ACHIEVING LANGUAGE EQUITY FOR EVERYONE
The Mulkern Foundation provides free, gold-standard professional English language training to women experiencing displacement, disaster, gender-based oppression and financial barriers. Their current focus is supporting women in Syria.
The Mulkern Foundation was established in 2023 to achieve equity in language education. They are seeking to achieve this by providing high quality training for language teachers and a Certificate in Language Pedagogy (CLP) which was developed for the Foundation by a team of eight linguists and educators across four continents. The CLP is offered free of charge to women prevented from obtaining a traditional teacher training qualification who can demonstrate an advanced (C1+) level of English or above.
The CLP is a 100 hour blended learning course which includes six hours of observed teaching practice and is intended to be studied part-time over a flexible period. Because their trainees are often affected by displacement, gender-based oppression or financial difficulty, the Foundation's course materials are available in a variety of formats designed to require minimal access to the internet.
The CLP is the Foundation's flagship teacher training course. It has been created as an alternative to industry standards such as the Cambridge CELTA and Trinity CertTESOL which cost over £1,500 and are therefore way out of reach of many of the Mulkern Foundation's service users. The CLP can be delivered at a cost of £199. The cost is born by the Foundation itself and not the participant.
Ross, the Foundation's Founder explains:
"Our projects have been designed from the ground up to require minimal funding, relying as they do on contributors donating their time and expertise to make a distance learning course available online. However, as the number of trainees grows, we will no longer be able to provide tuition solely on a voluntary basis.
For this reason we are seeking donations to compensate qualified local tutors from our target demographic (underemployed female teachers in developing countries). This comes alongside a number of other expenses such as developing an app to make studying easier in regions without reliable internet, the organisation of events such a teacher training conferences, production of physical certificates and, ultimately, the opening of a Women's Study Centre in Syria.
This centre would provide access to a classroom, library and computers from which courses such as our own and those of similar organisations such as Eagle Online Academy can be accessed, as well as providing essential products like baby formula in a safe female-only space where users can socialise and relax in a “third space” that is neither home nor work."