Celebrating the Achievements: MenTRnet Festival Event and NETRUZ success stories newsletter

On June 8, 2024, NETRUZ presented at the MenTRnet Festival event. We are proud to say that the NETRUZ managed to build a collaborative teacher community which promotes teacher-led research, namely exploratory action research. The main aim of introducing exploratory action research is to enable English language teachers to share contextually appropriate methodologies that have developed through exploratory action research. 

NETRUZ organized various online and offline workshops, the first NETRUZ conference in Namangan, and teacher-research mentoring and exploratory action research training courses. All the events organized by NETRUZ were free as we want to support teachers' professional development and the incorporation of research-informed innovations in the classroom. We can definitely say that the NETRUZ has significantly impacted the quality of English language teaching in Uzbekistan, fostering an environment where teachers actively explore their classroom practices and adapt to evolving educational needs and students' expectations.

Watch the YouTube video of the NETRUZ presentation. 

You can also read the NETRUZ success stories.

Teacher-Research Training: 3rd cohort

Dear English language teachers of Uzbekistan,

NETRUZ: Network of English Teacher Researchers in Uzbekistan is pleased to announce the next training on classroom-based research, namely exploratory action research, that will be organized online for English language teachers and teacher educators.

If you would like to improve your research skills, explore your teaching practices, and develop your collaborative and reflective learning through our workshops and regular meetings, you should then JOIN our training program which will start on November 27, 2023!

This training is for English language teacher educators who would like to expand their knowledge and improve their teaching practices and research skills. The training will last for 2 months: December 2023 and January 2024.

• Are you a teacher who is interested in doing classroom-based research?
• Are you a teacher who is interested in finding solutions and improving your classroom practices?
• Are you working in a school, a university, a lyceum, or a college?
• Can you dedicate a minimum of three hours every week (or more if you like) to training and doing research?

If yes, please register your interest using the Google form till November 27, 2023. The link is here.

Best wishes,

NETRUZ

NETRUZ 2nd Cohort Training

 NETRUZ has launched the 2nd exploratory action research training for teachers of Uzbekistan. This training helps teachers learn how to explore their classrooms, identify challenges or successful practices, gain evidence to inform their further actions and bring change into their classrooms. It is good to see that the NETRUZ community is growing and the new leaders are taking the initiative to lead more trainings. NETRUZ is happy to announce the new Project Lead: Ella Maksakova.

Ella Maksakova has been in ELT for more than 10 years. Ella has got her MA in TESOL from Webster University.  Currently, she is working as a teacher of EAP for an undergraduate program and as a teacher trainer for MA TESOL program at Webster University in Uzbekistan.  In 2021 Ella joined a growing community of teacher researchers “NETRUZ” (Network of English Teacher Researchers of Uzbekistan) and one year later became a mentor. She contributed to the publication of the book about Uzbekistan teacher- researchers journey as a coeditor and a co-author. In March 2023 Ella became a project lead for the current cohort of local teacher researchers organized under the NETRUZ community. Her current research interests are teachers’ professional development, reflective teaching, and vocabulary learning strategies.

Also, NETRUZ is happy to have more mentors on board for the second round of exploratory action research training. 

More information about the NETRUZ new Champion teachers will be posted later. We, NETRUZ, believe in the continuous professional development of teachers.

Call for teacher researchers: Round 2

Dear English language teachers of Uzbekistan,

NETRUZ: Network of English Teacher Researchers in Uzbekistan is pleased to announce the opening of a new call for teacher-researchers who would like to be trained in classroom-based research. 

If you would like to improve your research skills, explore your teaching practices, and develop your collaborative and reflective learning through our workshops and regular meetings, you should then JOIN our training program which will start in January 2022!

This training is for experienced (over 2 years of teaching experience) teachers and practitioners who would like to expand their knowledge and improve their teaching practices and research skills.

• Are you a teacher who is interested in doing classroom-based research? 
• Are you a teacher who is interested in finding solutions and improving your classroom practices? 
• Are you working in a school, a university, a lyceum, or a college?
• Can you dedicate a minimum of three hours every week (or more if you like) to training and doing research? 

If yes, send your contact details (email, phone number, telegram number) and a brief personal statement (max. 100 words) outlining where you work (as a teacher) and why you are interested in this project to the following email: netruzproject@gmail.com by November 30, 2022.

Best wishes,
NETRUZ

NETRUZ First Teacher-Research Conference and First Publication

Namangan State University and NETRUZ (Network of English Teacher-Researchers in Uzbekistan) organised the first Conference of English teacher researchers in Uzbekistan, named "New Trends in English Language Teaching and Teacher Education". The conference was organised on May 27-28, 2022, at Namangan State University.

The conference aimed to bring together English language teachers, practitioners, teacher educators, teacher trainers, researchers, teacher-researchers, and mentors to discuss the current issues and trends in teacher education and ELT in Uzbekistan. Besides, this conference served as a platform for NETRUZ teacher-research mentors and action researchers to share their exploratory action research findings and experiences with practitioners.

At the conference, the NETRUZ mentors reflected on their mentoring experience on doing exploratory action research, while other teacher researchers shared their EAR findings and materials with teachers who face similar challenges. Several teacher educators also talked about the importance of teachers being reflective and having an inquiry mindset. The conference videos and materials (classroom materials, e-book) will be shared on the NETRUZ blog so that every teacher has access to them.

Conference participants also learned about the project and received a copy of the book: The teacher research journey: Voices from champion teacher-researchers of Uzbekistan, published by the NETRUZ (click on the book cover to download). The book was edited by E. Menglieva, M. Alimova, M. Mirvokhidova, E. Maksakova and N. Tillaeva. 

The book consists of two parts: 

• Part 1 tells the reflective stories of the mentors, 
• Part 2 contains the exploratory action research projects of the Uzbekistani teacher researchers. 

The reason the NETRUZ team decided to produce a book was to allow mentors to share their mentoring experience and their journey of being teacher-researchers and to provide recommendations to future mentors of teacher-research and teacher-research programmes. The book was also a great opportunity for teacher-researchers (including mentors) to share their exploratory action research projects with other teacher-researchers and particularly the authorities of their institutions (schools and universities). These institutions are now encouraging other teachers to be involved in classroom research projects and NETRUZ.