The papers in this collection analyse the professionalism of teachers in Estonia and neighbouring countries from several perspectives. Data from the OECD TALIS survey have been used to study the transformation of the teaching profession in recent years. As Estonia is bicultural, one paper deals with the transition to Estonian as the language of instruction in Russian-medium schools. Teacher professionalism is related to communication skills and this is also explored. It is generally accepted that teachers’ beliefs guide them in their daily work, and so three papers deal with the professional self and self-efficacy beliefs among teachers. In addition, an adaptation of the Teacher Efficacy Scale to the Estonian context is presented. The professional experience of young teachers is analysed and a comparison of the school practicum in teacher training in the Netherlands, Estonia and Finland is explored. Finally, the stress that teachers experience has been studied along with the preferred strategies for coping.

Jaan Mikk, Professor of Education (since 1983) and Professor Emeritus (since 2005) at the University of Tartu; publications on school textbooks and achievement tests. Marika Veisson, Professor of Early Childhood Education at the University of Tallinn since 1988; publications on early childhood, child and adolescent development, school and family partnership. Piret Luik, Associate Professor of Educational Technology at the University of Tartu since 2005; publications on ICT in education.

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