In order to change the current situation, TFZ recognizes that we need innovative leadership. Meaningful and sustainable change is only possible through leaders who understand the local culture, challenges, and opportunities, and who believe in the potential of children and their communities.
Our objective is to cultivate our teaching fellows and their students to become effective future leaders, who can achieve transformational change.TFZ’s will work towards accomplishing its objective, by recruiting, selecting, training, and supporting promising individuals from top institutions, with diverse backgrounds, to teach in high-need, low-income, overpopulated urban and rural schools, for a period of two years.
The aim is to generate a group of competent teachers, who will also be compassionate leaders. TFZ’s hope is that these future leaders will not only have an immediate impact during their initial two years with TFZ but also have a lifelong commitment to improving education and educational opportunities for marginalized children of society.
By investing in the development of human resources, as a long-term force for change and cultivating, collaborative, collective leadership, TFZ hopes to be able to ensure Zimbabwean children from all socio-economic backgrounds are provided with a holistic, quality education and are given the opportunities and guidance to reach their full potential.
TFZ’s collective leadership model focuses on reshaping educational systems to be inclusive and representational of the highest-needs communities, challenging systemic and social injustices that perpetuate inequity. This collective partnership changes the paradigm of working with and not for the highest-needs communities and schools. Through our approach, we hope to accelerate our vision by having those who have experienced inequity address and guide this process. This base of future leaders, who know and understand the current reality, will be the ones who take on and challenge the current system and become agents of change for educational equity.
The TFZ collective leadership approach is channeled through six programmatic principles: recruiting, selecting, training, placing, supporting, and creating an alumni movement to lead and guide our vision for systemic change, having experienced first-hand the challenges facing the highest-needs areas. The first objective in the approach is to establish a partnership and shared vision with the communities and various educational stakeholders where TFZ will be placing fellows. Our community leaders are one of our most important allies in this movement towards educational equity.
By working with our community leaders, we will be able to create a set of criteria to determine what kind of teachers they would most like to come and teach in their schools. This partnership will also be the foundation for the communities to host these teachers and welcome them into their communities.
Step 1 – Recruit and Select
TFZ recruits talented individuals from top institutions and professionals from diverse disciplines, who share our vision, to lead this movement by teaching for two years in the country’s highest-needs schools. Potential fellows will undergo a rigorous selection process and will be evaluated for skillsets that TFZ has deemed necessary to succeed as a fellow.
Step 2 – Train
Upon selection into the program, TFZ Fellows will undergo an intensive 5-6 week training institute, focusing both on modern and holistic pedagogical methodologies and leadership skills. In collaboration with a local university, TFZ selected fellows will learn not only how to teach, but how to work with community leaders to strengthen local leadership within their communities and in the students themselves. This training will develop the skills, mindsets, and knowledge relevant for empowering these future leaders to reach their potential. Fellows will also be engaged in teaching lessons at a local community school where TFZ and University staff will observe their progress and offer feedback on their development.
Step 3 – Place
The TFZ fellows will be placed as either certified teachers or teachers working towards certification in high-need, low-income, overpopulated urban and rural primary and secondary schools. In collaboration with the community partners, fellows will be welcomed as members of their host-communities and work as allies in challenging educational inequities at the local level.
Step 4 – Support
TFZ Fellows will receive ongoing support from TFZ support staff (coaches) that live in the communities. In addition, the Fellows will participate in focus groups, forums, workshops, and retreats throughout their tenure with TFZ.
Step 5 – Alumni Impact
TFZ alumni will join a group of over 60,000 Teach For All alumni with a shared vision of educational equity. Many of the Teach For All alumni will remain in the education sector, with some committing to teaching as a profession. Others will become school heads, policymakers, business leaders, journalists, etc, all working continuously to challenge the current reality and build the movement for systemic change.