The ‘3Mpower (Mobile Learning for Empowerment of Marginalised Mathematics Educators)’ research project, will study the relationship between at-scale teacher professional development (TPD) with technology, and the teaching and learning of numeracy skills in primary schools in Bangladesh. We will consider marginalisation through the lenses of geography (i.e., low-income rural communities) and gender (i.e., female teachers and learners). We will examine the equity and scale of reach, contextual appropriateness, effectiveness in improving numeracy outcomes, cost-effectiveness, and sustainability of the approach to using mobile learning (mLearning) for TPD. 

The proposed project is motivated by the global imperative to address learning poverty by identifying cost-effective, equitable means to upskill and expand the education workforce – with a focus on improving educational numeracy outcomes, and therefore life-chances for children from low-income and marginalised communities. In Bangladesh, as in many countries worldwide, national education policies and ICT strategies seek to exploit the potential of digital technologies for TPD. mLearning places professional learning in teachers’ hands at home and at school. The use of mLearning for TPD is highly scalable yet low cost as even in lower-income countries most teachers own smartphones.