Taking a Hard Look at Teacher Training

Originally published by Al-Fanar Media and reprinted with permission.

At the corner of a busy intersection on the southern edge of Beirut, behind mirrored glass and a towering razor-wire fence, a group of researchers gathered inside Unesco’s Beirut office last month for a two-day conference that focused on the challenges faced by teacher-education reformers across the Arab world.

One of the first hurdles reformers must clear is just getting teachers to buy into their efforts.

“I don’t know what I’m doing here” is a complaint often heard from teachers attending professional-development workshops, said one of the presenters at the conference, Bassem Kandil. Read More.