The book provides an overview of the empirical study of teachers’ professionalism and perceptions of being a teacher in Estonia. A wholeness-centred educational thinking about educational reality is represented. The development of the youth concept, creativity as a phenomenon and the semantics of the concepts of and are analysed.

Airi Liimets is Professor of Philosophy and Sociology of Education and Head of the Centre for Philosophical and Pedagogical Anthropology at Tallinn University (Estonia). Marika Veisson is Professor and Head of the Department of Preschool Education and Head of the School for Doctoral Studies in Education at Tallinn University (Estonia).

Contents: Airi Liimets: Introduction or How does the current book reflect on the concept of being a teacher – Krista Loogma: Conceptualizing Teachers’ Professionalism: the Case of Estonian Lower Secondary Teachers – Madis Lepik/Kirsti Kislenko: Estonian Mathematics Teachers’ Beliefs about Teaching and Their Self-Reported Practices – Tuuli Oder: Teachers’ Beliefs Regarding Effective Teaching: the Cornerstone of Curriculum Reform – Katrin Poom-Valickis/Tuuli Oder/Kirsti Kislenko/Leida Talts/Tiina Elvisto/Madis Lepik: Teachers’ Beliefs Regarding their Professional Role – Monica Sakk: Teachers’ Beliefs about How Students Cope at School – Tiia Õun/Kristina Nugin/Marika Veisson/Maire Tuul/Tiia Leppik: The Quality of the Learning Environment in Estonian Preschools – Tiina Peterson/Marika Veisson/Eeva Hujala/Anette Sandberg/Inge Johansson: The Influence of Leadership on the Professionalism of Preschool Teachers in Estonia, Sweden and Finland – Airi Liimets: How do we define youth or what does the development of the concept of youth tell us? – Lilian Reinmets: On Creativity in Relation to the Social Field – Airi Liimets/Kristina Iotsaite: and «Lifestyle» - On Wholeness-Centered Educational Thinking in Ancient Greece and in Estonia.