Overview of Teach for Bangladesh leadership development team and the fellowship program

Abstract

Educational inequality is a persistent and invasive problem in Bangladesh which leads to growing social injustice. The achievement gap between children of lower and higher socioeconomic groups leads to other problems like gaps in their access to opportunities and aspirations in life. There are certain factors that perpetuate this disparity and one of those factors identified by the Teach For Bangladesh model is school factors. The Theory of Change model appropriately targets to reverse the impact of these factors and this report attempts to provide an overview how that is being done through the 2-year Fellowship program at Teach For Bangladesh. Teach For Bangladesh is a recent non-profit initiative which aims to eradicate education inequity by providing dedicated leaders as teachers in low-income, high-need classrooms. The department at Teach For Bangladesh that is responsible for setting and implementing organizational vision is the Leadership Development Team. This report highlights the role and functions of that team and how the managers and director provide continuous support to the Fellows in order to help them become transformational teachers are will put their students on a different life trajectory. Fellows work for 2 years in underprivileged and under resourced schools. My job has a Fellow for 1 year 8 months has given me valuable insight into the reality of classrooms in Bangladesh. In addition to my teaching responsibilities at Hazi Yusuf Ali Government Primary School in Mirpur, I am expected to submit planning documents to my manager within strict deadlines. As a Fellow, I have to follow precise codes of professionalism, attend professional development training sessions and also foster relationships with stakeholders at my placement school.