Teachers: Various Life Stories and Perspectives

In this chapter, we present the life stories of several teachers. Our aim is to get to know the lives of specific teachers, and to contribute to the knowledge about the transformation of the school system with the views and experiences of eyewitnesses. In studying the life stories of teachers, we could not avoid the period before 1989 and the socialist school system, which often had a significant impact on their lives and work. Although it is not possible to generalize these teachers’ stories, they can be used to show how diverse the everyday reality was before 1989 and especially in the period of post-socialist transformation, both in and out of schools. It is important to be aware of the personal lives of teachers and their approaches to life. Teachers’ life stories show how complex the paths of post-socialist society and the school system were.