Teachers Empowering Teachers

Promoting Language Teacher Development Through Teacher Activity Groups (TAGs):

A Focus on Facilitator Capacity Building and Teacher Strength Enhancement

About the Project

This Teacher Activity Group (TAG) project is a collaborative, identity-oriented professional development initiative where teachers empower teachers through structured reflection, peer learning, and shared professional inquiry. At the heart of TAG is a simple but powerful idea:
teachers are not just participants in professional development - they are its drivers. Through participating in and leading TAGs, teachers grow not only in their practice, but also in who they are becoming as professionals.

The project is funded by the British Council, and implemented through a partnership between Manchester Metropolitan University (UK), Hue University of Foreign Languages and International Studies, and An Giang University (Vietnam), in collaboration with the Departments of Education and Training of Thừa Thiên Huế and Bến Tre (now Vĩnh Long).

Our Vision

The project aspires to:

Strengthen teacher confidence, agency, and reflective practice
Develop collaborative, teacher-led professional learning communities
Support teachers' transition from classroom teachers to teacher facilitators
Build sustainable capacity for teacher professional development

What are TAGs?

Teacher Activity Groups (TAGs) are collaborative professional learning communities where teachers:

reflect on their teaching
share experiences and challenges
experiment with new ideas
support one another’s development

TAG is not top-down training. It is teacher-led, practice-based, and grounded in lived experience.

What Makes TAG Different?

Across many contexts, professional development is often:

disconnected from classroom realities
led by external experts
limited in long-term impact

TAG offers a different approach. It creates space for teachers to:

take ownership of their learning
develop confidence and voice
become leaders within their own communities of practice

We believe that wh en teachers empower each other, sustainable change becomes possible.

A Note on Teacher Empowerment

In our TAG project, empowerment goes beyond simply supporting language teachers or helping them feel encouraged. It is a collective, relational, and ongoing process in which language teachers gain the confidence, capacity, and authority to shape their own professional development and that of their peers.

More specifically, within TAGs, to empower teachers means:

Building agency: Teachers feel able to make informed decisions about their teaching, rather than relying solely on external experts or prescribed methods.
Strengthening professional identity: Teachers begin to see themselves not just as classroom practitioners, but as contributors, knowledge creators, and leaders in their communities.
Developing confidence: Through sharing and reflection, teachers gain the confidence to voice ideas, experiment with practices, and influence others.
Fostering leadership: Teachers take on roles such as facilitating discussions, mentoring peers, and initiating change in their contexts.
Enabling mutual growth: Empowerment is reciprocal - teachers empower one another through mutual understanding and collaboration, not through a top-down model.

Project Timeline

Stage 2 (October 2025 - March 2026): Facilitation and leadership

Teachers transition into facilitator roles, supporting peer learning and contributing to the sustainability of the TET model. Participants engaged in 120 TAG meetings across the 12 groups, where they were provided with structured opportunities to learn and practise facilitation skills while collaboratively exploring professional development topics.

Stage 1 (April 2024 - September 2025 ): Participation and reflection

Teachers engage in structured TAG sessions focused on reflective dialogue and collaborative learning. During this stage, the project team first developed a TAG Facilitator Competency Framework and designed the content of the TAG Facilitator Programme. The programme was subsequently delivered online via Zoom to 135 key teachers from Huế and Bến Tre (now Vĩnh Long). These teachers were organised into 12 TAGs, each consisting of 10–12 members.

Explore the Project

Read a summary of the project in these posters.

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