THE EDUCATOR IN THE 21ST CENTURY: NEW CHALLENGES, EMERGING PARADIGMS, AND RECONFIGURATIONS OF TEACHING PRACTICE

Abstract

This article analyzes the challenges and emerging paradigms that reconfigure teaching practice in the 21st century, considering the cultural, technological, cognitive, and institutional transformations that strain the relationships among teachers, students, knowledge, and the school. The aim is to critically discuss how such transformations affect the contemporary classroom, student profiles, the pedagogical use of digital technologies and generative artificial intelligence, pedagogical authority, and teacher education, considering the objective working conditions in which educators operate. Methodologically, the study adopts a qualitative critical narrative review, based on structured searches in the SciELO, Scopus, Web of Science, ERIC, and CAPES Periodicals Portal databases, with a time frame from 1984 to 2010 for seminal works and from 2014 to 2026 for specific literature on digital culture, platformization, and artificial intelligence in education, complemented by consultation of Brazilian and international normative documents and official reports (BNCC, BNC-Formação, Cetic.br, INEP, UNESCO). The study is positioned as an analysis centered on the Brazilian educational context, aiming to dialogue with international debates. It is argued that the 21st-century educator operates under an unprecedented configuration of demands, marked by the need to act as a critical mediator of knowledge in environments characterized by attention fragmentation, platformization of learning, and intensification of institutional pressures. Theoretical-interpretive propositions sustain that effective educational transformation requires, more than tool adoption, pedagogical intentionality, professional recognition, adequate infrastructure, and institutional commitment to meaningful learning, equity, and integral formation.