In recent years, fewer and fewer young people with a love for children and education, enthusiastic, passionate young people with a pedagogical vocation, choose to be teachers. It is a reality that we are all aware of, from decision-makers in the field of education, teacher trainers, to those who have chosen to remain school people and dedicate their entire lives to education, children and the communities they are part of.
This is perhaps the strongest reason that prompted us to develop this work, dedicated to you – young people who are still looking for answers to the question: Should I choose the teaching profession?
We hope that the pages of this book will challenge you to deep reflection, self-questioning, self-discovery and self-knowledge, so that, when you reach the end of it, the answer will be one and only, expressed clearly and convincingly: YES, I want to be a teacher, because there is no other profession more beautiful and noble than this!
We hope that our work will support your initial training process as future teachers, to be one of the solid landmarks to which you will return, whenever you ask yourself: Why does education matter?, Why does the teaching profession have a major social importance? or Why is the teacher the heart of the school?
We believe that we have embarked on an endeavor that, on the one hand, honors us, since nothing is more noble than the mission of a trainer who accompanies the learner on his or her path of formation as a creator of People, and, on the other hand, it makes us responsible, because we have the firm conviction that the future of education and, therefore, of our children, depends, to a large extent, on the quality of the initial training of teachers.
Our educational work carried out with young people or adults who are preparing for a teaching career has always had, as a starting point, the motivation to make them aware that choosing to be a teacher involves assuming a mission, following a calling, "responding" to a vocation.
Being a teacher today involves a series of responsibilities and challenges that require, first and foremost, the need to be aware of the "status" associated with your professional identity: that of a person who is constantly learning. Because, beyond the accumulations made in the first stage of your training as a teacher, materialized in knowledge, abilities, skills, attitudes, values and elements of professional conduct, those with whom you will learn and from whom you will continuously learn, are your children, your students. They, through what they will be, think, feel, through the way they will act, are the ones who will show you the real "measure" of your professional skills.
Over the years, in the process of learning together, alongside our students, we have also learned how to be better teachers, how to support them to succeed, observing how their learning needs, the way they learn, their preferences for certain types of tasks, the difficulties they encounter have changed from generation to generation.
You may be wondering why it would be useful to go through this work, if you are preparing to become teachers?
First of all, you will find here valuable theoretical references, which will help you clarify key concepts and representative ideas for relevant topics, such as: the teaching profession, the professional profile of the teaching staff, education general characteristics and perspectives of approach, the functions of education, the issue of educability, forms and dimensions of education, new educations, lifelong education and self-education, digital education, etc..
At the beginning of each chapter, you will identify three sections: What and how will you learn?; What are the main conceptual references?; What learning outcomes will you achieve?. These help you anticipate what the intended objectives, main conceptual references and learning outcomes associated with each topic covered are.