The Transformation and Current State of the Teaching Profession in Selected Countries

Dear sir or madam,

We are pleased to invite you to submit a chapter to an edited book dedicated to examining teaching work in an international and comparative perspective. The proposed book brings together scholars from different regions of the world in order to analyze contemporary transformations affecting teaching as a profession, as a form of labor, and as a socially central activity.

Teaching work has been subject to profound changes resulting from educational reforms, new governance arrangements, digitalization processes, and broader transformations in the organization of labor. These changes have intensified debates on professional autonomy, working conditions, teacher education, accountability policies, and the social recognition of teaching. While these dynamics often appear globally shared, they unfold under markedly unequal material and institutional conditions.

The purpose of this volume is to contribute to international scholarly dialogue by providing analytically grounded studies that illuminate both convergences and divergences in the organization and meaning of teaching work worldwide. By articulating perspectives from education research, sociology of work, and comparative education, the book seeks to advance understanding of how teaching work is shaped by global processes while remaining deeply embedded in local histories, cultures, and institutional arrangements.

We particularly welcome contributions that:

• provide empirically grounded analyses of teaching work in specific national or regional contexts;
• develop comparative approaches examining similarities and differences across systems;
• explore theoretical frameworks that contribute to understanding teaching work as labor;
• critically analyze policies, reforms, or institutional arrangements affecting teaching;
• examine how teachers respond to contemporary transformations through professional practices, collective organization, or pedagogical innovation

To facilitate coherence across contributions while preserving intellectual diversity, the volume is organized around thematic clusters addressing major dimensions of teaching work in contemporary societies. The themes outlined below are intended as orientation rather than prescription, and authors are encouraged to interpret them flexibly in accordance with their research approaches.

Proposed thematic scope of the volume:

1. Teaching work as a global analytical issue

This thematic area situates teaching work within broader transformations of labor and education. Contributions may explore globalization, policy circulation, converging reform agendas, and the relevance of comparative perspectives for understanding teaching as a contemporary social issue.

2. Material conditions and institutional

environments of teaching work

This theme encompasses studies addressing salaries, career structures, workload, infrastructure, resource availability, and structural inequalities shaping teachers’ working conditions across educational systems.

3. Educational policies and the regulation of teaching work

Contributions may analyze how curriculum reforms, accountability regimes, evaluation systems, and governance models influence professional autonomy, pedagogical practices, and labor conditions.

4. Initial teacher education and continuing professional development

This area focuses on institutional models of teacher preparation, relationships between theory and practice, continuing education policies, and tensions between professional formation and systemic demands.

5. Precarization and labor restructuring in teaching

This theme includes analyses of contractual instability, labor flexibilization, outsourcing arrangements, and emerging employment patterns affecting professional identity and career trajectories.

6. Health, well-being, and occupational suffering in teaching work

Contributions may examine burnout, stress, emotional labor, working conditions associated with illness, and institutional responses to the intensification of teaching work.

7. Technologies and digital transformations in teaching work

This thematic area addresses digital mediation of teaching practices, remote and hybrid education, platformization, datafication, and implications for professional autonomy and workload.

8. Teaching work, gender, race, and social inequalities

Studies may explore how structural inequalities shape teaching work, including the feminization of the profession, racialized labor dynamics, care expectations, and unequal recognition of professional roles.

9. Collective organization, professional associations, and forms of resistance

This theme encompasses analyses of teachers’ unions, collective mobilization, professional advocacy, and strategies developed to respond to policy reforms and labor transformations.

10. Professional identities and the future of teaching work

Contributions may examine how teachers construct meanings about their work, how professional identities evolve in changing contexts, and how future scenarios for teaching work are being debated.

We anticipate that each chapter will contribute to advancing international dialogue on teaching work as a key dimension of contemporary education systems and as a significant field of research within the social sciences.

We very much hope you will consider contributing to this collective effort. We believe the volume has the potential to provide a meaningful scholarly contribution to ongoing debates concerning the present and future of teaching work worldwide.

We look forward to the possibility of working together.

Kind regards,

Prof. Mônica Pirozi

Prof. Cesar De Mari

ASPUV.SIND • Brasil

Prof. Dr. Ahmet Yıldız

Ankara University • Türkiye

Prof. Sanjoy Roy

Delhi University • India

Prof. Dr. Xavi Diez

USTEC·STEs (IAC) • Spain

Zeynel Korkmaz

PoliTeknik magazine