THEMIS will investigate a group of colleges of education and universities responsible for English language teacher training in Botswana, Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa. The project adopts a mixed method research approach to provide robust evidence of in-country practices to address the following research questions using a comparative approach:

RQ1: What are teachers’ perspectives about gender and English language learning in ODA-eligible countries? 

RQ2: What are the discriminatory practices experienced by female English teacher trainees in their training institutions?

RQ3: What motivating factors will enhance the career of female English teacher trainees?

RQ4: What existing preparation and training do English teacher trainers have to enable them to promote gender equality among their trainees?

RQ5: What best practices in teacher professional development have led to positive gender equality in the English classroom?

RQ6: How do the following areas impact on promoting gender equality in English language teacher training in the four ODA eligible countries:

• Classroom interactions (teacher to learner, learner to teacher, learner to learner);
• Language teaching behaviours and strategies (similarities as well as differences);
• Content of English language teacher trainee materials (e.g. gender representation in textbooks);
• Development and training of English teachers to raise awareness of and promote gender equality and transformative gender practices in English language teacher education.

The theoretical framework for THEMIS is provided by the CIPP Evaluation model which will be used to evaluate curricula in each teacher training college/university in the four ODA countries. A summative evaluation will be conducted as it is aimed at providing data that will guide decision-making in the future.