Pre-service teacher education programs with 21st-century skills: Teacher educators’ experiences

Educating pre-service teachers to meet the demands of the 21st century and integrating 21st-century skills into the programs is a long-standing debate. This phenomenological study aims to understand and discover teacher educators’ experiences and perceptions leading to a pre-service teacher education program integrated with 21st-century skills. By employing transcendental phenomenology, the study describes the phenomenon through the perspectives of 12 teacher educators from various global contexts. Hence, a criterion sampling strategy was adopted, and 12 teacher educators with experiences in 21st-century skills were selected as participants. The data collected through semi-structured interviews with the teacher educators were analyzed based on the content analysis, including iterative reading and debriefing processes. The findings highlighted that a pre-service teacher education program comprising 21st-century skills in a well-designed and integrated way is vital no matter the country's context. Accordingly, this program should cover multiple literacy and skills integrated based on students and the government’s needs as well as discipline. Furthermore, it should provide both on-campus and off-campus learning experiences encouraging collaboration, inquiry, and options. By approaching the whole program development process with an evolutionary perspective, it should be revised and renewed by following the advancements. In a collaborative management context, it should also be facilitated through training, time, autonomy, freedom, and resources for teacher educators.