IDEAL Future project

Details: Category: Erasmus+

2023-2026

Integrated Digital Educational Leadership for the Teaching Academy of the Future.

IDEAL FUTURE - IDEAL Future Teacher Academy

Programme: Erasmus+
Action: Teacher Academy
Project reference: 101104194
Start date: 1/06/2023
Duration: 36 months
Website: IDEAL FUTURE

Ideal Future is a European project funded by the Erasmus+ programme that began in June 2023. Its main aim is to provide a set of professional development activities and a hub for transformative dialogue, so that practising and trainee teachers in early years, primary and post-primary education can engage with policymakers, other education leaders and the digital technology sector in order to lead innovative practice in digital education.

The IDEAL Futures Teacher Academy proposal centres on developing a set of professional development activities, content, a collaborative digital hub and micro-credentials, offering opportunities and a space for the transformative dialogue that helps educators grow into future digital education leaders.

Main work packages

The project will address the needs identified in the research with an integrated approach that takes seriously the need to treat digital learning as an ecosystem. It will also show how those elements can be considered holistically and inclusively to meet the needs of the whole school community, fostering an open approach to digital pedagogical leadership.

The project has nine work packages: project management and coordination (WP1); identifying the main challenges, problems and dilemmas facing practising and trainee teachers in the digital age within the digital leadership ecosystem (WP2); development of a pedagogical model (WP3); development of learning activities and content (WP4); digital hubs (WP5); evaluation and pilots (WP6); a sustainable CPD model for digital education leadership (WP7); dissemination (WP8); and quality (WP9).

Each work package includes a set of activities chosen and shared among all partners according to their expertise: content creation, evaluation (both internal, by the partners, and external, during the piloting phases), and dissemination and impact activities, among others.

Main objectives

Support high-quality collaboration between initial teacher education universities, continuing teacher training providers, teacher employment bodies, policymakers and education technology providers.
Identify the main challenges, problems and dilemmas facing practising and trainee teachers in the digital age within the digital leadership ecosystem, from the perspectives of policy, practice, pedagogy and identity, and identify opportunities for teachers to rethink and lead a transformative approach to digital leadership in education.
Develop and evaluate a high-quality, multi-level pedagogical model that supports transformative dialogue and leads to a cooperative, integrated approach to the challenges education faces in digital pedagogical leadership.
Create a range of professional development (CPD) content, activities and associated micro-credentials to put the pedagogical model into practice. This content will help educators at every level build digital pedagogical leadership skills, and includes formal open educational resources, synchronous workshops, hackathons, peer observation, transformative learning projects and design-based research activities.
Explore and evaluate how digital technologies, pedagogies and digital CPD models can be used to support communities of inquiry, transformative dialogue, reflection and virtual knowledge exchange in digital leadership in education.
Develop a sustainable model of practice to support trainee and practising teachers and education leaders in continuing to embed transformative dialogue across 4 initial teacher education programmes and 4 teacher CPD activities.
Promote and disseminate the results of the IDEAL Futures teacher academy across Europe.