Educational policies for equity in teacher training

Abstract

Initial and in-service teacher training constitutes one of the fundamental pillars of any educational project aimed at equity. Training can be oriented to equity as an ethical-political project, or to adjustment to the neoliberal system. The research presented aimed to determine to what extent educational policies, specifically those of the Autonomous Community of Andalusia, concerning the initial and in-service teacher training and the resulting practices, contribute or not to educational equity. The methodology was qualitative, specifically two techniques were used:  documentary analysis of the regulations relating to teacher training and in-depth semi-structured interviews with teachers of different educational levels, management teams, training consultancies and educational inspections. The results show that certain approaches to educational policies and the majority training practices do not contribute to equity, mainly because they are academic, decontextualized, because of the division between theoretical and practical knowledge, and because of the psychologist approach of content. On the other hand, in-service teacher training involves the predominance of the technical and bureaucratic training model as opposed to a more research, reflective and critical model whose mission is educational inclusion.