Estonia had a well-developed and state-wide regulated CPD model during the Soviet epoch for general and pre-school education pedagogues. After regaining independence, the practice of teacher in-service training started to transform itself into teacher continuing professional development, mainly governed by schools and teachers themselves. The understanding of learning and teaching changed (Sarv 2000; 2007) to life-long learning, adaptation within EU qualification framework, and to school-based curriculum development (Elken 2015). In 2010, the life-long education/learning strategy was created alongside other strategic documents. The strategy of Education 2035 is in its final stage of development today. In the center of these processes is the change of how learning is understood and how it takes place. The broader goal of learning is to cultivate a cohesive society created by educated and responsible persons. The problem for Estonia is to achieve high results in school education and high professionalism of teachers, with more than 50% of teachers aged 50+. 4 aspects are considered: 1. Historical reputation of educated teachers: from G.B.Forselius (1684) to the CPD system in Soviet Estonia (1964-1989), and to shared state-school-personal PLD in 1990-2020 as the basis for teacher professionalism (Ruus 2007); 2. Participation effect (personal involvement) in curriculum-development, qualification and quality reforms; research, openness and wide competency-orientation; the learning attitude to international comparative results (TIMSS, PISA, OECD reports, etc.); 3. Long term visions and strategies on state, LG, and school level; schools as learning organisations (knowledge management and creation, developmental plans for 3-5-10 years) and teachers' professional mental models; 4. Teacher professionalism as the changing field in Estonia in 2000s. The analysis is based on complex research (survey) of schools, students and teachers (2004, 2017; Sarv 2007, Ruus et al 2007, Heidmets et al 2017) that involved 12% of all schools, and on study of documentation, including CPD projects final reviews and published articles. The results of a study show that all four areas form a continuum, include new demands on teacher professionalism and despite turbulent historical circumstances have a "core," professional culture that is very stable. However, in the 21st century, new challenges are indicated. The conclusions of the study point out the need of personalization of pre- and in-service teacher education as a complex of personal, school-based and state conducted LPD, and of the e-support system. The role of (semi)professional NGOs and open educational environment is growing, so an overview of personal and state-wide systems is needed.

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