Introduction

The essence of the quality of any educational system lies in teacher quality, as the teacher is the beating heart of excellence. The teacher is not only a source of knowledge for students, but also a source of inspiration, motivation, and facilitation. Teachers are responsible for rising generations, shaping minds and triggering creativity of students. They are the main pillar of education systems and significantly affect the level of education quality and excellence.
Since 1994, World Teachers’ Day is held annually on 5 October to celebrate all teachers around the globe. It commemorates the anniversary of the adoption of the 1966 ILO/UNESCO Recommendation concerning the Status of Teachers, which sets benchmarks regarding the rights and responsibilities of teachers, and standards for their initial preparation and further education, recruitment, employment, and teaching and learning conditions.
In order to enhance the role of teacher quality in the excellence of education systems in the Arab countries, the Regional Center for Quality and Excellence in Education, in cooperation with several national, regional and international institutions and organizations, celebrates the annual World Teachers’ Day through organizing scientific activities aimed at promoting teacher quality and status in the education systems and society. Within this context, this intellectual symposium will be organized on “Teacher quality in a changing world: Transformations, Challenges, and Aspirations” with the purpose of stimulating education systems to enhance policies of teacher quality, especially those related to indicators of SDG4.

Objective

• Review the major transformations in teacher quality after the Covid-19 pandemic to respond to the challenges of a changing world.
• Enhance teacher role in education quality and excellence in light of digital learning environments to meet the contemporary requirements.
• Highlight the significance of the sustainable educational professional development.
• Explore the evolving needs of teachers based on the challenges of education in the twenty-first century.
• Identify educational innovations and the starting points for change and development in light of the sustainable development goals 2030.

Topics

1. The major transformations in teacher quality during and after crises.
2. The evolving roles of teachers for learning and teaching in digital environments that meet the contemporary requirements.
3. The evolving needs of teachers based on the challenges of education in the twenty-first century.
4. Teacher sustainable professional development.
5. Educational innovations and the starting points for change and development in light of the sustainable development goals 2030.

Symposium Strategy

The symposium will be held virtually via Zoom from 11:00 am to 01:30 pm (Saudi time) on Wednesday, the 5th of October 2022.

Symposium language

The working language of the workshop will be Arabic and English.

Participants

The symposium will be attended in person and virtually (via ZOOM) by several educational decision makers, experts, researchers, academics, teachers, school directors, representatives of ministries of education, schools, and universities at the regional level to celebrate World Teachers’ Day.

Expected Outcomes

Final statement including main recommendations to support teacher roles and needs.