¼ø»ÆÊ¦app Egyptian Partnership
Maysaa Barakat, Ph.D.
barakatm@fau.edu
Coordinator, ¼ø»ÆÊ¦app Egypt Partnership
Professor, Educational Leadership
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In 2015, ¼ø»ÆÊ¦app’s Department of Educational Leadership and Research Methodology (ELRM) joined Balanced Education, Cairo Egypt, to form a partnership, bringing additional expertise in educational leadership and curriculum, as well as new perspectives to the design and delivery of professional development programs.
The partnership began with a commitment to provide professional development for 10,000 public school teachers predicated on the belief that education is a lever for opportunity. The ¼ø»ÆÊ¦app team rallied behind a vision to improve student learning by building teacher capacity using a teacher-of-teacher model. ¼ø»ÆÊ¦app faculty created a curriculum for a professional development program to prepare teacher leaders from private international schools, who in turn then became the PD facilitators for two cohorts of teachers in experimental public schools across Egypt. Teachers in experimental public schools were targeted as a first step because these schools were perceived as possible vehicles for quality education to advance social mobility opportunities for lower middle class families in Egypt.
Figure 1: Ripples for Creating Positive Change in Egyptian Experimental Public Schools
The partnership has continued with multiple initiatives, including the further development of PD delivered to educators and administrators, as well as projects aimed at bringing professional learning to public school teachers through virtual/digital means. The ¼ø»ÆÊ¦app School Leaders Program and BalancEd has also begun an annual educational conference.