A recent OECD study highlights the centrality of technology in addressing growing demands for equity and inclusion in the face of increasingly diverse student learning needs (Suarez and McGrath, 2022). Social networks, digital platforms, and artificial intelligence increasingly act as educational ‘agents’, influencing how teachers approach their pedagogical practices  (Manca and Ranieri, 2017; Berendt et al., 2020; Zavyalova and Brown, 2024) – and how teacher educators rethink theirs (Al Hashimi et al., 2019; Goodwin et al., 2023; Zavyalova, 2024). Similarly, Maria Ranieri, in her analysis of digital competence models for teachers, reflects closely on the reinterpretation of teacher pedagogical knowledge (Ranieri, 2022) and its implications for both professional and social identity. A key message here is that teacher competency models should evolve beyond technical skills, emphasizing the ethical dimensions of teaching and the development of a responsible professional identity. This potentially transformative shift is also highlighted by some policies makers. For instance, the OECD Learning Compass 2030 (OECD, 2019) positions the concept of teacher agency as a key aspect to address global trends like digitalisation, climate change, and artificial intelligence –  a move augmented by recent EU policy initiatives such as the Digital Education Action Plan 2021-27 and increasingly visible in its component actions  such as the EU DigCompEdu (2017) and EU GreenComp (2022) common reference frameworks. Additionally, European Education Area related policy activity is seen to boost the European project and promote selective priorities and actions across key existing educational areas of interest (Asderaki, 2022). The repositioning of technology foregrounded in all of these introduces intriguing opportunities and challenges that can influence educators in shaping and defining their professional identity and capabilities.

As teacher education researchers from five countries we are collaborating to better understand how recent developments in identity theory can be used to unpack this change. We are investigating how the advent of new digital technologies – and novel applications of more established ones – catalyse different ways of engaging with professional expectations, practices, and activities. Digital technologies now confront teacher professional identity in unprecedented ways (Klemenčič, 2015; Goodwin et al., 2023), driving a growing shift towards a perspective on teacher education and development that focuses on capability, resilience, and agility (Galés Gallon, 2019; Galvin et al., 2024; Zavyalova and Brown, 2024) – rather than technical competence alone (Purdy and Galvin, in press). We will suggest in this presentation that this is both cause and result of a necessary rethinking of traditional understandings of teachers’ identity and professional formation. We note within this emerging policy landscape some interesting practices and processes to build resilience, flexibility, and innovation for teacher education and development.

As teacher education researchers from five countries, we are collaborating to better understand how identity theory as elaborated Burke and Stets (2022) can be used to unpack the impact of digital technologies on teacher professional identity and its development. Our work draws primarily on ideas and approaches from Stephen Ball (2012), Helen Gunter ( 2024), and Bob Lingard (2024). We additionally borrow concepts relating to Poststructural Policy Analysis (drawing on the work of Sinead McMahon) to help analyse the resonances of social justice in these identities. Taken together, these allow us to focus on how the increasing prevalence of new digital technologies—and novel applications of more established ones—catalyze different ways of engaging with professional expectations, practices, and activities among teachers and teacher educators in Europe and beyond. Sources Used Our research is informed by a variety of studies and policy frameworks, including: • OECD studies on technology and education (Suarez and McGrath, 2022; OECD, 2019) • Analyses of digital competence models for teachers (Ranieri, 2022; Galvin et al 2024) • Investigations into the role of social networks, digital platforms, and AI in education (Manca and Ranieri, 2017; Berendt et al., 2020; Zavyalova and Brown, 2024) • Emerging policy frameworks such as the EU Digital Education Action Plan 2021-27, EU DigCompEdu (2017), and EU GreenComp (2022). • Research on teacher education and professional identity (Al Hashimi et al., 2019; Goodwin et al., 2023; Zavyalova, 2024; Klemenčič, 2015; Madalińska-Michalak, 2024). Key to the ways we analysed these would be our uses of works such as the following: Ball, S. J. (2012). Politics and policy making in education: Explorations in sociology. Routledge. Lingard, B. (2024). A political sociology of education policy: By Gunter Helen M. Bristol, England, Policy Press, 2023, 216 pp.,£ 85.99 (hardback), ISBN 978-1447363330. Madalińska-Michalak, J. (2024). Teacher professional ethics, teaching, and quality in context: A commentary. In Teacher Ethics and Teaching Quality in Scandinavian Schools (pp. 66-75). Routledge. Burke, P. J., & Stets, J. E. (2022). Identity theory: Revised and expanded. Oxford University Press. McMahon, S. (2024). Using Poststructural Policy Analysis for social justice. In Rights and Social Justice in Research (pp. 79-98). Policy Press.

Our research suggests that the evolving digital landscape necessitates a profession-led rethinking of traditional understandings of teachers’ identity and professional formation. The marked policy shift we have noted towards emphasizing teacher agency, capability, resilience, and agility—rather than purely technical competence—demands new approaches in teacher education and development. For now, the initiative in all of this lies with the policy makers rather than the teacher / teacher educator professions; we are not comfortable with that. Additionally, emerging policy initiatives - particularly those associated with the EU European Education Area to 2027 and converging lines from recent and ongoing OECD activity - suggest a growing requirement on the profession’s side to (re)introduce deliberative spaces and lines of research on the ethical considerations for responsible professional identity formation in this digital / postdigital era. While the work is ongoing – and will be for some time – we have a number of propositions and arguments to share around three of our key area of attention: particularly in the ways policies for digital technologies are transforming teacher education by in unintentionally fostering new approaches to resilience, flexibility, and innovation. And also how global and regional policy frameworks increasingly highlight a specific and controlled version of teacher agency as a key factor in responding to digitalization and other global trends.

Al Hashimi, S., Al Muwali, A., Zaki, Y., & Mahdi, N. (2019). The effectiveness of social media and multimedia-based pedagogy in enhancing creativity among art, design, and digital media students. International Journal of Emerging Technologies in Learning (iJET), 14(21), 176-190. Asderaki, F. (2022) "The European Education Area (s): Towards a New Governance Architecture in Education and Training." Higher Education and Research in the European Union: Mobility Schemes, Social Rights and Youth Policies. Cham: Springer International Publishing, pps 125-147. Berendt, B., Littlejohn, A., & Blakemore, M. (2020). AI in education: Learner choice and fundamental rights. Learning, Media and Technology, 45(3), 312-324. Galés, N. L., & Gallon, R. (2019). Educational agility. Rethinking Teacher Education for the 21st Century. Trends, Challenges and New Directions, 98-111. Galvin, C., Madalinska-Michalak, J., & Revyakina, E. (2024). The European Union Erasmus+ Teacher Academies Action. Key Issues in Teacher Education, 170. Goodwin, A. L., Madalińska-Michalak, J., & Flores, M. A. (2023). Rethinking teacher education in/for challenging times: reconciling enduring tensions, imagining new possibilities. European Journal of Teacher Education, 46(5), 840-855 Klemenčič, M. (2015). What is student agency? An ontological exploration in the context of research on student engagement. In: Klemenčič, M., & Bergan, S. (2015). Student engagement in Europe: society, higher education and student governance (Council of Europe Higher Education Series No. 20) (Vol. 20). Council of Europe. OECD (2019). Transformative Competences for 2030. https://www.oecd.org/education/2030-project/teaching-and-learning/learning/learning-compass-2030/in_brief_Learning_Compass.pdf Purdy, N. & Galvin, C. (in press) Values and social conscience in education; towards an education that nurtures values, ethos and ethics. In Lynam, A. & McGuckin, C.(eds) Contemporary Issues in the Psychology of Education, IGI Global. Ranieri M. (2022), Competenze digitali per insegnare Modelli e proposte operative, 1st ed. Roma. Suarez V. & McGrath J., (2022) “Teacher professional identity: How to develop and support it in times of change,” OECD Education Working Papers, vol. 267, no. 267.Manca, S., & Ranieri, M. (2017). Implications of social network sites for teaching and learning. Where we are and where we want to go. Education and information technologies, 22, 605-622. Zavyalova, K. & Brown, C. (2024). The Postdigital Panorama: Conceptualising Higher Education Teachers’ Intermingled Identities in Australasia. In Cochrane, T., Narayan, V., Bone, E., Deneen, C., Saligari, M., Tregloan, K., Vanderburg, R. (Eds.), Navigating the Terrain: Emerging frontiers in learning spaces, pedagogies, and technologies. Proceedings ASCILITE 2024. Melbourne (pp. 607-611). https://doi.org/10.14742/apubs.2024.1414