Preface

In our current, diverse, unstable, hyper-connected, and continuously evolving world, teachers need to be constantly equipped with pedagogical competences in their professional development. Situations like the COVID-19 pandemic present educational challenges that make us consider that the educational process must guarantee the accessible, personalized, and globalized learning of all students.

At the same time, we are witnessing a new era in the context of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, with some principles such as collaboration, higher-order thinking skills, or interdependence, which are guiding the innovation in several areas, with consequences for the training of future generations and thus for the teachers who are training them. The adaptability of Teacher Education is thus key in responding to constantly emerging social demands.

When considering the literature referring to competences labelled twenty-firstcentury skills, they have been connected to digital imperatives from economic developments to civic and prosocial skills for effective participation and collaboration in society. This book is considering together the digital competences (including information, media, and technological literacy) with other nontechnology-driven skills (initiative, flexibility, creativity, critical thinking) along with moral skills for effective training in social values required in our changing societies (cross-cultural equity, tolerance, emotional comprehension, and responsibility to others and the environment).

From a theoretical and practical perspective, this book offers a reference framework of innovative aims and urges for a twenty-first-century teacher. It covers four areas with present and future challenges that teachers are facing worldwide. The first area focuses on digital environments, which are no longer complementary spaces to the classroom, but rather are environments for personalization of the educational process with new forms of participation, collaboration, flexibility, access, production, and evaluation of learning.

The second area includes new educational theories and pedagogical interactions for the adaptation to new challenges, considering the impacts on the professional transformation of future teachers.

The third area considers the recurrent issue of citizenship education inside school environments, since teachers prepare students for and depend on social positive contexts, they must manage different conflicts, dealing with hate and violent behaviors, requiring models of prevention and promotion of positive and solidary relationships.

Finally, the fourth area examines multiple diversity issues, ranging from functional to ethical, by providing teachers with ways to design educational processes based on reducing distances from the difference, able to recognize and avoid exclusion or prejudices of students.

These areas constitute the four main sections of the book, which contains twenty chapters from authors worldwide.

In sum, the book presents a reflective analysis of the pedagogical hubs of a changing world, considering the most fundamental areas of the current contingencies in education. It revisits the concept of quality of teaching and learning and presents

I am grateful to all the chapter authors for their active collaboration in this book project. They have come together to produce a comprehensive reference manual for Teacher Education, considering emerging skills and new requirements in a

**Maria Jose Hernández-Serrano**

University of Salamanca,

Salamanca, Spain

Department of Theory and History of Education,

some principles, methods, and models.

changing world.

The first section "Digital Evolution for Flexible and Collaborative Learning Environments" includes chapters dealing with the most noteworthy issues brought by digitalization, such as the chapter on the digital gap that presents a comparative international study in Jordan, New Zealand, and Norway (Chapter 1 by Steinar Thorvaldsen and Siri Sollied Madsen), and chapters on methodologies for remote support and a model revision for teachers' sophisticated knowledge (Chapter 2 by Laura Sara Agrati), a comparison between two media and information curriculums, UNESCO and Alfamed, with the required literacy skills for Teacher Education (Chapter 3 by Paula Renés-Arellano, Ignacio Aguaded and Maria Jose Hernandez-Serrano), the limitation of deep learning and critical thinking skills influenced by digitalization (Chapter 4 by Siri Sollied Madsen, Steinar Thorvaldsen and Sissel Sollied), and a proposed model for virtual teaching contextualized in Kenia schools (Chapter 5 by Catherine Adhiambo Amimo).

The second section "Pedagogical Interactions and Professional Transformation" collects chapters on rethinking pedagogies for supporting learner requirements within the models and standards for education (Chapter 6 by Joshua C. Elliott and Craig S. Tunks), pedagogical continuities and sustainability teaching (Chapter 7, by Rachel Farrell and Ciaran Sugrue), the role of learner perspective in the curriculum transformation in South Africa (Chapter 8 by Mamsi Ethel Khuzwayo and Kwanele Booi), the need for self-study research in Teacher Education (Chapter 9 by Kåre Hauge), and the non-academic capabilities of pre-service teachers during remote teaching in Australia (Chapter 10 by Ondine Jayne Bradbury, Tatainia Stewart, Anabelle Barker and Jessica Rowe).

The third section "Citizenship Education, Managing Conflicts and Sustainable Development" brings experiences in civic education with chapters on the Dialogos Way of dialogic learning and teaching in Norway (Chapter 11 by Eirik Hæreid Marcussen, Michael Weiss, and Guro Hansen Helskog), the critical inquirybased learning method for elementary schools in Canada (Chapter 12 by Yiola Cleovoulou), and the Green Pedagogy for sustainable skills in Norway and Austria (Chapter 13 by Anne Fox and Christine Wogowitsch). In addition, the section includes chapters detailing two models for dealing with conflict situations, both developed in the United States: the Trauma-sensitive innovations for teaching with intention (Chapter 14 by Christian Scannell) and the INSIGHT intervention for managing temperament in early education (Chapter 15 by Martinique Ann Sealy, Kathleen Moritz Rudasill, Jentry S. Barrett, Jungwon Eum, Nicole Adams, Angela Hinrichs, and Sandee McClowry).

The fourth section "Sensitizing on Diversity, Multiculturalism and Inclusion" introduces actions for helping teachers build more inclusive classrooms with chapters on promoting LGTB+ in early childhood education (Chapter 16 by Adam S. Kennedy), cultural diversity for deconstructing social prejudices (Chapter 17 by Jesus Jaime-Diaz and Josie Méndez-Negrete), sustaining quality inclusion of students with disabilities (Chapter 18 by Sara Movahedazarhouligh), and linguistic diversity in the context of students' assessment (Chapter 19 by Helena Reierstam and Meeri Hellstén). The final chapter in this section presents a proposal for action research on diversity by proposing recommendations for teacher education policies and teacher educators (Chapter 20 by Catherine Lammert).

In sum, the book presents a reflective analysis of the pedagogical hubs of a changing world, considering the most fundamental areas of the current contingencies in education. It revisits the concept of quality of teaching and learning and presents some principles, methods, and models.

I am grateful to all the chapter authors for their active collaboration in this book project. They have come together to produce a comprehensive reference manual for Teacher Education, considering emerging skills and new requirements in a changing world.
