Looking back: Educating the Educators 2025

The fifth Educating the Educators 2025 conference, held on May 8–9, 2025 in Limassol, Cyprus, marked the grand finale of the EU co-funded ICSE Academy – proSTEM project. Organised in collaboration with the University of Nicosia and the ICSE consortium, the event brought together 121 participants from 26 countries, including STEM teachers, teacher educators, researchers, and policy makers.

Under the theme “21st Century Challenges in STEM Education”, the conference offered a rich programme featuring:

• Three keynote speeches by Jonathan Osborne (Stanford), Anastasios Hovardas (Cyprus), and Hilda Borko (Stanford), addressing scientific literacy, STEAM pedagogy, and leadership in professional development.
• A dedicated Teachers’ Day with interactive workshops tailored to classroom practice.
• 24 poster and oral presentations showcasing innovative approaches to STEM teaching and teacher education.
• A European Policy Round Table with high-level representatives from the European Commission and national ministries, resulting in a strong recommendation for a European-wide framework to recognise teacher mobility experiences.

ETE 2025 served as a vibrant platform for sharing innovative practices in STEM teacher education, with a strong focus on inclusion, sustainability, digitalisation, and mobility. The conference celebrated the achievements of ICSE Academy, which over three years developed and tested impactful professional learning formats such as job shadowing, summer schools, and the European Workshop Series. These formats were praised for their accessibility, transferability, and alignment with European priorities like sustainability, inclusion, and digitalisation.

A key outcome of the final Policy Round Table was a call for a European-wide framework to recognise teacher mobility experiences, underlining the systemic relevance of the project’s results.

ETE 2025 was not only a closing event but a launchpad for future collaboration. The conference proceedings will be published open access in 2026, and many partners committed to continuing the work through new initiatives.

Interviews with experts and panelists as well as photos are available on the ETE website: ETE 2025 | Conference Overview. All ICSE Academy outcomes can be accessed via https://icse.eu/icse-academy.