Teacher Education in Estonia

Estonian subject area teachers follow a so-called 3+2 programme in which the first three years are devoted to studies in a subject area after which students may enter a masters programme either in their subject area or teacher education. The Estonian experience suggests that a large number of students who have a foundation degree in a subject choose careers other than teaching. At the same time the statistics show that school teaching staff in Estonia are growing older and there is a shortage of schoolteachers in some subject areas. Framed by the challenges of the structure of the studies, and growing national as well as worldwide concern for attracting suitable people to the teaching profession, this project examines Estonian university students’ and early career teachers’ emerging teacher identity and academic self-efficacy beliefs, and their choices to enter teacher education or the teaching profession.