Who is the ideal teacher? Greek pre-service teachers express their views about the characteristics of the “perfect” teacher

Abstract

The purpose of the research is to identify the views of education department students (from elementary and pre-school education departments), namely potential teachers, on the ideal teacher. This study attempts to map diverse views on the role and image of the teacher inherent in social discourse as social experience, regardless of whether or not there is special knowledge. The authors asked 588 students from elementary education and pre-school education departments to write a text in which they would describe their views as to what makes a perfect teacher [What, in your opinion, makes an ideal educator?]. For the analysis of the texts, the authors used quantitative and qualitative content analysis (content analysis – classical thematic analysis). The findings of this research in accordance with previous studies, suggest that the teacher‘s role and his/her ―ideal‖ image, are two multidimensional concepts and cannot be defined with absolute precision.