<![CDATA[Background: Teacher professionalism is a fundamental factor in improving the quality of education in the 21st century. Technological advancements, the implementation of the Merdeka Curriculum, the diverse characteristics of learners, and increasing global competency demands require teachers to continuously improve their competence and adaptability. Objective: This study aims to analyze the challenges of teacher professionalism in the 21st century, identify the strategic roles of teachers, and examine various efforts to enhance teacher professionalism. Method: The study uses a descriptive qualitative approach through a documentation study of scientific articles, books, policy documents, and relevant publications. Data analysis was conducted using the interactive model of Miles, Huberman, and Saldaña, which includes data reduction, data display, and conclusion drawing. Results: The study identifies five main challenges to teacher professionalism, namely curriculum changes, digital transformation, learner diversity, administrative burdens, and wellbeing. Furthermore, enhancing teacher professionalism requires continuous professional development, learning communities, technology based administrative simplification, and increased wellbeing. Conclusion: Enhancing teacher professionalism requires a comprehensive, collaborative, and sustainable approach to meet the demands of 21st century education. Originality/Value: This study broadens and synthesises theoretical perspectives in the field of teacher education and educational management by integrating 21st-century competency demands (digital transformation and curriculum reform) and continuous professional development models anchored in learning communities and teacher wellbeing to explain the dynamics of multidimensional professional challenges and pedagogical role transformations, which have remained underexplored holistically. The conceptual framework offered serves as a foundation and contributes to generating novel hypotheses and designing future empirical investigations into the structural determinants of teacher professionalism, workload balance, and instructional effectiveness in modern educational settings.]]>
