The EIA approach to Teacher Development

The purpose of this chapter is to provide a succinct high-level overview of the English in Action (EIA) approach to teacher development (TD), thereby supplying contextual information for subsequent chapters whilst highlighting some critical issues and challenges in the implementation of such an approach at scale. The first section touches upon the underpinning theories of teacher learning, previous work and guiding principles that all contributed to initial Programme design, illustrating how these were framed from the outset as a response to aspects of the global educational challenge outlined in Chapter 4. The second section illustrates how EIA implemented this approach in practice, with a brief summary of the roles and experiences of some of the key actors, as exemplifications of the ‘features of effective teacher development’ identified in Chapter 4. The third section considers the evolution of the EIA TD approach over the ten-year life of the project, examining both the anticipated and un- anticipated changes; it also considers how our conceptual understanding or ‘narrative’ of the approach has developed over time. The final section draws out the lessons learnt about the principles and practice of school-based, networked and technology-enhanced approaches to TD in LMICs, from the EIA experience, many of which signpost to subsequent chapters of the book