27. Teachers in Search of Their Identity

In the early years of the Education 2.0 reforms, teachers were largely viewed by state actors as a ‘problem’. Through interviews with four teachers from urban and rural schools in the governorate of Ismailia, this chapter asks how teachers as individuals and a professional group, understand their relevance in Egyptian society. It focuses on three main themes: the discourse coming from the Ministry of Education and Technical Education (MOETE) and the Minister himself about the position of teachers in the ‘new education system’; digital transformation in relation to teachers; and how exams, grades, and education markets continue to drive the system. The authors argue for an approach to education reform in which teachers are viewed as active agents of change rather than obstacles to it and stress the need for a renewal of the human factor in the learning process, even as new technological tools and platforms saturate the education space.