‘I won’t forget the reaction of my students when the break time bell rang while they were doing their first extracurricular activity (karaoke): “We don’t need to take a break, can we keep doing the activity, please?” For me, that explains their need for having time to interact with English in a fun and relaxing atmosphere.’ - Gülseren Çınar Bulut- Kahramankazan Şehit Ömer Takdemir Secondary School, Ankara
Life cycle
2019 to 2024
Country/Region
Turkey
Client/Partner
Turkish Ministry of National Education (MoNE), Sabancı Foundation
Vision
Enriched English learning experience for students in state schools across Turkey. Achieving systemic change for English language teaching through engaging, localised, and relevant Continuing Professional Development (CPD) opportunities for all English language teachers in Turkey.
Situation
The project began in October 2018 when the Ministry reached out to the British Council. As part of Turkey's education agenda, the Ministry focused on improving foreign language teaching and learning. The British Council and the Ministry collaborated to develop a sustainable professional development programme to meet the needs of Turkey's education system. After extensive discussions with MoNE officials, teachers, scholars, and ELT experts, the professional development model was finalised. Following a successful pilot phase in Ankara, the Sabancı Foundation joined the partnership to support the project's nationwide expansion across all regions in Turkey.
Implementation
The English Together project brought teachers from similar demographic areas together, enabling them to discuss various teaching-related topics based on their needs and interests through Professional Development Communities (PDCs). Working closely with MoNE and the Sabancı Foundation, 2,000 Professional Development Community Facilitators were trained, establishing PDCs across the 81 provinces in Turkey.
Impact
Over 30,000 state school English language teachers across Turkey participated in the project and had the opportunity to:
- Create a better understanding of common challenges faced by English teachers.
- Identify relevant classroom-based solutions.
- Share best practices.
- New ideas in classrooms.
- Reflect on teaching practices.
Mutual benefit
Various sources of UK expertise were integrated into the project. UK English language teaching (ELT) organisations and professionals delivered training programmes and services, ensuring the localisation of training and materials to fit the Turkish context.
For the first time, six UK organisations - Pearson, Macmillan Education, Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press and Assessment, Edinburgh College, and UKLC - accessed the state education system in Turkey at scale. Collaboration with UK ELT consultants expanded to include the English Together Project's Continuing Professional Development Book, supporting the production of teacher training videos, and incorporating the Certificate in English Language Teaching – Secondary course, a UK training qualification, into the programme.
Central to this partnership was a mutual cultural relations approach which demonstrated the value of UK expertise in responding to Turkey’s stated needs and built trust between the UK and Turkish education sectors.