Meeting the Challenges of Generational Change in the Teaching Profession: Towards a European Model for Intergenerational Teacher Collaboration

ABSTRACTThe university teaching profession is at a crucial moment due to the generational change of professors, since those who are carrying it out have no teacher training and present areas of opportunity; The objective was to identify the training needs of experienced and new teachers. The methodology used was qualitative, with a socioanthropological approach, applying questionnaires to the professors of the Autonomous University of Sinaloa, Mexico. The results show that both teachers have training needs in the management of time, maintain the interest and expectations of students in the subject, and assess the level of student learning.RESUMENLa profesión docente universitaria se encuentra en un momento crucial por el cambio generacional de profesores, ya que quienes la están llevando a cabo no tiene formación docente y presentan áreas de oportunidad; el objetivo fue identificar las necesidades formativas de los profesores experimentados y noveles. La metodología utilizada fue cualitativa, con enfoque socioantropológico, aplicando cuestionarios a los profesores de la Universidad Autónoma de Sinaloa, México. Los resultados muestran que ambos profesores tienen necesidades formativas en el manejo del tiempo, mantener el interés y expectativas de los estudiantes en la materia, y evaluar el nivel de aprendizaje de los alumnos.

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Biograficzno-pokoleniowe rysy w narracjach nauczycieli na tle przemian w minionym trzydziestoleciu

10.31338/2657-6007.kp.2021-2.1 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 16-38

Author(s):

Wanda Dróżka

Keyword(s):

Teaching Profession ◽

Community Research ◽

System Transformation ◽

Generational Change ◽

Social Commitment ◽

Professional Experiences ◽

Global Access ◽

Successive Generations ◽

Pragmatic Attitude

The analyses are based on teachers’ memoirs and autobiographical narratives that have been collected as a result of subsequent editions of research conducted between 1989 and 2016. These narratives show the problems, tensions and transformations in education, and in the role of a teacher in Poland over the past 30 years. Changes seen through the eyes of successive generations of teachers, against the background of their life history and professional experiences and achievements, are a record of the changes that took place during the system transformation. They may be the evidence of an inevitable generational change in the teaching profession and teacher community. Research shows that the generation born in the 1950s and 1960s, involved in the democratic changes in Poland at the turn of the 1980s and 1990s, is leaving the teaching profession. This generation participated in the “Solidarity” social movement. Its members were brought up and educated in the sense of a strong social commitment, the so-called ethos. Currently, young teachers born in the 1990s and later enter the profession. They belong to the generation of free, democratic Poland, which has a more pragmatic attitude to life and professional work in education. This is the generation of the internet, unlimited choice, and open global access to information and goods. The implications of such findings are discussed in the article.

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