Digital competence in teaching can be understood as the set of skills, attitudes and abilities to use technologies critically and creatively, both in the personal and professional environment. Likewise, it is one of the eight key competencies for lifelong learning. In this paper, in line with the Common Digital Competence Framework (DigComp), we analyze the self-perception of teacher trainees’ digital competence to communicate and collaborate with other people. Additionally, we state the existence of statistically significant differences from a gender perspective (women/men). In this sense, we have carried out non-experimental quantitative research that has a descriptive nature. To this end, we used a questionnaire as an instrument for collecting information, with a total sample of 698 pre-service teachers in Andalusia (Spain). The results show that teacher trainees have an intermediate level in terms of their abilities to communicate and collaborate with other people through digital technologies. At the same time, significant differences are highlighted regarding participants’ gender, which implies that gender can still be considered a limitation in the use of ICTs, thereby decreasing participants’ digital competence. Finally, this study sheds light on the need to improve future teachers’ digital competence.

Oftentimes, teachers who identify themselves as LGTBIQ+ may feel unsafe at work, which may upset their wellbeing and destabilize their key psychological traits. Hence, feelings such as insecurity, lack of self-confidence, anxiety, and fear are on loop in their everyday lives. Thus, in this study we pursued an examination of the interplay between sexual orientation and teacher wellbeing in a cohort of seven university foreign language teacher trainers in a Spanish context. To gain insight into this issue, a qualitative study in line with the ecological paradigm was designed for the elaboration of semi-structured in-depth interviews and for the analysis of results. The main findings display teacher wellbeing as a complex interwoven system in which sexual orientation had played a core role in their identities, competences, private and professional relationships, and in the cultural and political spheres. We conclude by stating that although homophobic discrimination was a hard trial to overcome, the psychosocial capital of the participants allowed them to transform this negativity into positive assets such as queer activism in their private and political lives and in their profession as foreign language teacher trainers.

The teaching profession has an important emotional burden that, together with the erosion of different elements that compose it from continuous educational reform to the bad behavior and demotivation of students has led to many teachers experiencing physical and psychological illness or leaving the profession. Nevertheless, studies and interventions in this regard are still insufficient in the Spanish context. This situation also exponentially affects pre-service teachers, which according to numerous studies is the stage during which the diminishing of teacher well-being begins and consolidates. Within this panorama, with this study the authors pursue to determine which dimensions of teacher well-being are capable of predicting the professional success of 88 pre-service primary education teachers who specialize in a foreign language so that they can be addressed in the training process. To this end, an ex post facto study was carried out correlating the following instruments: the Teacher Distress Questionnaire, the Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire and the Maslach Burnout Inventory-Educators Survey with an adaptation of the Rueda de la vida escolar sobre el éxito y la satisfacción laboral del docente (Wheel of school life on teacher success and job satisfaction). Multiple linear regression revealed that of all the variables studied for teacher well-being (intrinsic motivation, expectations about good professional performance, professional distress, professional exhaustion, irrational beliefs, emotional intelligence and burnout) only emotional intelligence and intrinsic motivation have the ability to predict the success of teachers in training in their future professional performance. This result is of paramount importance for reconsidering the training that teachers receive during their university stage, which currently and substantially prioritizes the cognitive component over psychosocial and emotional components.

El objetivo de esta investigación se centra en estudiar el constructo “éxito en la vida escolar” en maestras y maestros de 4.º curso del Grado en Educación Primaria con mención en Lenguas Extranjeras (inglés) de la Universidad de Granada durante el periodo de prácticas externas. Para ello, hemos empleado y adaptado a nuestro contexto la herramienta rueda de la vida escolar (López y Valls, 2013) en 88 futuros docentes de lenguas. El foco de estudio lo hemos situado en la relación que se establece entre la variable dependiente (éxito en la vida escolar) con las variables independientes (género, lugar de nacimiento, profesión de los progenitores, tipo y zona del centro, y la motivación para cursar el grado). De forma general, los datos relativos a las medias procedentes de los 12 ítems analizados que recoge nuestro instrumento revelan que las relaciones sociales derivadas de la interacción con el alumnado de educación primaria y las compañeras y compañeros de prácticas tienen un peso preponderante. Sin embargo, el análisis de los datos pone de manifiesto una falta de formación en materia de liderazgo. De manera específica, los resultados aflorados indican que las maestras y maestros con ascendencia docente experimentan un bienestar mayor. Asimismo, los resultados arrojan datos significativos en torno a la importancia de las dimensiones sociales, afectivas y motivacionales dentro de la profesión y formación docente, y su estrecha relación con el éxito en la vida escolar

This study examines language teachers’ wellbeing in Scotland through a holistic ecological framework, addressing how wellbeing is shaped by challenges and coping pathways across interacting systems of practice and policy. Drawing on Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory, the research investigates the interplay between microsystem (classroom relations and pedagogy), mesosystem (collegial and external support), exosystem (school leadership, workload, curriculum and policy enactment), macrosystem (societal ideologies and national frameworks), and chronosystem (career stage and post-COVID change) layers. Data were generated through in-depth semi-structured interviews with nine primary and secondary language teachers. Approximately 80,000 words of interview data were analysed using a hybrid inductive–deductive thematic analysis, with psychological and social capital conceptualised as cross-cutting resources influencing wellbeing across systems. Findings show that teachers’ wellbeing was strongest when they could enact an “ideal teacher-self,” characterised by positive classroom rapports, meaningful communicative pedagogy, creative use of culture and projects, and confident target language use. Conversely, wellbeing was eroded by chronic workload and administrative demands, misalignment between curriculum, assessment, and pedagogy, particularly with high-stakes examinations and the marginal status of languages within schools and a predominantly monolingual societal ideology. Supportive departmental cultures, peer mentoring, collaborative school environments, fair and communicative leadership, and external social support emerged as key protective factors, while isolation and top-down decision-making intensified vulnerability. Across the chronosystem, more experienced teachers described a gradual development of boundary-setting and self-care strategies, with early-career teachers and those facing job insecurity reporting heightened vulnerability. Post-COVID schooling brought increased digital competence but also persistent pressures related to learners’ foundational skill gaps and expanded bureaucratic demands, underscoring the need for multi-level approaches to sustaining language teachers’ wellbeing.

Este texto pretende aportar estudios acerca del aprendizaje personalizado y del education maker. Se trata de dos metodologías que están implantadas en otros sistemas educativos, como es el caso de Finlandia o los Estados Unidos. El aprendizaje personalizado se aplica deseablemente a todo el alumnado. Es especialmente necesario que esté dirigido a alumnos en situación diversidad y a segmentos vulnerables. Por su parte, el método de education maker nace en materias tecnológicas, pero esta estrategia o alguno de los componentes pueden trasladarse a otras disciplinas. Entendemos que poco a poco estas dos estrategias han de ir implantándose en el mundo hispanohablante. Ante la carencia de textos introductorios en castellano dentro del panorama editorial y, además, ante el atractivo de estas nuevas metodologías innovadoras, con este volumen se busca difundir y adentrarse en estas estrategias docentes con estudios y casos concretos. El libro va dirigido a otros agentes educativos, padres, investigadores, etc. Asimismo, incorpora otros enfoques críticos con respecto a la educación. En esta obra participan académicos con un interés en la educación y en la innovación. Cuentan todos ellos con formación multidisciplinar y pertenecen a diversas universidades españolas y una norteamericana, con lo cual aportan una riqueza coral de contenidos.