The ethical commitment of university teachers involved in teacher training

Abstract

The article expounds the need for university teachers to undertake their mission on the basis of motivation, which is not only instrumental but also values-based, and to understand their activity as a profession that entails a commitment. Three dimensions of this commitment are proposed specifically for teachers involved in bachelors and master's degrees studied by teacher-training students. The first refers to the quality of the learning they bring about in their students; the second, to the personal and professional identity they help shape in these prospective schoolteachers; and the third, to their students' ethical formation. This dimension of the commitment to ethical formation requires university teachers to lead by example both in how they approach their teaching practice and in the ways they promote their students' learning, including how they network with them in the formal and informal spaces of university life. In particular, the article addresses the relevance of the pedagogical link between students and teachers at the university as a means for ethical learning in which the latter become the reference point for the future teacher.