There has never been a more challenging time for teachers as of right now. How could there be? Sources of knowledge and information are now widely distributed and easily accessible by anyone from anywhere. Even without teachers’ help, students can access the knowledge they want from the internet. Search engines have become the reference point for all information.  

This flood of information facilitates learning and creates new problems. Neil Postman (1992) found that information technology provides access to mostly poor and inaccurate information. On the other hand, the overwhelming flow of information robs mankind of the ability to choose and select the important knowledge that may serve as their intellectual and moral guidelines. Hoaxes rule the day. Mankind is drowned in a flash flood of sounds, imagination and information that lead them away from the truth.  

In the context of interpersonal relationships, technological advances have robbed us of our ability to be spontaneous in relating to other people in the real world. People now tend to be more reactive and responsive and yet slower in building real connections. They tend to be highly individualistic with gadgets in their hands wherever they go without any sense of awareness of their immediate environment.  

It is here that the professional challenges of a teacher lie. We are now living in the knowledge economy of a knowledge society. In a knowledge society — to borrow Hargreaves’ term — individuals, governments, states and educational institutions that cannot use this flood of information and knowledge will be left behind. Only those with a thirst for knowledge will survive.

The success of individuals, be they teachers, students and organizations, will depend on their ability to learn. Without caution, teachers can suffer from a sense of inferiority. They suffer from low self-esteem as they feel that the knowledge they obtained in college all those years ago are now no longer relevant.

Apart from that, teachers can also suffer from a crisis of meaningfulness in immersing themselves in their professional work as they are forced to learn new things in a world that is changing so rapidly. Instead of becoming a solution, teachers may become another problem.    

It is in this context that teachers do their job. On one hand, new things are cropping up every minute and teachers always lag behind. On the other hand, teachers need to prepare students with important knowledge and skills to sail through an uncertain future. World Economic Forum 2016 estimated that 75 percent of the jobs our elementary school-aged children would do when they grow up do not exist today.

Profiles of jobs of the future, as Martin Carnoy and Castells (1994) delivered in front of The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, will center on knowledge and learning. “The distinguishing feature of work in the information age is the centrality of knowledge, especially ‘transportable’ general knowledge that is not specific to a single job or firm. The best jobs are those that require high levels of education [high level of general knowledge] and provide opportunities to accumulate more knowledge.”

The challenges of the future need to be addressed proactively through developing appropriate discipline and work ethics. When means to obtain knowledge is understood merely as the technical way of obtaining information through technological equipment, teachers, as learning facilitators, have an important role in guiding and helping students to be able to creatively use this information and knowledge for their future success.

As interpersonal relationships get more technical through connections by gadgets and electronic equipment, the physical presence of teachers in greeting, affirming and reinforcing interpersonal relationships becomes an irreplaceable necessity. The multimedia world offers telecommunication opportunities through pictures and sounds. However, the presence of teachers has equally important multimedia dimensions through sound, greeting, body language, touch, emotional expression and empathy. Furthermore, teachers can inspire, encourage reflection and assess information obtained by students. The presence of teachers as character educators is irreplaceable.

The following are a few examples of forms of discipline and work ethics that teachers need to develop to become effective character educators for students.

First is teachers’ discipline in fostering a learning spirit among students. Providing a fun learning environment for students is the key to successful teaching. Knowledge societies, to borrow Hargreaves’ term in his book Teaching in the Knowledge Society (2003), are learning societies. This is because “knowledge societies process information and knowledge in ways that maximize learning, stimulate ingenuity and invention and develop the capacity to initiate and cope with change.”

Second is teachers’ discipline in fostering their own learning spirit. Teachers need to open their mind to new things, develop critical-thinking ability and be willing in learning new things in order to improve their knowledge and skill to surf in knowledge societies. In other words, teachers need to have intellectual modesty, namely a sense that they are no longer the sole sources of information and that they can learn from many other sources.

Third is teachers’ support in developing an inclusive learning community. An open and globalized world must not be responded to by shutting oneself from the world, keeping busy with one’s own matters or developing an anti-change behavior. Anthony Giddens has reminded us all about this. “The battle ground of the 21st century will pit fundamentalism against cosmopolitan tolerance. In a globalizing world [...] we are all regularly in contact with others who think differently and live differently from ourselves. Cosmopolitans welcome and embrace this cultural complexity. Fundamentalists find it disturbing and dangerous. Whether in the areas of religion, ethnic identity, or nationalism, they take refuge in a renewed and purified tradition — and, quite often, violence.”

Teachers need to serve as vital sources for the development of inclusive learning communities by fostering a spirit of cosmopolitan tolerance that opens itself to celebrate cultural diversity as strength. Teachers need to develop deep cognitive learning, foster creativity among students and be beacons of inspiration and exemplary figures in the development of students’ values.

It is these forms of discipline and work ethics that will revitalize teachers’ role as character educators in the digital era.

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The writer is education observer and lecturer at National Multimedia University.

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