INSPIRA – Inspiration, Learning and Future skills for the Teaching Community

NSPIRA is a collaborative project between university teacher education units and education providers. The project develops a research-based model for teachers’ continuous professional learning. The model brings together in-service teachers and student teachers to learn together and to strengthen development-oriented competencies, workplace readiness and wellbeing.

The project supports the goals of the Teacher Education 2050 vision by connecting initial teacher education and continuing professional learning, strengthening network-based collaboration and grounding the development of educational content in research and identified competence needs. At the beginning of the project, a needs assessment will be conducted to form a shared understanding of teachers’ continuous learning needs. On this basis, the model will be co-developed, piloted and evaluated in collaboration with universities, education providers and other key stakeholders.
INSPIRA is implemented through the principles of co-creation, sustainable development and futures thinking. The aim is to create a scalable model that can be embedded into the everyday practices of universities and that supports the renewal of the teaching profession and teacher wellbeing beyond the project period. The project will also develop a research-based impact assessment model to support the long-term development and dissemination of the continuous learning model.

The project is coordinated by Tampere University, with the University of Jyväskylä and the University of Turku as co-implementers. Other universities offering teacher education, the OPPIVA Network and expert collaboration connected to the Finnish Teacher Education Forum are also involved in the planning and implementation. The project is funded by the European Social Fund Plus (ESF+) and the OPPIVA Network. INSPIRA will run from 1 April 2026 to 31 December 2028.