Professional teacher’s development in enlarged learning contexts. The transition from skills to agency

Abstract

The policies on education and training systems seem to point today at a new defininition of framework to promote a New Welfare of active citizenship, that we could call “Learnfare”. In pre-primary education this is expressed as a necessity to integrate enlarged learning contexts, in order to build an integrated system
of education. So, what implications this prospective produce on the
teacher’s practice? Moreover, if we think at the roles traditionally associated to the pre-primary teacher’s professional profile, what does it mean this kind of new framework? Today, professional teacher’s development requires a conceptual change: it cannot longer be interpreted in terms of basic and strategic skills
learning, but must include reflexive and transformative competences buit on the interaction within a context that includes the parental and intergenerational relationships.
Through the implicit and/or latent resources arising from these
wider contexts, a teacher can activate a capability process on both his personal and professional training. Furthermore, the approach proposed about professional teacher’s development could enact new pedagogical practices and theoretical pathways, in order to establish a new conceptual framework in the space of capability learnfare through which to address future policies.