Teachers shape the future, particularly in a post-COVID world. In supporting the transformational work of teachers, understanding who they are, and which personal characteristics are likely to predict teacher effectiveness is essential. This symposium seeks to explore the relationship between prospective teachers' desire to become a teacher and their subsequent classroom readiness. We argue that a number of major characteristics or dispositions sit alongside cognitive abilities that are essential to be considered when selecting and graduating new teachers.

Amidst the varied discourses about education's future, the teacher's role continues to garner great interest and scrutiny. This is because there is strong evidence to suggest that teaching quality is a key predictor of success in the classroom (Hattie, 2009). Darling-Hammond (2000) noted that the effects of quality teaching on student outcomes are greater than those that arise from students’ backgrounds. This impact may be positive or negative, with the effect of poor-quality teaching being seen as debilitating and cumulative on student outcomes (Darling-Hammond, 2000). Darling-Hammond, et al. (2012), go on to suggest that there is an important distinction between teaching quality as defined by practice and instruction and teacher quality defined by personal attributes, competency, skill, and dispositions. As policymakers continue to grapple with a global teacher shortage, the interplay between selection processes into initial teacher education programs and the effectiveness of these programs in preparing teachers for an uncertain future must be better understood.

Access to schooling has grown and the demand for teachers has expanded. However, the number of qualified schoolteachers worldwide has not kept pace, creating a gap that policymakers are struggling to fill (UNESCO, 2021). With the advent of COVID-19, these gaps have become even more stark.

The four papers presented in this symposium interrogate the future of teacher education more broadly by adopting a variety of methods and arguments and at the same time, raising the challenges that initial teacher education is facing in the post-COVID world.

This symposium culminates in a discussion about implications for policy and practice.  It is argued that reflection on attitudes, behaviours, and cognitive characteristics in different contexts is essential to understanding an educator's impact. We also argue that both teacher educators and pre-service teachers must understand the importance of individual dispositions to ensure a career as an effective educator.

Perspectives from Australia, USA, and Ecuador are presented to explore diverse contexts and the changing needs of our education communities, followed by a challenge from a discussant from Europe and the USA. These different perspectives are used to understand the impact of teacher dispositions and teacher wellbeing on the ideal of sustaining teachers and increasing the status and effectiveness of teaching generally.

United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (2021) Reimagining our future: A new social contract for education (Report from the International Commission on the futures of education). UNESCO.