Ei-iE

The Education International delegation wants the focus of this year’s International Summit on the Teaching Profession squarely on creating collaborative school environments that empower teachers to build strong learning communities.

Let teachers teach: a simple but strong message that Education International (EI) is set to deliver to the scores of education ministries and experts in Banff, Canada for the 5th International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP). The summit runs from 29-30 March.

Organised and hosted by the Council of Ministers of Education Canada, with partners EI, the OECD, and the Learning Partnership, hundreds of delegates from ministries, unions and organisations from around the world are expected to make their way to the Canadian Rockies.

EI Delegates

The EI delegation, led by President Susan Hopgood, General Secretary Fred van Leeuwen, Deputy General Secretary David Edwards, and Senior Consultant John Bangs will present data that proves what teachers have always known: successful education systems with collaborative cultures that create a self-confident and trust-worthy teaching profession don’t only result in better teaching and learning conditions, but improve the communities in which they exist.

Education International’s message will be reinforced when Stanford Professor Linda Darling-Hammond, who was commissioned by EI to provide an analysis of the OECD’s Teaching and Learing International Survey(TALIS) 2013, reinforces the need and connection between teachers’ self-efficacy, job satisfaction and professional collaboration.

Three themes: leadership, recognition and self-efficacy, innovation

The conference revolves around three themes where last year’s ISTP in New Zealand left off.

The first is developing and promoting effective leadership. Participants will look at those elements that contribute significantly to a strong sense of leadership in school systems, including distributed leadership, opportunities for professional development, and instructional leadership for principals.

The second theme is supporting teacher recognition and strengthening teachers’ sense of effectiveness, or “self-efficacy.” Evidence from TALIS suggests that the most successful education systems are those in which the value of the teaching profession is widely recognized by society. Teachers need to believe in themselves to be the best they can be. Yet, how do we get teachers to believe in themselves? This challenge touches on many aspects of the teaching profession, from managing a diverse classroom (a universal theme in teaching) to the need for mutual support, interpersonal relationships, and professional collaboration.

The final theme is encouraging innovation in the 21st-century classroom, which touches on another universal theme in the profession: the challenge of disruptive technology. We are all — no matter what our culture or society — grappling with the changes brought about by information technology. Those changes are driving a need for innovation.