity they have been engaged in. …

Inquiry-led practice project: pandemic delayed restart

This was a re-start of our project that got paused by the Covid-19 pandemic. The 2nd workshop happened in Dabou, Cote d’Ivoire on 29th February, 2020, and then a third with Manchester colleagues online and the teachers and local teacher education colleagues in Dabou on 14th March. We then attempted to continue to carry on …

Inquiry-led practice: Moving from critical incidents to focused puzzles

The second workshop of the pilot study on Inquiry-led practice took place at Lycée Moderne Leboutou, Dabou, Cote d’Ivoire, on 29 February, 2020. Following the first meeting held a week before, participants spent time identifying tentative occurrences of critical incidents in their classes. During that period, some participants shared their critical incidents on the Whatsapp …

Inquiry-led practice in Cote d’Ivoire: project beginnings

Following on from the two British Council projects from 2018-2019, the British Council English Language Teaching Research Award (ELTRA) and English Connects projects, we are now starting to work on a new teacher development initiative with our colleagues in Côte d’Ivoire. The new project, funded by the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF), has the title: …

Report on the Pre-Conference Event 8th August 2019, Abuja, Nigeria. Teachers in Action: Exploring Global Issues through classroom research

Africa TESOL Pre-Conference Event jointly organized by IATEFL GISIG and IATEFL RESIG was held at the National Commission of College Education in Abuja on the 8th August 2019 which was enriched by enlightened participants coming from all over Africa, UK and USA sharing experiences about «Exploring global issues through classroom research». The Pre-conference started on …

Videos from the virtual conference

The virtual conference held on 15th June 2019 featured six countries discussing their experiences of making use of WhatsApp in teacher development: Benin, Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, Rwanda and Senegal. This work is closely connected to English Language Teacher Associations that exist in those countries and demonstrates the power of the informal teacher education sector. The …

Exploring Professional Development Through WhatsApp: Experiences from Cote d’Ivoire English Teaching Communities

Cote d’Ivoire inherited French as the official language from colonization. However, the legitimacy of English Language Teaching (ELT) can be accounted for its dominant role in the current socioeconomic goals of the country. English is a core subject found all over the education system. The importance of English has grown even more over the last …

Workshop for Developing Technology Assisted Communities of Practice in Remote Areas of Cote d’Ivoire

The following is the presentation designed for workshops in Daloa and Abengourou, 2 regions of Cote d’Ivoire. The aim of the workshops was establish a social media supported communities of practice for English teachers in these leading rural regions. The objective of the training was to develop professional development in remote communities of English Teachers …

Experiences of WhatsApp: Mali

Mali, a West African country, has more than forty spoken local languages in addition to the not so widely spoken official language French. English is taught as a Foreign Language and is introduced at the middle school level (7th grade) and taught through the secondary, vocational schools and universities. Lack of opportunities makes English teaching …