EDITORIAL, NOVEMBER 2026

LIGHTING THE FIRE

Around the world, we seem to be hearing the sound of opportunity slipping away. People are losing confidence in the promise of education, the excitement of widening horizons and the enabling tool of technology.

Nobody feels this more keenly than young people whose future lays before them. Whatever the cause of their pessimism – AI, corruption, lack of investment or climate change – they are expressing their frustration on the streets of cities around the world, from Delhi to Paris.

Teachers have always been uniquely placed to foster the idea of doors being opened rather than closed. It’s an important reason for doing what we do. But to be convincing we have to believe in what we are doing ourselves. Our belief can be student-centred, subject-centred or, more commonly these days, both. Our professional life is so caught up with young people and their futures , we have a responsibility to answer a question that seems to be cropping up with greater frequency and intensity than in the past:

“What’s the point?”

It’s not a new question, of course, but a convincing answer seems to be less clear than it once was. This does not mean that some of the old answers have lost their meaning, particularly those that emphasise the idea that learning is worthwhile and fulfilling in itself. Learning to do something well also gives the confidence to have a go at other things – which might prove to be even more important.

Is being able to answer this question enough to help restore our own confidence in the process of teaching and the point of learning? Without the key ingredient of enthusiasm, no, it is not: it is our enthusiasm for whatever we teach that, in the words of W. B .Yeats, ‘lights the fire’ of an education. Still.

Which brings us back to self-belief and confidence in ourselves. The encouraging thing, as several stories in this month’s edition, show, is that we are evolving a wider understanding of our role as teachers in the new age of generative AI. Richard Human, for example, argues that while AI and digital technology has deepened the scope and depth of the evidence available to students of geography, the quality of their inquiry still depends on long-standing techniques of critical evaluation which they must learn. As a careers specialist, Naotaka Ikebe feels a special responsibility for guiding young people and while he sees potential in AI for organising the huge range of resources in this area of education, he has no doubt that careers teachers will continue to provide the best guidance in how these resources can be used in order to make the best careers decisions.

And, as it is often said of outstanding teachers, it is their enthusiasm that is catching.