Professional Development Journey Through PCELT

The PCELT program is a certificate program for teachers of English in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region offered by the US non-profit organization AMIDEAST in collaboration with and accredited by World Learning/SIT Graduate Institute. The PCELT program was introduced in Gaza by the Leadership and Teacher Development (LTD) Program, a four-year education project administered by AMIDEAST and funded by USAID. The LTD Program focused its efforts on improving the quality of pre-service teacher education at the Faculty of Education, Al-Azhar University, with PCELT playing a major role in achieving this goal. The journey to become PCELT trainers was a challenging and humbling experience that demanded a willingness to take risks, learn from mistakes, reflect, and be open-minded and appreciative in giving and receiving critical feedback. The experience forced the professors to shake off their traditional persona as the "sage on the stage" and adopt a new philosophy of teaching and learning that emphasizes respecting and empathizing with students, engaging them, and encouraging them to think critically and creatively. The train-the-trainer course delivered by World Learning/SIT Graduate Institute was a key component of the journey, providing a platform for the professors to develop their competencies as trainers. The course focused on unpacking and re-imagining values, beliefs, and attitudes about teaching, as well as developing skills. The professors were guided by expert trainers from World Learning/SIT Graduate Institute, who provided expertise, patience, and dedication to excellence. The PCELT community of teachers and trainers is a growing professional community across the MENA region, with a presence on Facebook. The authors of the booklet invite readers to reflect on their own professional development as they traverse the memories of their journey. The booklet acknowledges the support and encouragement of colleagues from the Leadership and Teacher Development Program of AMIDEAST/West Bank and Gaza, as well as the expertise and dedication of trainers from World Learning/SIT Graduate Institute. The authors express their gratitude to these individuals for their contributions to their journey. The introduction to the booklet provides an overview of the concept of professional development, highlighting its importance in the field of education. The authors agree with Richards and Farrell (2005) that professional development is not only a process of general growth but also serves a longer-term goal and seeks to facilitate growth of teachers' understanding of teaching and of themselves as teachers. They emphasize that professional development is a never-ending process, particularly for language teachers who need to adapt quickly to meet the needs of diverse learners in the age of global migrations of peoples and languages. The authors' journey to become certified PCELT trainers was transformative, and they hope that their reflections will provide value, gain new insights, and even shake up assumptions about professional development for readers.