Training Challenges to Face the New Social Configuration

Abstract

Changes in society and education place new demands on the teaching profession. Due to the increasing cultural diversity in the classrooms, teacher education should provide teachers with knowledge about intercultural issues, both in the initial and the permanent training. With this in mind, this paper seeks to determine if teachers have the professional knowledge (skills, teaching strategies...) required to adequately address the student diversity in the classrooms and the value they give to the initial/permanent training received to face successfully their professional practice in an intercultural context. For this purpose, a quantitative research methodology has been used. The questionnaire, constructed ad hoc to collect data, has been applied to a representative sample of pre-primary and primary teachers; the obtained data have been subjected to various statistical treatments. The results reveal that an important problem in the commitment to interculturalism is the insufficient teacher education, especially the pre-service training. Also, significant relationships between the identification variables and the responses of the teachers have been found.