The goal of this research is to improve classroom practice for teachers of primary students in Sierra Leone. This research aims to better understand what teachers need to continue their professional development, exploring the context and scale-up of quality TPD. The research hypothesizes that exploring and better understanding local, in-school participation of teachers in self, peer and cluster/networked learning opportunities can help in developing equitable access to new approaches, ideas and methods.

The research will engage with a select group of schools which have implemented a form of TPD through local communities of practice and teacher learning circles within their schools. Through interviews, observations, and professional engagement and support; the project research team hopes to learn what happens when teachers share, work and learn together, collaboratively, in the local context – and determine how and if these are scalable. The research will be generative and formative with the hopes that iterative cycles of engagement and research will reveal possible points of intervention or innovations which could improve and make these local structures of learning more effective and scalable