Policies for Entering the Teaching Profession in Latin America: The outstanding debt

Resumen

This article seeks to make a contribution in the debate on policies for teacher insertion in Latin America. It is assumed that student learning success is related to, among other factor, the preparation teachers receive throughout their life but, fundamentally, in the early years of their practice. We begin by briefly assessing the educational policies implemented in Latin America for teacher training in recent decades. This paper highlights the detrimental impact of the discontinuity in the implementation of policies (due to changes in the ministries or governments) and the difficulties that arise in generating positive transformations in terms of induction of teachers. We continue with a detailed analysis of the implications of “being” a teacher and teaching, placing special emphasis on the construction of a teacher “identity” and the valorization of this profession in our current day society. We then consider the different training stages teachers undertake. Concrete teaching practices and the social reality in which they take place often presuppose a gap between the theories in which teachers are trained and the practical experiences they confront at the beginning of their careers. This causes frustration and lack of motivation of novel teachers that often lead to deterioration in the ability to teach. In this regard, the article describes and analyzes a variety of models for teacher integration that serve as a frame of reference for rethinking policies to enhance this process. Finally, we reflect upon these tools and the ability to adapt them to Latin American reality.