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.

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.

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.

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.