Editorial Introduction – System or Network? New Paths in Teacher Education

Abstract

In the current issue of our column, we explore the urgent questions surrounding the renewal of pedagogy and teacher education. Our authors, although from different perspectives, both argue that the current educational system requires a fundamental paradigm shift and that the time for superficial adjustments is over.

In our first article, Zoltán Gloviczki poses the question: is the renewal of teacher education necessary? His answer is an unequivocal yes. He points out that the 19th-century model of teacher training, built on science dissemination and elite education, has lost its relevance in the reality of mass education today. The author urges for a genuine reform based on learning outcomes, one that focuses not on disciplinary battles but on the knowledge and skills a 21st-century educator needs to practice their profession.

In our second piece, Éva Gyarmathy outlines a possible path toward renewal centered on a network-based approach. In her interpretation, the answer to the challenges of the digital age and the posthuman condition lies not in another dominant theory, but in a flexible, adaptive network of existing learning-theory paradigms. In this new learning ecosystem, the foundation of knowledge becomes not the accumulation of information, but the building of connections and participation in networks.

The two studies thus complement each other, painting a critical picture of the present and possible future of education. While Gloviczki diagnoses the deep-seated historical and structural crisis of the system, Gyarmathy offers a forward-looking, network-based vision that reflects on technological and social changes.

We welcome our readers' opinions and reflections on the ideas presented.