The Future of Education

Quality of education is contingent upon the quality of teachers. The educational system aims to recruit and retain the best possible candidates for the position. However, it is a sobering reality that schools’ options are limited by the quality of teacher candidates who are attracted to the profession in the first place. As career choice is influenced immensely by society, including family, peers, and community, it is essential to look into the image that the society holds about the teaching profession. Hence, this study illustrated how the current generation across all Filipino cohorts (Generation Now) see the teaching profession. It further looked into what shaped this image and the effect of such image in the teaching profession. Imaging Case Study Design was employed for this study. Data were gathered by analyzing online comments made on four controversial and trending cases which influenced perceptions about Filipino teachers between 2023-2024. Findings showed that the decades-old standards for the respectable teaching profession remains to this generation, in spite of the changing landscape of their profession including the hyper social media connectivity, changing social values on child protection, and behaviors of the new cohort of students. While such standards communicate its high expectations to the members of the noble profession, they also serve as catalyst in shaping an impossible image of the profession as teachers who are just as human as any other professionals would eventually topple down the very high pedestal which had been appointed unto them. These findings aim to contribute in shaping policies that will develop a more humanely attainable positive social image of teaching that will attract the best potential candidates for the profession.