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In April 2025, the Education Leadership Seminar for education professionals in francophone Africa wrapped up after an intense six weeks of online training and an immersive one-week face-to-face in Dakar, Senegal. What would happen to its 30 senior education officials from 12 different countries across the region?
The participants say they were not ready for their engagement to end, and there was a consensus that addressing educational challenges could not happen in isolation. This led to an inspiring new format for the group – a Community of Practice (CoP) to be supported by IIEP-UNESCO for a pilot implementation of six months to maintain their dialogue, shared experiences, and opportunity to strategize together.
Rosa Mahdjoub, Head of the Educational Performance Evaluation Department from Algeria’s National Observatory on Education and Training, and Aboubacar Camara, an Advisor on Education Legislation from Guinea’s Ministry of Pre-University Education and Literacy, share their insights and hopes for this burgeoning community.
Where it all started
The international training on leadership in education was implemented in 2025 using a hybrid format combining online learning and an in-person session. Initiated in February 2025 on the IIEP Global Campus platform, it continued in April in Dakar through an intensive module organized with the financial support of the Gates Foundation. This training brought together participants from Senegal, Algeria, Guinea, Togo, Congo, Chad, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Djibouti, the Comoros, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, while participants from Niger and Madagascar took part exclusively remotely.
But beyond its academic dimension, this programme fostered the emergence of a collective dynamic based on the exchange of experiences.
The diversity of national contexts encouraged rich exchanges, where each participant was able to compare their practices and draw inspiration from solutions implemented elsewhere.
This dynamic gradually led to the emergence of a shared conviction: that educational challenges, often complex and systemic, cannot be addressed in isolation, but require spaces for dialogue and continuous peer learning.
The lead-up to the Community of Practice
It is in this context that the idea of creating a Community of Practice in educational leadership emerged. This initiative responds to a clear motivation: to extend the dynamic initiated during the training and to embed learning over the long term. It was no longer just about capitalizing on what had been learned, but about creating a framework that would allow participants to continue learning together, to pool experiences, and to support, over time, the transformations undertaken in the different countries.
What we experienced in Dakar could not stop at the end of the training. We felt the need to continue learning together, to share our experiences and to support one another in our respective contexts
Participant of the Education Leadership Seminar
Through this community, participants aim to strengthen their leadership capacities in a continuous and contextualized way. By sharing their experiences, collectively analyzing the challenges encountered, and co-constructing appropriate responses, they seek to transform their professional practices and increase their impact on education systems. This approach is based on an understanding of leadership as an evolving process, nourished by experience, collective reflection, and mutual learning.
Rosa Mahdjoub, Education Leadership Seminar alumna and current co-coordinator of the Community of Practice
IIEP-UNESCO / Yannick Nianga
The inner workings of a CoP
The choice of a community of practice as a framework for action emerged naturally. Unlike one-off training, limited in time, it offers a flexible and evolving space, allowing learning and action to be articulated. It promotes peer exchange, the recognition of practice-based knowledge, and continuous adaptation to national contexts. In this sense, it constitutes a coherent extension of the seminar’s pedagogical approach, based on interaction, reflection, and co-construction.
From the very first meetings organized after the training, this collective will took shape. Members engaged in a process of gradual structuring, jointly defining the objectives, modes of operation, and thematic priorities of the community. Discussions focused on central issues such as educational governance, human resource management, and the implementation of reforms, reflecting a desire to anchor the work in concrete challenges.
Launching the CoP
The year 2026 marks an important stage with the transition to operationalization. The community has adopted a structured activity plan aimed at strengthening exchanges, producing knowledge useful for decision-making, and supporting professional practices. This collective dynamic illustrates a real appropriation of the initiative by its members, who ensure its facilitation and continuity.
In this dynamic, the support of IIEP-UNESCO plays a decisive role. By providing a framework, tools, and technical support, the Institute contributes to consolidating the structuring of the community. However, its sustainability relies above all on the commitment of its members, who make it a living space, rooted in their professional realities.
Today, this Community of Practice is establishing itself as a space for collective learning, innovation, and cooperation among African education stakeholders. It offers new perspectives for the development of leadership in education and for strengthening education systems in a context of rapid transformation.
Aboubacar Camara, Education Leadership Seminar alumnus and current co-coordinator of the Community of Practice
IIEP-UNESCO / Yannick Nianga
In the long term, it aims to become a true think tank serving African education systems.
The Dakar experience thus illustrates an essential idea: training is not limited to a one-off learning moment. When it is part of a collective dynamic and a logic of continuity, it can become the starting point of a process of lasting transformation. By structuring themselves as a community of practice, the participants have taken a decisive step, transforming a training experience into a forward-looking collective project.
read more: https://www.iiep.unesco.org/en/articles/how-education-leadership-training-turned-community-practice
