Bridge over troubled water: Induction pointers for teacher leadership

Abstract

The first years of teaching are decisive to shape teachers motivation and attitudes, as adaptive professionals that respond to fast changing contexts. This career stage should provide acculturation in collaborative professional communities that discuss and tackle growing challenges for learners improvement. Induction support can be key for the personal, social, and professional development of beginning teachers, fostering their leadership to influence and initiate practice change. It needs to be flexible and sensitive to specific education contexts, but it benefits from transversal principles grounded on common European policies. Induction should be embedded in a continuum approach that links it to other career stages-relying on broad, common teacher requirements. The COVID 19 crisis has foregrounded the competences teachers require to ensure equitable learning. Among European Key Competences, the Personal, Social and Learning to Learn Competence and the Digital Competence can play a crucial role for teachers grappling with distance teaching and unpredictable professional conditions. While Digital competence is fully acknowledged to be key for teacher professionalism, Personal, Social and Learning to Learn is now becoming crucial for teachers motivation, innovation, and distributed leadership, to face problematic scenarios.