The OECD Centre for Educational Research and Innovation (CERI) examines key questions through the frames of both research and innovation. It has a mandate to focus on the future and how to make the most of new opportunities and also anticipate evolving challenges. The CERI has placed strong emphasis on the importance of teachers and teaching over the years, investing in conceptual work, for example, on teachers as knowledge workers and their professional status, on pedagogical innovation, as well as development of innovative components to assess teacher knowledge within the OECD’s Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS).
The current publication presents the results of a study undertaken within the New professionalism and the future of teaching project. The role of a teacher is significant for each individual they teach. Collectively, the profession of teaching contributes to communities and broader society. As society continues to change at a rapid rate, we need to anticipate the needs of the teaching profession in ways that ensure it thrives for the benefit of all. Firstly, as all professions evolve we need to understand the possibilities this creates for the profession of teaching. We can do this by considering policy making, research questions and examples of practice through the lens of ‘teachers as professionals’. Secondly, new forms of professionalism are increasingly focused on relational aspects. Relationships are at the core of the teaching profession and therefore there is a need to look carefully at the multitude of relationships involved in teaching to create empowering collaborations and conditions that support teachers’ work so they can positively and sustainably use their expertise for each child and young person they teach, and collectively, each community and society they are part.
Coming back to the CERI main mandates, the project mobilises the existing OECD evidence base (data, policy and research work) and adds new research work on professionalism, professional identity and meaningful collaboration. The project also conducts case studies in specific education systems, initially in Flanders (Belgium), Austria and Wales (United Kingdom). These case studies have a set of specific questions that draw on research from within the context of the specific education system, across the OECD and internationally. In terms of innovation, the project develops new methods and tools to help people engage with research and co-create visions for the future of teaching. In developing future scenarios, thinking about and sharing ideas/innovations for next-practice, two tools have been developed. The first is an Ambition loops framework. In each case study, this is used in a survey and extensively in workshops. It contains a series of statements of ambition for the future that can create bold actions and positive feedback loops across stakeholders to transform practice and policy. To consider how attractive these future visions would be, the second tool that has been developed is a set of teacher personas, specific to the education system studied, that can be used to support design and implementation of policy.
The study methodology and tools are available for other education systems to use. This publication illustrates how these can be applied in a given context and a flavour of the optimistic, constructive and achievable visions for the future of teaching that can be developed.