Editorial

Abstract

Writing the editorial of a general issue is usually harder than writing that of a special issue. In fact, the connection between the papers risks to be rather loose, with the only common denominator being the journal scope. This time, however, I was lucky, as four out of the six papers that were accepted for this general issue seem to be connected by a common thread:  teachers, their professional identity, and their relationship with technology. I believe there are good reasons for this. More than ever, the crucial role of educators’ competence has come to the forefront, with particular focus on digital competence, including the ability to use technology in an effective way in educational settings, be them face-to-face, hybrid or online.

The main reason for this increased awareness has been under our eyes since the COVID-19 pandemic and the consequent distancing measures have forced educators around the world to use technology to “surrogate” face-to-face teaching. Unfortunately, in most cases, the verb “surrogate” turns out to be the correct one: too often technological environments have been used merely as a (sub-optimal) substitute of the usual physical environment, due to the lack of time and competence needed to redesign teaching from scratch, taking advantage of the full potential of technology. In addition, other important challenges are playing the role of a litmus test for teachers’ need for continuous professional development. One of all is the need to ensure that all learners can develop their potential in a context where students’ cultural diversity is increasing and, at the same time, nationalist sentiments and lack of tolerance continue to fester among the population. Our only chance to build the bases for a peaceful world is through so-called global education, and this makes teachers’ competence in inclusive education and informed use of technology of paramount importance.  However, luckily, some institutions have been working in this direction even before the pandemic [...]