The annual call for the Teacher Training Programme (TTP) 2025, run by the IAU Office of Astronomy for Education (OAE), is now open. This is an opportunity for the OAE’s National Astronomy Education Coordinators (NAECs), astronomers, teachers, and anyone working in astronomy education to submit a proposal and host a teacher training workshop in their country or region. The deadline for submissions is 30 April 2025.

One of the OAE’s objectives is to professionalise astronomy education. To this end, the OAE is dedicated to developing and implementing a framework in which astronomy teacher training programmes can be run and supported globally. For the 2025 edition of the TTP, the OAE is working on the “Transparency Standards for Astronomy Teacher Training Workshops”. These standards will serve as guidelines to help proposers of potential TTP workshops develop and refine their programmes, providing a structured approach to constructing workshop proposals, outlining key aspects such as content knowledge, pedagogy, classroom application, student understanding, and principles of equity, diversity, and inclusion.

This call encourages anyone in the astronomy education community to actively collaborate with their NAECs[1] and submit proposals for financial support up to €2000 to organise and run a teacher training and professional development workshop in 2025 or early 2026. 

The team will work together to create and conduct a teacher training workshop tailored to their specific preferences, which will empower teachers with the knowledge and skills to teach astronomy confidently in their classrooms.

In 2024, the OAE proudly supported 21 TTP workshops in primary, middle, and high schools worldwide. The OAE would like to thank the OAE Center Italy, OAE Center India, and the African Astronomical Society (AfAS) for their dedicated funding support for primary school astronomy teacher training, TTPs in the Indian region, and TTPs on the African continent, respectively.

Proposals should be submitted via the online application form by 30 April 2025. Any inquiries about the programme or application process can be sent by email to ttp@astro4edu.org. 

The OAE would like to take this opportunity to congratulate the following countries, their NAECs, and respective teams that received TTP grants in 2024:

Primary schools 

• Albania (Mirjeta Domi, Eglantina Teta & Sila Doko), 
• Indonesia (Premana W. Premadi, Novita Hudyaningtyas & Yatny Yulianty), 
• Lebanon (Jean-Pierre Saghbini, Marc Bou Zeid & Ahmad Chaalan), 
• Malaysia (Hasan Abu Kassim, Nurul Syahirah Binti Nazarudin, Norhasliza Yusof & Nazhatulshima Ahmad), 
• South Africa (Sibuyile Manxoyi, Buzani Khumalo, Sinenhlanhla Sikhosana & Senamise Sosibo), 
• Uganda (Doreen Agaba, Moses Todo & Bosco Oruru), 
• Türkiye (Ayşegül Yelkenci, Özcan Köse & Yağmur Karan), 
• Armenia (Sona Farmanyan, Lilit Hovhannisyan & Areg Mickaelian), 
• India (Niruj Mohan Ramanujam, Uma Subramaniyan, Cinthia Chandharasekaran, Jaya Paul Swamidass & Mekala Dhanasekaran). 

Middle Schools

• Azerbaijan (Famil Mustafa, Khidir Mikayilov & Faik Nagiyev), 
• Dominican Republic (Breezy Ocaña Flaquer, Manuel Marcano, Omar Pérez Veloz & Erika Montero), 
• Egypt (Magda Moheb El-dine, Hagar M. M. Ghonaim, Hossam El din Mahmoud, Mohamed Farouk, Raouf H. H. Mabrouk), 
• Mozambique (​​Thomson Mucavele, Dercia Nhantumbo & Francisco Macucule), 
• Nepal (Rabina Maharjan Rupa Manandhar & Laxman Dongol), 
• India 2 (Kuntal Misra, Virendra Yadav, Chitra Singh, Mila Mitra & Gautam Agawari). 

High School

• Chile (Carla Hernández Silva, Fernanda Alarcón & Irma Fuentes Morales), 
• Gabon (ESSONE OBAME Hans, OYANE NDONG Nova Audrey & OKOUMA Patrice), 
• Ghana (Albert Kuntu Forson, Sarah Boamah, Naomi Asabre Frimpong), 
• Mauritius (Nadeem Oozeer, Roddy Lollchund & Albert Forson), 
• Tanzania (Elineema Nassari,  Hamuli Majeshi, Mponda Malozo & Kai Staats), 
• Togo (ADDOR Doh Koffi, AGBEKO Akouvi & Rosa Maria Ros Ferré).

Notes

[1] Collaboration with a NAEC team member is a prerequisite for submitting proposals. Teachers and/or astronomers interested in leading a workshop are encouraged to connect with a NAEC in their country for potential collaboration: https://www.astro4edu.org/naec-network/. NAECs have representation in approximately 110 countries worldwide.

More information

The IAU is the international astronomical organisation that brings together more than 12 000 active professional astronomers from more than 100 countries worldwide. Its mission is to promote and safeguard astronomy in all its aspects, including research, communication, education and development, through international cooperation. The IAU also serves as the internationally recognised authority for assigning designations to celestial bodies and the surface features on them. Founded in 1919, the IAU is the world's largest professional body for astronomers.

The IAU Office of Astronomy for Education is hosted at Haus der Astronomie (HdA), managed by the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy. The OAE’s mission is to support and coordinate astronomy education by astronomy researchers and educators, aimed at primary or secondary schools worldwide. HdA’s hosting the OAE was made possible through the support of the German foundations the Klaus Tschira Foundation and the Carl Zeiss Foundation.

Links

• FAQs (with more on eligibility criteria and rules)

Contacts

Tshiamiso Makwela
Astronomy Education Researcher
Email: makwela@astro4edu.org 

Lina Canas
IAU Membership Coordinator
Email: lina.canas@iau.org / iaupressoffice@iau.org 

Laura Hiscott
IAU Press Office Editor
Email: iaupressoffice@iau.org