Learning to teach in the twenty-first century: change, challenge and chance

As recorded in the volumes of JET for the last half century, learning, and continuing to learn to teach has developed out of recognition. The articles in this issue of JET each contribute to this evolutionary process from a range of perspectives. The nascent idea that teaching might be a career choice is the focus of the first paper, by Tia Pavin Ivanec, from the University of Zagreb in Croatia, who looked at factors that motived prospective teachers (early years, primary and secondary) in that country. Importantly, all groups evinced the intrinsic value of teaching (passion for education; having a positive impact on young people’s lives; making a difference; personal growth and development opportunities, etc.); the social value of teaching (job security; work-life balance; competitive salary/ benefits, etc.) and a positive perception of their own abilities as the most important motivators. Interesting differences between the groups arising from the data analysis substantiate the view that secondary candidates are more strongly motivated by a love of their subject. A strong motivation for teaching remains as important in the C21 as it has been since formal education began. However, as will unfold in the articles to come, the complex and multifaceted challenges of contemporary life are having a direct impact on all aspects of teacher education. Closely linked to career motivation is the concept of professional identity formation, which is the focus of the next article, by Dario Banegas of the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. Drawing on an in-depth evaluation of a language curriculum development module in a TESOL course, Banegas elicited important aspects of the development of the formation student teachers’ professional identities: that of the reflective practitioner and the language teacher as a researcher and curriculum developer. Significantly, this paper demonstrates that the development of these characteristics is important in reinforcing a sense of professional identity, which in turn increases student teachers’ investment in their initial teacher education course and their future career as well as enhancing a greater sense of purpose and meaning in their work. The next article in this issue, from Ge Wei and colleagues from three universities in China, describes a study situated within the framework of expansive learning, developed from cultural-historical activity theory (Engstrom 2001). Not merely a cognitive process of acquiring knowledge and skills, expansive learning is also an active process of transforming the social and cultural contexts in which learning takes place. Wei et al. examined different aspects of their initial teacher education programme through the lens of expansive learning using formative interventions to discern how and when various aspects of practical teaching knowledge were gained. This fine-grained taxonomy demonstrated that the trajectory of growth in practical teaching knowledge acquisition occurs when the student teachers engaged in challenging, novel activities that required them to solve problems, develop new skills and interact with their social and cultural JOURNAL OF EDUCATION FOR TEACHING 2023, VOL. 49, NO. 3, 351–354 https://doi.org/10.1080/02607476.2023.2212453