Teaching Challenges in the 21st Century and the Role of Schooling

Perceptions of the teacher changing

o In decline
through the changing nature of schools and media
Conflicting demands
o What teachers are expected to be and do
Care taker and nurturer
Role model
Educator
Academic educator
Social educator
Expectations of the teacher
o Politically motivated expectations
o Legal and Professional standards
Changing demographic of teachers
o How will this affect professional relationships?
Recognition of student well-being
Need for resilience
ICT
o How is technology used and why?
o Reliability of resources and internet
Nature of knowledge
o Moving from a fix idea of principles and knowledge to a more fluid
notion of truth

How has the nature of teachers work changed over time? What has
remained the same?
Large scale schooling always has had and I feel always will have the element of
mass childcare, keeping children safe while mum and dad work for the
economic good of the society. Changes have occurred in the transmission of
knowledge, with teachers moving from being the font of all knowledge and
truths to being facilitators and guides in a students learning and needing to
engage the student as a person in their own right not just a receptacle for their
wisdom. Another change which I feel has had a large impact on teachers is the
increased scrutiny they are under, both professional and privately. While I
understand the need for teacher scrutiny by the very nature of being in a
position of power among young people, the statistic of 25-40%
resignation/burnout rate concerns me as a future teacher, and raises the
personal questions of how I am going to develop within the education system in
a healthy and positive way?
Having read Tait what do you understand by the word truth?
I feel that Tait was saying that there is no essential truth, and it is dependent
on outside constructs and is constantly subject to revision and challenge as
new knowledge is discovered and new people, with different social contexts,
join the discussion. Relating this back to teaching in the 21st century I feel that
this means that, as educators moving towards an ever increasingly global world
view, we need to recognise that the values our system espouses is not the only
one. It also means critically looking for the strength in this system while also
giving value and space for the strengths in other systems. Be they on a
personal/family level or a social/community level.

What kind of teacher do you think you will be required in the 21 st

Century?
We need to be able to teach students how to critically engage with information,
there is so much information disseminated on so many different platforms that
people need to be able to question: Where did the information come from? Who
wrote the information? And why?