The 2019 Council Resolution on further developing the European Education Area1 invites the Commission to “Develop new means to train and support competent, motivated and highly qualified teachers, trainers, early childhood education and care (ECEC) staff, school leaders and other staff, and promote their continuous professional development and high-quality, research-based teacher education”.
The overall objective of this action is to create European partnerships of teacher5 education and training providers to set up Teacher Academies that will develop a European and international outlook in teacher education.
These Academies will embrace multilingualism, language awareness and cultural diversity, develop teacher education in line with the EU’s priorities in education policy and contribute to the achievement of the objectives of the European Education Area.
The Erasmus+ Teacher Academies will meet the following objectives:
- Contribute to the improvement of teacher education policies and practices in Europe by creating networks and communities of practice on teacher education that bring together providers of initial teacher education (preservice education for future teachers) and providers of continuing professional development (in-service), other relevant actors such as teacher associations, ministries and stakeholders to develop and test strategies and programmes for professional learning that is effective, accessible and transferable to other contexts.
- Develop and test jointly different models of mobility (virtual, physical and blended) in initial teacher education and as part of teachers’ continuous professional development in order to enhance the quality and number of mobility as well as to make mobility an integral part of teacher education provision in Europe.
- Develop sustainable collaboration between teacher education providers with an impact to the quality of teacher education in Europe and with a view to inform teacher education policies at European and national levels.
- Enhance the European dimension and internationalisation of teacher education through innovative and practical collaboration with teacher educators and teachers in other European countries and by sharing experiences for the further development of teacher education in Europe.
This collaboration will address one or more of the horizontal priorities of the Erasmus+ Programme, as theme(s) for the Teacher Academy activities.