This study raises a critical question: ‘what does it mean to be smart teachers in the era of technology?’. To provide a concrete and comprehensive answer to the question, the authors use a notion of discourse and analyse multiple discourses revolving around SMART education, an educational technology reform initiative in South Korea launched in 2011. This article critically examines the significance of SMART education as dominant discourse by reviewing its stated meanings, importance, and influence on the formation of teachers’ roles and subjectivities in relevant education policy texts. The results show that SMART education is conceptualised as ‘panacea’ that can practically solve all kinds of educational problems, which leaves no choice for teachers but to accept and execute SMART education. The authors also analyse teachers’ perceptions and practices by drawing on interviews conducted in a smart city in South Korea, where the SMART education policy was first enacted. Based on the analysis, it is argued that smart teachers are supposed to be ‘adaptive’ to survive by proving themselves as ‘compatible’ with technology-driven educational and social changes. This article concludes that it is necessary to think of different, more diverse versions of smart (or good) teachers.