English Language Teacher Associations play key roles in promoting the professional development of teachers in diverse countries and regions. This seminar is designed to enable participants to share and spread best practices in order to improve the effectiveness of their traditional menu of services (conferences, SIGs and newsletters), as well as helping them to develop new resources such as websites and discussion lists. The seminar also seeks to raise the profile and impact of teacher associations and support the empowerment of teachers within their educational and political systems. One of the major aims of the seminar is to widen the reach of Teacher Associations into remote and marginalised areas.

This seminar will take the form of input sessions from the course director and a number of contributors and course facilitators, specially chosen for their experience and expertise in specific aspects of Teacher Associations. In addition to plenary sessions, there will be extensive group work in which participants will have the opportunity to share experiences and network with colleagues. Special attention will be paid to the diverse contexts of participants and the variability of the resources available to them. During the seminar participants will work together to make improvements to a Teachers’ Association Handbook, and each participant will plan a post-course project that will disseminate to others the outcomes of the seminar.

The main topics include:

• reviewing missions and constitutions of TAs
• developing leadership and management
• reviewing possible products and services
• running effective conferences and Newsletters
• creating and managing Special Interest Groups (SIGs)
• developing new services – websites and discussion lists
• sharing best practices
• marketing and membership issues
• finance, sponsorship and resources
• networking – strengthening regional and international links
• creating strategic partnerships
• role of TAs in reform and development programmes
• course evaluation

Who should attend this seminar
This seminar will be of interest to English Language Teaching professionals who have been involved in or who would like to be active in setting up, leading and managing and developing Teacher Associations. One of the aims of the seminar is to attract participants from a range of cultural backgrounds who will be able to contribute to the development of themselves, their colleagues on the course and English language teachers throughout the world.