Overview
The Teacher Policy Development Guide has been designed to support governments and other stakeholders in the development of evidence-based national teacher policy. This free online version of the guide provides an interactive learning experience. It is based on the Teacher Policy Development Guide published by the International Task Force on Teachers for Education 2030 and UNESCO.
At the World Education Forum in Incheon (Republic of Korea) in May 2015, the global education community, under the leadership of UNESCO, framed the priorities for a common education agenda within the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for the next 15 years. Participants in the Forum pushed for the Education SDG (SDG 4), aiming to “Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and [to] promote life-long learning opportunities for all”.
What will you learn?
The guide will help you to:
- understand the guiding principles of successful policy development
- consider the effective conditions for successful teacher policy development
- integrate existing teacher policies with education and other national policies
- align existing policy documentation within an international context
- appreciate the legislative process and necessary approvals, including financial and organisational arrangements for policy development and implementation.
This online guide was created by the (International Task Force on Teachers for Education 2030 and UNESCO (authors of the Teacher Policy Development Guide) in association with The Open University.
How to use the guide
The guide contains five chapters:
- Chapter 1
Background
- Chapter 2 Contextualisation (with quiz and badge)
- Chapter 3 Dimensions (with quiz and badge)
- Chapter 4 Phases (with quiz and badge)
- Chapter 5 Implementation (with quiz and badge)
All users are advised to read Chapter 1 Background to further their understanding of the essential requirements of effective teacher policy development.
The guide can then be used in a variety of ways: some users may wish to visit each chapter in turn, whilst others may wish to spend more time on a context-related chapter or section. At the end of each chapter there is a short quiz to help you reflect on your knowledge and understanding of the topic.
If you read all of a chapter and complete the quiz with a score of 50% or higher you will gain a free digital badge to share your achievement with others.
The guide is designed to support individuals or collaborative partnerships, or to inform and provide resources for workshops. All content is openly licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike license. You are free to translate, modify and repurpose course materials as long as you provide attribution to the UNESCO Teacher Task Force Teacher Policy Development Guide and The Open University and share under the same licence. For more information on Creative Commons licenses, please see http://creativecommons.org/about/license/
About the guide
In 2015, the International Task Force on Teachers for Education 2030 (Teacher Task Force), in close coordination with UNESCO entities and external partners of the Teacher Task Force, developed the Teacher Policy Development Guide.
The guide was created in response to Sustainable Development Goal 4:
‘Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and [to] promote life-long learning opportunities for all’. In particular, it addresses the need for teachers and teacher educators, at all levels of education, to develop effective learning and teaching by empowering ‘adequately recruited, well-trained, professionally qualified, motivated and supported within well-resourced, efficient and effectively governed systems’.
Currently, this online version is only available in English. However, the guide is available in PDF in seven languages (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish). It is designed to be an interactive tool to be adapted to country contexts and to the needs of users: Full version: https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000370966?posInSet=1&queryId=eee59afc-1e6a-42f0-97f8-9da8ef91ebee; Summary version: http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0023/002352/235272e.pdf
The experts who have contributed to this guide include:
- Simone Doctors (Education Consultant)
- William Ratteree (former staff of the International Labour Organisation)
- Yusuf Sayed (University of Sussex & South African Research Chair in Teacher Education, and Director of the Centre for International Teacher Education, Cape Peninsula University of Technology)
- Secretariat of the International Task Force on Teachers (Education 2030 Agenda)
- UNESCO staff and consultants
- The Teacher Task Force members and partners
- The Open University
Tell us what you think
Now you've engaged with the Teacher Policy Development Tool we would appreciate a few minutes of your time to tell us a bit about your experience of studying it and what you plan to do next. We will use this information to provide better online experiences for all users.
If you'd like to help, please fill in this optional survey.
Contact and feedback
The International Development Office, The Open University
Open Media and Informal Learning, The Open University
© UNESCO www.unesco.org www.teachertaskforce.org/