**5. Teachers' capacity and competence for technology enhanced learning**

As indicated above, the Covid 19 pandemic has lent renewed urgency to being adaptive, while also extending pedagogical repertoires to embrace the potential offered by various technologies. More generally, the rapid pace of change and challenges facing the 21st century provides opportunities "and a window for action, as evidenced by the power of digitalisation to transform, connect and empower" [34]. Digital technology is playing a pivotal role in the development of modern economies and societies. This has profound implications for education, both because

*Teacher Education in the 21st Century - Emerging Skills for a Changing World*

**Communities**

and Motivation

domain

Mindsets

belonging

• Conceptual map of the

• Inquiry & explicit instruction

• Motivating tasks with skilful scaffolding • Interest driven learning

Development of Habits and

• Teach executive functions • Develop growth mindset, self-efficacy, sense of

• Use mindfulness tools for stress management

Coordinated access to integrated services

• Wraparound health, mental health, and social

• Community partnerships • Family and community engagement

services

*Practices aligned with the science of learning and development. Adapted from [38].*

building

• Intentional community

• Cultural competence • Identity safety • Consistent Routines

**Connections among staff and** 

• Regular parent conferences • Authentic family engagement

Learning how to learn

& revision

assessment

• Teaching metacognition and learning strategies

• Formative feedback, practice

• Mastery-oriented performance

Educative and Restorative Behavioural Supports

• Teach students behavioural skills & responsibility • Culminate community contributions

• Repair harm by making amends

Extended learning opportunities

• Before and after school enrichment, mentoring and academic

• Summer learning opportunities

support

• Tutoring

**families**

• Relational trust • Staff collaboration • Home visits

**Structures of Effective Caring Classroom Learning** 

Student-centred Instruction Conceptual Understanding

**I. Supportive Environment**

**II. Productive Instructional Strategies**

**III. Social and Emotional Development**

Integration of Social Emotional

personal skills, empathy, conflict resolution, collaboration,

• Teach intra- and inter-

• Integrate and practice skills throughout the day

Multi-tiered systems of support

• Tier 1: Use universal designs for learning & knowledge of child

• Tier 2: Diagnostically identify additional services needed • Tier 3: Provide intensive interventions

**IV. System of Supports**

responsibility

(MTSS)

**Table 3.**

development

Skills

• Building on prior experience • Teaching to readiness • Personalisation • Collaborative learning • Cognitive supports

• Small schools • Small class size • Advisories • Block scheduling • Looping • Teaching teams • Longer grade spans

Freire [46], like Dewey, believed that each student should play an active role in their own learning, instead of being the passive recipients of knowledge. Consequently, both authors are in agreement that the ideal teacher would be open-minded and confident—confident in their competence while also open-minded to sharing and learning from his or her students [47]. A recent study by Farrell and Marshall [26] in the context of initial teacher education (ITE) found that some student teachers' use of digital pedagogy toppled the typical co-operating teacher/student teacher

**106**

digital technology can enable new forms of learning and because it has become important for young people to master digital technology in preparation for adult life [37]. While schools are key sites for the building of adaptive competences [51], including the competences to embed digital technology in teaching, learning and assessment [33], a recent OECD report [30] notes that "the reality in our schools lags considerably behind the promise of technology." While there is an expectation that teachers are proficient in the use of digital technology, in teaching, learning and assessment, the reality is that this is not always the case [52]. Provision of continuing professional development for teacher educators [53] is fundamental to developing digital competence, as is collaboration with leading experts including those from industry [54].

In order to develop a coherent professional learning plan for teachers, it is import to establish an agreed framework for digital competences that teachers need in order to harness the potential of digital technology in teaching, learning and assessment. However, given the pace of development of evolving technologies, this too is a tall order. McGarr and McDonagh [55] synthesised digital learning frameworks from around the world into a four-part model encompassing Technical skills, Pedagogical skills, Cyber-ethics and Attitudes (PEAT) (see **Figure 1** below).

Their model encapsulates the necessary technical, pedagogical and ethical competencies that are required for teacher education in the 21st century. According to Brox [57] there is currently a narrow utilitarian adoption of technology by teachers and she argues that "teacher education should encourage a deeper understanding of technology, in which both human and technological agency are explored and problematized". Tsvetkova and Kiryukhin [58] assert that there is.

*…a triad of digital competencies that create a stable structure for their development including: Vital (custom) digital competencies that enable teachers to keep up with the world of digital devices and services; profile and professional competencies that will determine the adaptability and success in the conditions of digitalization of professions and social digital competence of citizens that will help to preserve our delicate world on the principles of humanism and creative development of our children, to avoid atomisation of digital society.*

Digital enhanced learning is an ambitious agenda and in the absence of time, resources and continuing professional development teachers are in danger of becoming scapegoats for lack of progress in this regard. Additionally, by focusing on a more technicist approach to skills, there is an underlying assumption that these

**109**

response.

*Sustainable Teaching in an Uncertain World: Pedagogical Continuities, Un-Precedented Challenges*

are easily grafted on to teachers' existing pedagogical repertoires, when there are more fundamental epistemic and identity considerations in play that take time to ferment as part of transforming not only the knowledge base of teaching that is

**6. 21st century skills and global competences – the challenge of** 

*The Worldwide Educating for the Future Index* [29] offers evidence of a consensus that education systems urgently need to prepare students for the challenges that await them in work and society. For several decades, there has been an expressed urgency on the part of policy-makers to shape the future, but with modest success, as evidenced by what McLaughlin refers to as 'misery research' [59, 60]. Throughout the period of these calls to transform the experience of schooling, what has emerged, and research has consolidated, is a broad agreement on the vital role that critical thinking, creativity, communication, entrepreneurship and other future-oriented skills, including digital capabilities, have potential to play in helping students meet those challenges [27, 28]. This so-called list of 21st century skills [61] emerged from a splurge of initiatives and frameworks driven by corporate and government partnerships over the past decade [62] such as Partnership 21 (P21) and Assessment and Teaching of 21st Century Skills (ATC21S). More recently the OECD [21] introduced the notion of *Global Competencies for an Inclusive World* where "Globally competent individuals can examine local, global and intercultural issues, understand and appreciate different perspectives and world views, interact successfully and respectfully with others, and take responsible action toward sustainability and collective well-being". While such policy rhetorics may be aspirationally laudable, there is a sense also that saving the planet, a major challenge in itself, is being grated onto existing reform initiatives and challenges to systems of schooling. It is not that schools do not have a potentially significant part to play in reversing the worst features of climate change, but that cultivating the voices of students and harnessing their agency for transformation can only be effective in tandem with political leadership, will and adequate allocation of resources. Too often in the past, too much is left to systems of schooling, and too great a burden placed on teachers alone to bring about desired reforms. Thus in the absence of adequate professional support, holding the profession accountable for such a significant agenda, becomes an unjust burden rather than a professional challenge, worthy of a responsible

The rhetoric of 21st century skills orients toward the world of work at a time when we also need an emphasis on the promotion of education to foster broader objectives such preparing young people for "a rapidly changing, uncertain, risky

Another aspect of this challenge is equality of access to adequate infrastructure to support digital enhanced pedagogy. There is a case to be made for broadband to be made a public good if all education stakeholders are to have parity of access to digital enhanced learning opportunities. A further concern is the influence of the corporate sector that is currently filling the gap in continuing professional development by providing free online courses to teachers who wish to increase their level of competence in the area. However, creative and constructive engagement with the best forms of adaptive pedagogy, in whatever shape or form, has the potential to provide a sense of optimism for building a better future. Enthusiasm for promoting technologies for the benefit of already wealthy technology entrepreneurs is no substitute for sustained engagement that recognises the complexities of teaching

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.96078*

and learning.

**continuity and change**

crucial also forging 21st century teacher identities.

**Figure 1.** *Synthesised model of teachers' digital competence – The PEAT model [56].*

*Sustainable Teaching in an Uncertain World: Pedagogical Continuities, Un-Precedented Challenges DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.96078*

are easily grafted on to teachers' existing pedagogical repertoires, when there are more fundamental epistemic and identity considerations in play that take time to ferment as part of transforming not only the knowledge base of teaching that is crucial also forging 21st century teacher identities.

Another aspect of this challenge is equality of access to adequate infrastructure to support digital enhanced pedagogy. There is a case to be made for broadband to be made a public good if all education stakeholders are to have parity of access to digital enhanced learning opportunities. A further concern is the influence of the corporate sector that is currently filling the gap in continuing professional development by providing free online courses to teachers who wish to increase their level of competence in the area. However, creative and constructive engagement with the best forms of adaptive pedagogy, in whatever shape or form, has the potential to provide a sense of optimism for building a better future. Enthusiasm for promoting technologies for the benefit of already wealthy technology entrepreneurs is no substitute for sustained engagement that recognises the complexities of teaching and learning.

## **6. 21st century skills and global competences – the challenge of continuity and change**

*The Worldwide Educating for the Future Index* [29] offers evidence of a consensus that education systems urgently need to prepare students for the challenges that await them in work and society. For several decades, there has been an expressed urgency on the part of policy-makers to shape the future, but with modest success, as evidenced by what McLaughlin refers to as 'misery research' [59, 60]. Throughout the period of these calls to transform the experience of schooling, what has emerged, and research has consolidated, is a broad agreement on the vital role that critical thinking, creativity, communication, entrepreneurship and other future-oriented skills, including digital capabilities, have potential to play in helping students meet those challenges [27, 28]. This so-called list of 21st century skills [61] emerged from a splurge of initiatives and frameworks driven by corporate and government partnerships over the past decade [62] such as Partnership 21 (P21) and Assessment and Teaching of 21st Century Skills (ATC21S). More recently the OECD [21] introduced the notion of *Global Competencies for an Inclusive World* where "Globally competent individuals can examine local, global and intercultural issues, understand and appreciate different perspectives and world views, interact successfully and respectfully with others, and take responsible action toward sustainability and collective well-being". While such policy rhetorics may be aspirationally laudable, there is a sense also that saving the planet, a major challenge in itself, is being grated onto existing reform initiatives and challenges to systems of schooling. It is not that schools do not have a potentially significant part to play in reversing the worst features of climate change, but that cultivating the voices of students and harnessing their agency for transformation can only be effective in tandem with political leadership, will and adequate allocation of resources. Too often in the past, too much is left to systems of schooling, and too great a burden placed on teachers alone to bring about desired reforms. Thus in the absence of adequate professional support, holding the profession accountable for such a significant agenda, becomes an unjust burden rather than a professional challenge, worthy of a responsible response.

The rhetoric of 21st century skills orients toward the world of work at a time when we also need an emphasis on the promotion of education to foster broader objectives such preparing young people for "a rapidly changing, uncertain, risky

*Teacher Education in the 21st Century - Emerging Skills for a Changing World*

those from industry [54].

digital technology can enable new forms of learning and because it has become important for young people to master digital technology in preparation for adult life [37]. While schools are key sites for the building of adaptive competences [51], including the competences to embed digital technology in teaching, learning and assessment [33], a recent OECD report [30] notes that "the reality in our schools lags considerably behind the promise of technology." While there is an expectation that teachers are proficient in the use of digital technology, in teaching, learning and assessment, the reality is that this is not always the case [52]. Provision of continuing professional development for teacher educators [53] is fundamental to developing digital competence, as is collaboration with leading experts including

In order to develop a coherent professional learning plan for teachers, it is import to establish an agreed framework for digital competences that teachers need in order to harness the potential of digital technology in teaching, learning and assessment. However, given the pace of development of evolving technologies, this too is a tall order. McGarr and McDonagh [55] synthesised digital learning frameworks from around the world into a four-part model encompassing Technical skills,

Pedagogical skills, Cyber-ethics and Attitudes (PEAT) (see **Figure 1** below).

problematized". Tsvetkova and Kiryukhin [58] assert that there is.

*children, to avoid atomisation of digital society.*

Their model encapsulates the necessary technical, pedagogical and ethical competencies that are required for teacher education in the 21st century. According to Brox [57] there is currently a narrow utilitarian adoption of technology by teachers and she argues that "teacher education should encourage a deeper understanding of technology, in which both human and technological agency are explored and

*…a triad of digital competencies that create a stable structure for their development including: Vital (custom) digital competencies that enable teachers to keep up with the world of digital devices and services; profile and professional competencies that will determine the adaptability and success in the conditions of digitalization of professions and social digital competence of citizens that will help to preserve our delicate world on the principles of humanism and creative development of our* 

Digital enhanced learning is an ambitious agenda and in the absence of time, resources and continuing professional development teachers are in danger of becoming scapegoats for lack of progress in this regard. Additionally, by focusing on a more technicist approach to skills, there is an underlying assumption that these

**108**

**Figure 1.**

*Synthesised model of teachers' digital competence – The PEAT model [56].*

and possibly dangerous future" [63]. Moreover, a predominantly economic focus on education has inherent contradictions [64] regarding teachers' vital role in promoting the necessary "transformative shifts in how we think and act" [65] that are required for the changes in human behaviour essential for sustainable living. The capacity for transformative models of education to take root is dependent on a range of factors including preparedness of schools and teachers to embrace such approaches [66].

Education systems around the world are responding to the changing economic, environment, social and political global landscape by reviewing their curricula to include key skills and competencies. Thijs and van den Akker's [67] description of curricular strata, where the supra level begins with transnational discourses about education, leading to the macro level of national level policy intentions and on to the meso level of policy guidance and facilitation to the micro level of school-level curricular practices and finally to the nano level of classroom interactions, demonstrates the complexities of implementing changes in the education sphere. While such a tiered approach to policy framing may well be necessary and appropriate, such a trickle down approach to trans-formation needs to give considerably more recognition to 'continuous adaptation' [68], thus also, considerably more dependent on micro capacities to extend the knowledge base of teaching, from a content and pedagogical perspective.

Lehtonen et al. [69] concur that the educational space is both complex and contested, presenting educators with the challenge of addressing difficult knowledge in a politicised and, at times, divisive context. The ability of teachers to critically form their responses to challenging and intricate situations, activating prior experience to move between repertoires for action in the light of reflection on alternative futures will be very varied across different contexts [70]. At the core of this dilemma is the concept of professional agency, whereby practitioners have the capacity to act in particular circumstances making sense of policies and of the multiple nuanced factors that influence the process by which these policies are realised. Agency and professional responsibility are not fixed capacities but rather an achievement resulting from the interplay of individual efforts and capabilities within contextual and structural factors in concrete situations [71], while responsibility implicitly contains a moral dimension. Thus, cultivating professional agency and responsibility in the teaching profession is central to understanding how educational policies are translated into contextually relevant teaching practices [72]. Important and all as teacher agency and professional responsibility may be, the days of 'heroic' performance are long since passed, thus there needs to be a significantly stronger sense of collective agency, collaborative professionalism, that takes professional responsibility seriously, while this too entails calling out systemic failures and inadequacies in terms of necessary and sustained support for teacher learning, and ongoing tailored 21st century 'formation' [73].

Another important factor in building sustainable teacher capacity is teacher professional identity and how it is inextricably linked to their chosen disciplines. The attempts by policy makers around the globe to progress the skills and competency agenda has been thwarted in some respects due to the lack of connection to subject discipline and pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) [74]. Skills cannot be learned in a content free zone. If teachers are to build their pedagogical repertoire for 21st century education they need to be supported and encouraged to broaden their horizons sufficiently to merge skill development and PCK in their practice [75]. However, if the rate of educational change persists without adequate resourcing and support, there is a serious danger of teacher burnout and attrition from the profession. We must learn from the sins of the past where rapid and radical reform did not achieve their intended outcomes [59]. There needs to be a systemic recognition

**111**

**7. Conclusion**

*Sustainable Teaching in an Uncertain World: Pedagogical Continuities, Un-Precedented Challenges*

by policy makers that we do not have to invent the future out of nothing, as well as increasing power asymmetries due to the expansion in influence of international agencies with their own agendas. Furthermore, teachers who are at the coal face of reform need to challenge the rhetoric surrounding the novelty of 21st century skills and competences. Seminal thinkers like Dewey and Freire have espoused the educational virtues of democratic and citizenship education, critical thinking and collaboration for decades. There is no denying that teacher capacity and competency to foster these skills are important agenda items. If we are to succeed in building this capacity and embedding these skills across the continuum of education, we need to approach it differently than heretofore in an incremental and non-threatening way that is achievable and sustainable. Slowing the process of change sufficiently to enable capacity to be enhanced incrementally is necessary; capacity building can only occur from where teachers' expertise is rather than where it ought to be. There needs to be recognition also that the intellectual capacities of teachers vary considerably also from one jurisdiction to another, while this is already reflected in PISA results—particularly in Finland and Signapore [76]. While public partnerships have considerable potential to enhance teacher capacities, vigilance too is necessary in order to maintain schooling as a public good, a state responsibility that eschews profit in favour of society. Maintaining education as a public good to avoid the for profit sector dominating the agenda is essential. Moreover, making structural changes to the school year is also essential for educational reform to be more than a mere aspiration. Elongating the school year to facilitate sustained teacher learning at the site of the practice [77] and during the working day is a possible solution that,

though a challenge to the profession will be necessary to consider.

hand and teacher autonomy and professional judgement on the other.

Assessment is probably one of the most important aspects of the education process and has often been described as "the tail that wags the curriculum dog" [78]. Any attempts to embed key skills and competencies across the continuum of education must include a more holistic approach to assessment. This is easier said than done. Approaches to the assessment of skills and competencies will require more teacher and school-based assessment and less dependence on high stakes terminal exams. However, the controversy surrounding the examination process in many developed countries during COVID-19 crisis demonstrates the complex nature of assessment and the tension between transparency and fairness on the one

It is abundantly evident from the brief analysis and foray into aspects of building teacher capacity that the agenda is ambitious. As indicated in the introduction, even in the most developed economies, past experience indicates that this is an enormous challenge. When viewed from the perspective of cultures and contexts that continue to struggle with 'basic' education, the challenges appear as Sisyphean, and serves to disenfranchise, and demoralise rather than enhance teachers sense of agency and responsibility, and the quality of teaching and learning. Such a considerable educational change agenda is open to the accusation of policy elites talking among themselves. Unless and until the voices of teachers, learners, their parents and communities become part of that reform conversation in a meaningful and sustained manner, hope will drain away. There is no Valhalla, no 'promised land' to which teachers and their learners may easily migrate. Rather, they have to build and pave the way to that future. Without the support and resources necessary to match the ambition, professional agency, and professional responsibility are likely to decline rather than enjoy enhancement, and pedagogical repertoires more likely to

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.96078*

#### *Sustainable Teaching in an Uncertain World: Pedagogical Continuities, Un-Precedented Challenges DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.96078*

by policy makers that we do not have to invent the future out of nothing, as well as increasing power asymmetries due to the expansion in influence of international agencies with their own agendas. Furthermore, teachers who are at the coal face of reform need to challenge the rhetoric surrounding the novelty of 21st century skills and competences. Seminal thinkers like Dewey and Freire have espoused the educational virtues of democratic and citizenship education, critical thinking and collaboration for decades. There is no denying that teacher capacity and competency to foster these skills are important agenda items. If we are to succeed in building this capacity and embedding these skills across the continuum of education, we need to approach it differently than heretofore in an incremental and non-threatening way that is achievable and sustainable. Slowing the process of change sufficiently to enable capacity to be enhanced incrementally is necessary; capacity building can only occur from where teachers' expertise is rather than where it ought to be. There needs to be recognition also that the intellectual capacities of teachers vary considerably also from one jurisdiction to another, while this is already reflected in PISA results—particularly in Finland and Signapore [76]. While public partnerships have considerable potential to enhance teacher capacities, vigilance too is necessary in order to maintain schooling as a public good, a state responsibility that eschews profit in favour of society. Maintaining education as a public good to avoid the for profit sector dominating the agenda is essential. Moreover, making structural changes to the school year is also essential for educational reform to be more than a mere aspiration. Elongating the school year to facilitate sustained teacher learning at the site of the practice [77] and during the working day is a possible solution that, though a challenge to the profession will be necessary to consider.

Assessment is probably one of the most important aspects of the education process and has often been described as "the tail that wags the curriculum dog" [78]. Any attempts to embed key skills and competencies across the continuum of education must include a more holistic approach to assessment. This is easier said than done. Approaches to the assessment of skills and competencies will require more teacher and school-based assessment and less dependence on high stakes terminal exams. However, the controversy surrounding the examination process in many developed countries during COVID-19 crisis demonstrates the complex nature of assessment and the tension between transparency and fairness on the one hand and teacher autonomy and professional judgement on the other.

## **7. Conclusion**

*Teacher Education in the 21st Century - Emerging Skills for a Changing World*

approaches [66].

pedagogical perspective.

ongoing tailored 21st century 'formation' [73].

and possibly dangerous future" [63]. Moreover, a predominantly economic focus on education has inherent contradictions [64] regarding teachers' vital role in promoting the necessary "transformative shifts in how we think and act" [65] that are required for the changes in human behaviour essential for sustainable living. The capacity for transformative models of education to take root is dependent on a range of factors including preparedness of schools and teachers to embrace such

Education systems around the world are responding to the changing economic, environment, social and political global landscape by reviewing their curricula to include key skills and competencies. Thijs and van den Akker's [67] description of curricular strata, where the supra level begins with transnational discourses about education, leading to the macro level of national level policy intentions and on to the meso level of policy guidance and facilitation to the micro level of school-level curricular practices and finally to the nano level of classroom interactions, demonstrates the complexities of implementing changes in the education sphere. While such a tiered approach to policy framing may well be necessary and appropriate, such a trickle down approach to trans-formation needs to give considerably more recognition to 'continuous adaptation' [68], thus also, considerably more dependent on micro capacities to extend the knowledge base of teaching, from a content and

Lehtonen et al. [69] concur that the educational space is both complex and contested, presenting educators with the challenge of addressing difficult knowledge in a politicised and, at times, divisive context. The ability of teachers to critically form their responses to challenging and intricate situations, activating prior experience to move between repertoires for action in the light of reflection on alternative futures will be very varied across different contexts [70]. At the core of this dilemma is the concept of professional agency, whereby practitioners have the capacity to act in particular circumstances making sense of policies and of the multiple nuanced factors that influence the process by which these policies are realised. Agency and professional responsibility are not fixed capacities but rather an achievement resulting from the interplay of individual efforts and capabilities within contextual and structural factors in concrete situations [71], while responsibility implicitly contains a moral dimension. Thus, cultivating professional agency and responsibility in the teaching profession is central to understanding how educational policies are translated into contextually relevant teaching practices [72]. Important and all as teacher agency and professional responsibility may be, the days of 'heroic' performance are long since passed, thus there needs to be a significantly stronger sense of collective agency, collaborative professionalism, that takes professional responsibility seriously, while this too entails calling out systemic failures and inadequacies in terms of necessary and sustained support for teacher learning, and

Another important factor in building sustainable teacher capacity is teacher professional identity and how it is inextricably linked to their chosen disciplines. The attempts by policy makers around the globe to progress the skills and competency agenda has been thwarted in some respects due to the lack of connection to subject discipline and pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) [74]. Skills cannot be learned in a content free zone. If teachers are to build their pedagogical repertoire for 21st century education they need to be supported and encouraged to broaden their horizons sufficiently to merge skill development and PCK in their practice [75]. However, if the rate of educational change persists without adequate resourcing and support, there is a serious danger of teacher burnout and attrition from the profession. We must learn from the sins of the past where rapid and radical reform did not achieve their intended outcomes [59]. There needs to be a systemic recognition

**110**

It is abundantly evident from the brief analysis and foray into aspects of building teacher capacity that the agenda is ambitious. As indicated in the introduction, even in the most developed economies, past experience indicates that this is an enormous challenge. When viewed from the perspective of cultures and contexts that continue to struggle with 'basic' education, the challenges appear as Sisyphean, and serves to disenfranchise, and demoralise rather than enhance teachers sense of agency and responsibility, and the quality of teaching and learning. Such a considerable educational change agenda is open to the accusation of policy elites talking among themselves. Unless and until the voices of teachers, learners, their parents and communities become part of that reform conversation in a meaningful and sustained manner, hope will drain away. There is no Valhalla, no 'promised land' to which teachers and their learners may easily migrate. Rather, they have to build and pave the way to that future. Without the support and resources necessary to match the ambition, professional agency, and professional responsibility are likely to decline rather than enjoy enhancement, and pedagogical repertoires more likely to

become retrenched as Governments exert pressures to improve performance, resulting in impoverishment of teaching and learning, expanding disparities in learning outcomes, sustainability agendas shredded, to the detriment of the attractiveness of the teaching profession in many context where it is critically necessary. Policymakers too have a responsibility to do more than merely enunciate lofty ambitions. These need to be matched by transformation strategies that are tailored to evident needs with resources that are equal to the challenge if even partial sustainability is to be achieved, the teaching profession enhanced, and the quality of teaching and learning improved. For too long, educational 'change agents' have been content to settle for less. While the influence of international agencies, their policy rhetorics, have grown more numerous, and demanding, no matter how laudable their advocacy, this does little for the capacities of teachers *per se*. Unless more effective means of bridging the worlds of policy makers and practitioners are crafted, sustainable reforms will continue to remain aspirations, more likely to frustrate teacher morale and self-efficacy rather than enhance their sense of responsibility and capacities to transform the teaching learning process.
