Our Work
Teacher Mentors Abroad (TMA) is a Canadian not-for-profit organization that empowers educators in the Dominican Republic to strengthen their instructional practices and positively impact the achievement of their students. Canadian teacher mentors travel to the Dominican Republic to provide professional development for selected mentors in their home communities.
Canadian mentors volunteer their time and self fund their trip, in the summer, where they work together with Dominican mentors to create content for teacher professional learning programs. Research supports the belief that when it comes to making improvements in education and student success, no investment yields more reward than improved teacher professional learning opportunities.
TMA has seen evidence of the tremendous educational change that is possible when investing in teachers.
TMA is dedicated to raising the level of education in the Dominican Republic by providing professional development to educators free of charge.
TMA provides teaching strategies that are inclusive, collaborative, reflect critical thinking, differentiated and support student centered learning environments.
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TMA has established a respected program in four of the largest school districts in the Dominican Republic, providing professional development to more than 4,000 teachers, administrators and system leaders, impacting exponentially tens of thousands of students.
Agents of Change
Agents of Change is the name Dominican mentors adopted when they began participating in TMA workshops. For true system change, sustainable growth and local ownership were required. Students in the Dominican Republic have some of the lowest academic achievement levels across Latin America (UNESCO, 2009; PISA 2023). Teacher training is now recognized as essential to education improvement, as evidenced through research.
Government and non-profit organizations in the Dominican Republic are highly collaborative with TMA in providing facilities for workshops at no cost. Professional learning communities are now established among Dominican mentors, who in turn extend their learning to their peers.
After witnessing clear improvements within the student population, Dominican educators asked TMA to provide continuous training throughout the year, including virtual sessions. Thirty mentors are now ready for training, some of whom will become trainers in evidence-based and high quality teaching and learning practices using the Peace Learning Circles model as a foundation.
New Directions
Following his guest speaking engagement at the 2023 TMA Annual General Meeting, Dr. Aslini Brito championed an invitation for TMA to present at the EDUCA Aprendo Conference. Following that presentation, EDUCA invited TMA to develop and deliver a 8 week Mentoring course to former Directors who were working directly with school communities.
Inspired by Hector Santana, TMA's 2024 guest speaker and the work of the Sister Leonore Gibbs of the Grey Sisters from Pembroke, who started a school community in Consuelo, starting in the summer 2025, TMA will be starting their first ever District-wide 3 year plan of support. Summer teams will be traveling to District 05-06 in Consuelo and providing professional learning to educators from every school in the district. The focus of the workshops will be based on the strategies shared in the Peace Learning Circles book.
To ensure that our Dominican Mentors in other Districts continue to strengthen their practice and their inspiration of others, members of the TMA Program Committee are now providing online learning modules throughout the school year. The focus of those sessions are Critical Thinking, Student Engagement, Special Education and Mentoring.
