The Slow Reform of Teacher Education in Spain

Abstract

In the context of the Spanish political transition from dictatorship to democracy it is difficult to show a clear-cut division between past and present in teacher education, since the structure and institutional organisation under which teachers still go through their initial training were established in 1971 under Franco's regime. The democratic constitution was passed in 1978, but democratisation within the executive branches of the State has evolved with varying degrees of autonomy and at differing speeds. The educational reforms were introduced much later than the political ones and, in particular, the problem of the initial training of teachers is still unsolved. Given this situation, our analysis will relate to two periods: (a) the present training, under the terms of reference of the 1971 curricula, still in force, and (b) the main lines of the future reform of teacher education, only partially introduced in April 1991 by the Ministry of Education. Insofar as the latter will be implemented in practice in about three years' time, and as there are many substantial aspects which remain unclear in the official documents, our analysis of likely developments will necessarily be incomplete and provisional. Since 1972 the universities have been responsible for the training of future teachers. Those destined for the compulsory school level are educated in a three-year course at University Schools for the Training of Teachers of Basic General Education. Upper secondary level teachers, on the other hand, must complete a five-year course leading to a Licenciatura in a particular discipline within the sciences or the humanities, followed by a one-year course providing pedagogical training. The educational backgrounds of teachers engaging in vocational education (formacion profesional) are quite diverse, including Licenciados (five-year degrees), higher engineers (six-year degrees), technical engineers (three-year degrees) and practical assistants with no university education. In spite of the fact that there were great hopes of the reform of the system of teacher education after the advent of democracy, 16 years have elapsed since Franco's death without any substantial change. When the University Reform Law was passed in 1983, it was generally believed that this urgent problem would be tackled immediately, but after various frustrated projects, the reform was postponed until the primary and secondary levels were reorganised (which happened only in 1990) in order to fit the qualifications to the new structure of the education system. Thus, the reform of teacher education is at the crossroads of both reforms and only the first steps of the future plans are foreseeable for the time being. Although the universities are ultimately responsible for the degrees, they are not wholly empowered to design the content of the various curricula. To understand this paradoxical situation some clarifications are called for. In practice, the Spanish