Global Schoolroom seeks to promote the sharing of educational experience between communities worldwide to help eradicate poverty, promote economic development and build sustainable communities. In furthering this goal Global Schoolroom works directly with teachers and communities to build a strong framework for high standards of teacher education. Once in place, the Global Schoolroom programme is designed to be sustained by local networks.

This is achieved through the forging of respectful links between educational partners to their mutual benefit. This sharing of good educational practices enriches the collective educational experience, widens the cultural horizons of everyone involved and expands each individual’s scope for opportunity. Children in the communities involved receive a better quality education which ultimately leads to greater economic development and higher standards of living.

In practical terms this involves:

• The recruitment of experienced teachers in Ireland (both North and South) and the UK each December to travel to India or Uganda in the following July to work with their colleagues as part of the four week face-to-face element of the Global Schoolroom programme.
• For the volunteer teachers, this is typically a once off experience with preparatory training and preparation provided to them in Ireland over 5 to 6 weekends prior to July and an independent debriefing and evaluation session following their return.
• For the volunteer teachers, University College Dublin (UCD) offers an M.A. in Education in Mentoring built around their Global Schooroom experience.
• The volunteer teachers are accompanied by a number of non teacher volunteers to assist in administration and other tasks and by students from Yale University under the Global Schoolroom /Yale Internship Programme.
• For the Indian and Ugandan teachers involved, the sessions each July form part of a 3 year Diploma in Teacher Education accredited by UCD. Local teachers are recruited on a volunatry basis often following a visit by the Global Schoolroom team to explain the benefits of taking part in the Programme.
• The sessions each July include 2 weeks of intensive seminars and workshops during which the teachers share their educational experiences with one another. These sessions are held in a school (or ‘hub’) which is centrally located in the area in which the Global Schoolroom programme is operating.
• Typically local teachers from several surrounding schools attend the sessions in each hub. Anywhere from 30 to 50 local teachers attend at each hub with a team of 3 teachers facilitating the programme (usually made up of 3 visiting teachers or whenever possible two visiting teachers and one successful local graduate of the Global Schoolroom programme).
• There is no charge to local teachers for participating in the Programme. Where local teachers attend for the first two weeks on a residential basis (due to the distance from their homes), Global Schoolroom meets the cost of food and accommodation. Likewise Global Schoolroom pays the local hub school for the food, accommodation and travel costs involved in hosting the three visiting teachers who are facilitating the Programme.
• The are hubs in 8 locations in India’s North-East stretching from Guwahati in Assam to Shillong in Meghalaya and Tuikarmar in Tripura. In Uganda there are hubs in Kayunga and Masaka.
• Following the seminar sessions, the visiting teachers travel with the local teachers back to their schools and over the remaining two weeks of July, work with them to apply in the classroom the techniques and methodologies developed together during the first two weeks.
• After their return, the teachers who have travelled from Ireland and the UK attend a one day debriefing session carried out by an independent consultant which is designed toprovide these teachers with an opportunity to input their ideas and suggestions for enhancements to the programe.
• Further application and implementation is required throughout the year to help complete assignments for formal assessment in Global Schoolroom workbooks. A local tutor/mentor system and ‘critical friend’ groups have been set up locally to facilitate this process.
• In Oct & Feb each year Global Schoolroom undertake Mid term reviews with local teachers in India and Uganda.
• Assessment of the local teachers written work is done each July by a UCD member of staff.
• A Global Schoolroom ‘Development Education’ doctoral programme in University of Limerick is putting in place a strategy to ensure that teachers are encouraged to maintain links with Global Schoolroom after their return and to involve their pupils in the experience.
• Some teachers travel again to India or Uganda with the programme in subsequent years.
• At the end of the third year those local teachers who have successfully completed the Programme are invited to a conferring ceremony in their local hub at which the dilpomas are presented.
• In consultation with the local school management, an exceptional local teacher is chosen from each hub and appointed to work alongside the visiting teachers as a tutor on the next 3 year programme. These local teachers are provided with an opportunity to travel to Ireland to attend week long tutor training programme at UCD and the spend three weeks working with Irish teachers in both urban and rural schools.
• Each year an expert panel comprised of 5 academics from Uganda, India, Ireland, the US and the UK meets to review course materials, strategy and ensure that the programme continues to stay in pace with best standards internationally.