English Speaking Nation: Secondary Teacher Training (ESN:STT)

English Speaking Nation: Secondary Teacher Training (ESN: STT) is a three-year, 5.0 million dollar program that sets out to train and provide professional development opportunities to over 15,000 English language public school teachers throughout the Republic of Uzbekistan. Implemented by the American Councils for International Education, the ESN: STT program invited TESOL International to Uzbekistan from June through December 2021 to certify 386 Uzbekistani teachers in the TESOL Core Certificate Program (TCCP), an intensive internationally recognized 140-hour in-person and in-classroom practicum course. In the same year, 227 Uzbekistani teachers participated in the Training of Trainers (TOT) professional development workshop and successfully passed through the Teaching English through English Training (TETE) facilitated and led by George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, as well as the TESOL 6 Principles for Exemplary Teaching of English Learners course.

In March 2022, 92 TESOL-certified Uzbekistani Core Trainers, who work and teach in public schools across Uzbekistan, successfully cascaded the knowledge and information they learned to fellow Uzbekistani English language teachers throughout all 14 regions of Uzbekistan. Each Uzbekistani Core Trainer hosted cohorts of 10-12 peer teachers known as Regional Peer Mentors. For 12 weeks, these 92 Core Trainers conducted weekly training sessions and 693 Regional Peer Mentors nationwide completed 60 hours of the professional development cascading course through the ESN: STT Program from March to June 2022.

In October 2022, more than 500 Regional Peer Mentors started the third phase of cascading the professional development course, Cohort I Community of Practice, for their teacher colleagues known as Mentees. Five thousand and ninety-six Mentees completed 36 hours of professional development in a Community of Practice from October to December 2022. The Community of Practice course is based on TESOL International Association’s 6 Principles for Exemplary Teaching of English Learners and George Mason University’s Teaching English Through English materials and includes training on the development of collaboration skills to provide effective peer feedback in a teaching context.

In February and August 2023, more than 300 Regional Peer Mentors and Core Trainers, who work and teach in public schools across Uzbekistan, delivered the Community of Practice course to Cohort II and Cohort III, which included 6600 Mentees. Each Community of Practice consisted of 15 to 20 Mentees.

From October 9th to October 28th, 2023, American Councils for International Education in Uzbekistan, ESN: STT program held Six Regional English Speaking Nation Silk Road Conferences: Enhancing Student Learning Through Collaborative Communities of Practice across Uzbekistan. The Regional ESN Silk Road Conference is a set of nationwide conferences, which more than 500 presenters and participants attended in six former cities of the Great Silk Road--Bukhara, Samarkand, Nukus, Gulistan, Fergana, and Namangan. The conferences provided the opportunity for ESN participants to demonstrate effective pedagogical practices gained through the ESN program, expand ESN's community of practice, and share learner-centered teaching ideas.

On November 10-11th, 500 participants in the ESN: STT Program and members of the local education community had the opportunity to share their ideas, enhance their pedagogical competencies, and develop their teaching methodology at the Tashkent ESN Silk Road Conference at Inha University. The Tashkent ESN Silk Road Conference consisted of over 100 presentations of unique workshops, creative master classes, and teacher showcases delivered by ESN: STT participants from 12 regions and the Republic of Karakalpakstan, and by international educators trained in current TESOL methodology. Attendees of the conference deepened their knowledge and understanding of learner-centered classrooms, communicative language learning, and lesson plan development and implementation. Through a robust conference, English teachers shared a variety of teaching practices and experiences, such as Learner-Centered Teaching, Student Assessment, Student Motivation, Community of Practice, Peer Training & Mentoring, and Digital Learning. Attendees also had forums to collaborate with their peers and share their own teaching ideas to expand and strengthen the TESOL community of practice in Uzbekistan.

Ultimately, the ESN: STT program hopes that it strengthens local teacher training capacity among the Ministry of Preschool and School Education’s best and brightest teachers while passing along modern teaching practices, standards, and norms to an ever-growing cohort of English language public school teachers in all regions of the Republic of Uzbekistan.

For more information about ESN:STT please visit: https://www.esn-teachers.org/. 

For inquiries, please email esn@americancouncils.org or contact the program via Telegram at @ESNProgram.