Teacher education in Catalonia: between the rhetoric of change and the need for a structural model

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Jesús Moral Castrillo

Teacher education as a strategic pillar of the education system

Teacher education is one of the fundamental pillars of any education system that aspires to quality, equity and sustained improvement in outcomes. International research is unequivocal in showing that the highest-performing systems are those with well-prepared teachers who possess a solid theoretical foundation, reflective capacity and genuine opportunities for professional development throughout their careers.

In Catalonia, teacher education has historically been the subject of debate and partial reforms, often shaped by regulatory changes, political priorities or shifting circumstances. Despite progress achieved at certain moments, there remains a persistent sense that what is lacking is a coherent structural strategy capable of integrating initial preparation, continuing professional development and career progression into a unified model.

The results of TALIS 2024 in Catalonia reinforce this perception. Catalan teachers report a high level of commitment to their work and a clear willingness to continue developing professionally. At the same time, they repeatedly express the view that the training they receive does not always correspond to the real demands of classroom practice nor exert sufficient impact on their professional performance. This tension between the desire to improve and structural constraints places teacher education at the centre of the current educational debate.

A common framework for the teaching profession

The construction of a strong professional identity requires a shared framework of professional competences capable of guiding the entire system. Such a framework should serve as a reference point for both initial teacher education and continuing professional development, enabling a coherent career trajectory conceived as a formative continuum — from university preparation to ongoing development and structured support during the early years of teaching.

In Catalonia, however, this framework remains pending. The delay in its publication has led to fragmentation and makes alignment between universities, public authorities and schools more difficult. Without a clear reference framework, teacher education risks dispersing into isolated initiatives, often disconnected from one another and uneven in their impact. TALIS 2024 highlights precisely this weak connection between training, classroom practice and professional progression as a factor limiting the system’s capacity to retain and motivate teachers.

Establishing a framework agreed upon by the wider educational community is not merely a technical matter but also a symbolic one. It reinforces the social recognition of the profession and helps ensure that all pupils — regardless of school or territory — have access to teachers equipped with up-to-date and validated competences.

Initial teacher education: progress and unresolved tensions

The social, cultural and technological transformations experienced by both society and schools in recent decades require a thorough review of the degree and master’s programmes that qualify graduates for teaching. Initial teacher education must strike a genuine balance between disciplinary knowledge, subject didactics, pedagogical reflection and the capacity to act effectively in complex contexts.

Public authorities and universities must work together to review key aspects of initial preparation. TALIS 2024 confirms that many novice teachers feel insufficiently prepared, particularly in managing diversity and classroom behaviour. Strengthening subject knowledge and its didactic application remains essential to rigorous and coherent practice. Equally necessary is improving preparation in classroom management, the identification of learning difficulties, pedagogical decision-making, and the promotion of both a culture of effort and pupils’ socio-emotional well-being. Assessment, for its part, should be consolidated as a formative and reflective tool enabling teachers to analyse their progress and guide their professional improvement.

School placements constitute another critical point and, at the same time, a significant opportunity. Research and school experience demonstrate the need to reduce the distance between university and school. This implies recognising training schools as genuine environments of professional learning, where collaborative professional work and the educational project provide a coherent framework for student immersion. Such a model requires the professionalisation and recognition of mentors’ work and the establishment of genuine co-responsibility between schools and universities. At the same time, universities should explore new modalities, including dual teaching education models that integrate academic learning with practical experience in diverse educational contexts.

Practising teachers within universities

The incorporation of practising teachers from schools and secondary institutions into university teaching is one of the most effective ways of connecting theory and practice. They bring situated knowledge, real classroom experience and an up-to-date understanding of educational challenges. At the same time, the presence of university academics in schools opens spaces for applied research and shared innovation.

Yet this exchange continues to develop, too often, in the absence of a clear and stable regulatory framework governing cooperation between schools and universities. This lack of regulation not only makes systematic and balanced collaboration more difficult, but also encourages opaque practices in the allocation of roles and responsibilities, removed from the principles of equality, merit and competence that should govern public action. The current ambiguity generates asymmetries in roles, limits recognition of both academic and school-based expertise, and weakens the transformative potential of this relationship. Without a framework guaranteeing transparent and objective cooperation, the link between university and school is unlikely to consolidate itself as a structural element of teacher learning and professional development.

Continuing professional development: the engine of the profession

Continuing professional development should constitute the true engine of teacher professionalism, particularly in an educational context that is increasingly complex and demanding. Updating knowledge, critically reviewing practice and incorporating new didactic approaches are indispensable conditions for sustaining quality education over time. Yet TALIS 2024 shows that a significant proportion of teachers in Catalonia perceive the training they receive as fragmented, insufficiently coherent and inadequately connected to the real challenges faced in classrooms and schools.

This misalignment is not circumstantial but structural. On the one hand, there is no effective and shared system for identifying professional development needs capable of balancing teachers’ individual demands with the collective needs of schools. In the absence of such balance, provision tends to become dispersed, often driven by personal interests or external supply dynamics rather than anchored in school improvement projects geared towards whole-school development.

This weakness is compounded by the lack of recognised time and space within the working day for professional development, whether individual or collective. Training is still too often perceived as an additional activity dependent on teachers’ personal availability, limiting its depth, continuity and real impact on practice. Without a clear commitment to integrating professional development into the organisation of school time, it is difficult to advance towards sustainable and equitable models of development.

The model is further weakened by the absence of rigorous and systematic evaluation of the impact of training. Without solid evaluation mechanisms, it is impossible to determine which initiatives genuinely contribute to improved practice and which respond primarily to formal or compliance-driven dynamics. In the absence of clear evidence, decision-making in this field risks becoming reactive rather than strategic.

In this context, the decision of the Department of Education not to promote thematic postgraduate programmes for teacher updating in systematic collaboration with universities is particularly problematic. Such programmes could offer in-depth, accredited training closely connected to educational research in key areas, including subject updating and specialised didactics. Their absence contrasts with a certain alignment with specific external organisations and foundations, often subject to limited academic accountability, thereby undervaluing the role of the university as the natural site of knowledge production, advanced training and rigorous transfer.

This gradual disconnection between university and the education system impoverishes the overall model of continuing professional development and makes it more difficult to construct solid, coherent and recognised professional pathways. Without shared governance integrating public authorities, universities and schools — both in identifying needs and in designing, evaluating and accrediting provision — continuing professional development risks losing legitimacy, effectiveness and transformative capacity, consolidating a fragmented model that is insufficient for present educational challenges.

Entry into the profession: a crucial phase in teacher development

One of the principal weaknesses of the education system becomes evident at the beginning of the teaching career. A significant number of novice teachers move from one temporary post to another across diverse schools and contexts, often without stability or systematic support. This reality generates uncertainty, hampers the construction of a solid professional identity and accentuates the gap between initial preparation and the everyday demands of classroom practice.

Entry into the profession should be regarded as a key phase of professional development rather than a period of mere occupational survival. Structured induction and mentoring programmes would facilitate the integration of novice teachers into educational teams, provide pedagogical and methodological support, and enable a gradual and reflective entry into the profession. Investment in high-quality induction processes is not merely a support measure for teachers but a strategic commitment to medium- and long-term system improvement.

Towards a coherent model of teacher professional development

Rethinking teacher education in Catalonia requires moving beyond partial and fragmented approaches and advancing towards an integrated professional development strategy. Such a strategy should coherently articulate initial preparation, continuing development and career progression, grounded in a shared competence framework and in recognised and accredited training pathways.

Teacher education cannot be conceived as an administrative obligation nor as a collection of isolated initiatives, but as a continuous process of professionalisation. This entails guaranteeing time, recognition and appropriate working conditions so that teachers can learn, research, reflect on their practice and innovate collectively, while also reinforcing the role of institutions that provide rigorous knowledge — above all, universities.

Conclusions

Teacher education is a strategic issue that directly concerns the future of the education system. Catalonia possesses committed teachers, universities with proven research capacity and a recognised pedagogical tradition. The challenge lies not in the existence of these assets, but in articulating them in a coherent, demanding and sustainable manner.

Meeting this challenge requires taking decisive steps: defining a clear competence framework, strengthening structural collaboration with universities, moving beyond uncritical alignment with certain actors, and committing to in-depth, accredited continuing professional development oriented towards genuine professional growth. Only in this way can teacher education fulfil the transformative role that the education system requires.

Source: educational EVIDENCE

Rights: Creative Commons