Teachers’ Competencies and Agency for Future Learning: Analysis of Policy Documents within European and African Contexts

The chapter begins by introducing teacher professionalism as a characteristic of both individual teachers and the wider education ecosystem. It then analyses and compares European and African initial teacher education (ITE) policies. The chapter also reviews how well state-level ITE policies align with national and international education policy documents and research papers. For this comparison, four European countries and two African countries were selected. Our analysis revealed that ITE policy documents address challenges at the student and classroom levels but do not effectively consider broader issues related to employability and sustainable development at the national and global levels. Finally, we reviewed how the education ecosystem and contexts support teacher professionalism. We found that quality assurance measures are not necessarily supportive for teacher professionalism. We contend that teacher education policy should be inherently holistic and collaborative. It is inadequate for policy documents to focus solely on the individual qualities of a professional teacher; they should also encompass policies related to the education ecosystem and contexts, particularly outlining quality assurance processes that underpin teacher professionalism. On the other hand, ITE policies should place greater emphasis on general education, with a focus on sustainable development and employability.