Teachers’ professional development in Bangladesh: issues and way forward

Developed countries across the world have policies promoting quality teacher education through successful evolution of the use of emerging technologies. In Bangladesh, currently there is no systematic process for recruiting and training of pre-service teachers. Lately, piloting in-service teachers’ professional development and networking have been initiated in Bangladesh through virtual learning environment (VLE), web 2.0, e-learning, and mobile learning in addition to traditional modes. Although they have been found to be contributing significantly in improving the quality of teachers, lack of guidance on curricular development, lack of teacher collaboration, and peer support are identified as a hindrance in teachers’ professional development. In addition, though Bangladesh is striving to achieve inclusive education by undergoing various initiatives, inadequate experiential learning facilities are identified as the primary hindrance to such reforms. In view of the above, here we propose a holistic teacher education framework taking andragogy with its emphasis on learner’s needs, prior experience, readiness, orientation, and motivation into consideration to develop digital learning strategies for teacher education. The feasibility and effectiveness of technological infrastructure are also addressed. It is hoped that our proposed strategy and the clarification of issues it addresses can act as a positive catalyst to mature the progress of teacher education in Bangladesh.