Teacher professional development during a global pandemic: A critical analysis of global learning through a peer-to-peer learning programme

• Published in: International review of education Vol. 71; no. 3; pp. 411 - 432
• Main Authors: Cohen, Elisheva, Sikenyi, Maurice
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01.06.2025; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Adult Learning; Andragogy; Best Practices; COVID-19; Developing countries; Distance Education; Distance learning; Education; Educational Needs; Educational Quality; Educational Strategies; English; Experts; Guidance; Helplessness; Industrialized nations; International and Comparative Education; Interviews; Language Proficiency; LDCs; Learning; Literature Reviews; Narratives; Native Speakers; Neocolonialism; North and South; Original Paper; Outcomes of Education; Pandemics; Peer Teaching; Peers; Pity; Positioning; Poverty; Power; Professional development; Professional Development Schools; Professional Education; Program Evaluation; Teacher Collaboration; Teachers; Teaching; Teaching Methods; Teaching Models; United States > US; COVID-19; Education in Emergencies; Teacher professional development; Critical global learning
• ISSN: 0020-8566; 1573-0638; 1573-0638
• DOI: 10.1007/s11159-024-10120-7

This article introduces a professional development webinar series entitled “Teaching in Times of Crisis: Learning from Educators Around the World”. This is a unique model for teacher professional development and peer-to-peer-learning among teachers around the globe. By positioning teachers predominantly from the Global South as experts, this series sought to equip American teachers with strategies, tools and techniques for teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic, flipping the traditional development narrative that positions voices from the Global North as experts needed in the Global South. The authors’ analysis of the webinar series through the lens of critical global learning, however, shows two contradictory outcomes. On the one hand, participants who attended the series helped build a sense of global solidarity among teachers during a particularly difficult time. On the other hand, the webinar series reinforced neocolonial narratives of pity, poverty and helplessness in the Global South. The authors argue that cultivating global solidarity and knowledge sharing among teachers can be a meaningful avenue for providing teacher support and professional development for educators working in emergency settings across the Global North and South, but it must be done in ways that attend to and make visible colonial logics and the complex and unequal power relations around the world.