THE TEACHER OF THE FUTURE WE WANT

Abstract

Comparative analyzes of educational systems indicate that a teacher is one of the most important factors in improving the education system. The greatest challenges of the modern era faced by teachers are: increasing student's antisocial behavior, inadequate cooperation with school community actors, parents and other educational institutions, the absence of greater autonomy in curriculum innovation, and technological development in educational system. That is why modern teachers are expected to adopt new roles and competences. When talking about a teacher of the future, it is most often meant to teach learners for and in the context of the digital age. No less important emphasis is on the capacity of future teachers who, besides cognitive development, develop theirs and students' emotional, social and working competences. Emotional and social education of teachers is an imperative of contemporary school. Freedom of emotional expression of students' represents an optimal pedagogical contribution to emotional development, and the development of social competences influences the regulation of social relations in the class. Therefore, it is necessary to apply the democratic style of teacher management based on mutual trust and respect. Such an approach is based on the authority of values and encourages interaction, autonomy and mutual compromise. A teacher who tends to implement such a humanistic approach makes it possible to create an incentive environment that is subordinate to the interests, needs and opportunities of the child, which the school of the future should be based on. How much teachers are willing to respond to some of the challenges of the modern age? How far are we from achieving that teachers promote values based on the humanistic conception? How much are these values consistent with the needs of the pupil's themselves? Our study is an attempt to answer these questions. In this social and theoretical context, this study examines: 1) the extent to which teachers are oriented towards the implementation of the humanistic conception in education, and 2) how students' perceive the real and ideal roles and characteristics of teachers. These two analyzes are compared and we use a quantitative and qualitative approach. For the analysis of teacher orientation, we used the scale of assessment of the pedagogical climate in the school (ISC-S). The scale contains 44 items grouped into nine categories, which measure: teacher's support for students, clarity and consistency in the application of rules, student's dedication, orientation to achievement; disciplinary rigor, students's involvement in decision-making, teaching innovation, negative and positive peer interaction and cultural pluralism. The scale was filled by 30 teachers from a primary school in Niš. The results suggest that teachers who teach natural and social-humanistic subjects, as well as teachers with different years of service, differ in their degree of focus on humanistic education. The student's perceptions of teacher roles were measured through the focus of a group interview on three topics: the personality of the teacher, the role and influence on pupil's behavior and the ideal teacher. In the focus group interview, 12 students of the seventh and eighth grades of the same elementary school participated. The basic results of focus groups with pupils indicate the similarity of pupils in understanding the role and personality of teachers and the difference between sexes in perceiving the ideal teacher. Based on the results, we conclude that it is necessary to develop the competencies of teachers regarding the management of contemporary educational processes, independent and cooperative research of their own practice. It is necessary to create a mutual climate of trust, support and encourage the ethical behavior of students, all for the purpose of better mutual relations and the future we want.