Across the world, education systems are reforming how teachers, teacher educators and education leaders and specialists are prepared, recruited, regulated, and supported driven by competence-based curricula, digital transformation, inclusion imperatives, and the search for stronger human capital. Uganda is no exception: a competence-based curriculum, the rationalisation and upgrading of teacher training, the establishment of UNITE, and renewed attention to standards and professionalisation are reshaping the field. These national efforts are part of a global conversation, and the questions they raise about entry into the profession, regulation and quality, programme design, modern pedagogy, professional development, financing, technology and AI, research, community engagement, welfare, and the leadership of reform are shared across continents.

UNITE is convening the International Teacher Education Conference 2026 as a platform bringing together scholars, policy makers and practitioners in teacher education and training worldwide. The Conference invites rigorous, context-sensitive, and practice-oriented contributions including single-country studies, comparative and cross-national work, and international collaborations alike, that move teacher education reform from commitment to measurable impact on human capital development.