Dear participants of the 12th International Forum on
Teacher Education!
In 2015, Kazan Federal University established a scientific platform for sharing experience in teacher education. Representatives of the global academic and pedagogical community supported this initiative. Over the years, the scale of the IFTE forum has steadily grown: the number of participants has increased, the geography has expanded, and the range of issues discussed has broadened. As a result, the forum has become an influential research center that unites efforts to improve teacher education worldwide.
In 2025, the forum was held at Kazan Federal University and at three universities in Uzbekistan (Samarkand State University named after Sharof Rashidov, Samarkand State Institute of Foreign Languages, and Shakhrisabz State Pedagogical Institute). A total of 1,700 researchers attended in person, representing Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, China, India, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Slovenia, Spain, Greece, and other countries. More than 3,500 participants from 38 countries took part online. The upcoming IFTE-2026 forum will be even larger in scale, creating favorable conditions for further progress.
The years 2026–2027 have been declared the Cross Years of Education between the Russian Federation and the People's Republic of China. We consider this event important, as the Forum is entering a new stage of development. It is changing its format, as it will become part of the Russian-Chinese Teacher Education Congress titled “A Synergy between Traditions and Innovations in Teacher Education: International Perspective”.
On May 27–28, 2026, coordination meetings of IFTE-2026 will be held at Kazan Federal University. The theme of these meetings is “Teacher Education and Artificial Intelligence: Universities' Cases”. On September 17–19, 2026, the Global East West Forum on Teacher Education will take place at Northeast Normal University (Changchun, China). On September 23, 2026, Liaoning Normal University (Dalian, China) will host the International Conference on “Digital and Intelligent Transformation of Global Teacher Education: Integration, Innovation, and the Future”.
We believe that the Russian-Chinese Teacher Education Congress will enable scholars from different countries to freely exchange views, engage in meaningful dialogue, and actively cooperate.
Contemporary teacher education faces two main challenges. The first is to preserve the best traditions of national and global pedagogical schools. The second is to respond to the challenges of digital transformation, which demands innovative approaches to teacher training. International cooperation is essential because it allows successful practices from different countries to be utilized while avoiding the simple imitation of foreign models. The theme of the congress reflects the central contradiction in the current stage of teacher education: the tension between preserving traditions and the need for renewal.
Artificial intelligence is being actively adopted across various fields. The teacher education system is now confronted with new questions: how to prepare teachers who can work effectively in a hybrid "human–machine" environment; how the role of educators will change as some of their functions become automated; and how to preserve the humanistic mission of education in the digital age. These questions underscore the high relevance of the forum’s chosen theme.
I am confident that the research presented at the forum will enable a deep analysis of international experience in educational transformation. Best university practices and innovative teaching technologies will also be examined. This will help identify key directions for the future development of teacher education.
In an era of constant change and emerging challenges, cooperation and the exchange of experience become especially significant. I wish the participants of the Russian-Chinese Teacher Education Congress – IFTE-2026 productive scientific work, engaging discussions, and vibrant interaction. We will do our utmost to provide all guests with a warm and hospitable welcome.
See you at Kazan Federal University on May 27–28, 2026!
Roza Valeeva
President of IFTE-2026
Dear colleagues!
We are pleased to inform you that as a result of the Jubilee International Forum on Teacher Education IFTE-2024 a special issue of the scientific journal ‘Education and Self-Development’ has been published. The journal is published by Kazan Federal University and includes the best results of research on the teacher training system both in Russia and abroad.
This special issue of the journal contains articles by key speakers of the Jubilee Forum - Prof. Congman Rao, Director of the Institute of International and Comparative Education, Northeast Normal University (China), Professor Lucio Alvaro Marques, Dean of the Pedagogical Department of the Federal University of Triangulo Mineiro (Brazil), Dr. Intakhab Alam Khan, Professor of King Abdulaziz University (Saudi Arabia), Dr. Fariba Haghighi Irani, Professor of Islamic Azad University (Iran). Under the main theme of IFTE -2024 ‘BRICS countries on the way to improve teacher education’, scholars shared their teaching experience and new scientific knowledge.
In addition, the special issue presents articles by Forum participants from different Russian universities who work on joint research projects within the framework of the International Community of Researchers in Teacher Education (ICREP) (https://te.kpfu.ru/) and annually report on the results of their research at the Forum.
The special issue can be found at the link 19 | Article Volume Numbers | Education and Self-Development (kpfu.ru), as well as in the ‘Journals’ section of the Forum's website https://ifte.kpfu.ru/en/journals/.