Wanted: Teachers

webinar series (in Dutch)

At the start of every new school year, the Flemish media can’t get quiet about the massive teacher shortage and how schools struggle to find new and competent teachers. This year, COVID-19 made this shortage even more pressing than usual, with media reports being sharper and more populistic than ever. UCSIA wants to go behind the oneliners by looking at the real issues at the roots of this problem and wants to formulate possible and feasible solutions. We widen the perspective of the media on the teacher shortage and search for depth and added value outside the traditional borders of the debate.

To achieve this goal, we firstly want to know what teachers themselves think about this topic. We start from the real life experiences of teachers about their daily practices in the classroom, and we approach the teacher shortage from their perspective. From there, we open up to causes and consequences of the teacher shortage within our society. For this outsider perspective, we bring one educational expert and one expert from a different field in the conversation.

 In this series of three webinars, we try to capture different topics that feed the teacher shortage debate. In the first session, we explore the impact of valuation and undervaluation of the teacher profession. In the second webinar, we zoom in on the lack of diversity within teacher teams in schools. Finally, during the closing webinar, we look at the flat career path of teachers.

The webinar series will be organised as a studio talk between all panel members. So, no boring lectures, but lively conversations with all participants, moderated by our hostess Ella Michiels. Want to know more about this webinar series? Find out the full program on our Dutch webpage!