Revisiting initial teacher training (Geography).

Some notes for future references

Abstract

Society has been changing rapidly and is getting more and more complex and multicultural. Teaching institutions and teacher face new problems, and a vast, constantly changing and evolving body of Knowledge is accessible to everybody. As a result, teachers need new kinds of training, with new challenges and demands, which requires them to develop holistic, multifaceted skills to deal with everyday life presents to them. This
text aims to revisit the types and underlying theories and models of initial teacher training in Portugal, from the late 20th century to the middle of last decade. We will go over academic and institutional discourses in use at the time, as well as a look at training models in Portugal. We will start with the initial training of Geography teachers at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Porto (1987-2015) and its methodological development. We will also present research done in the period when the Master’s Degree Program in History and Geography Teaching for the 3th Cycle (grades 7-9) was offered, based on the opinions expressed by young teachers about their training. We end with some final considerations. Initial training teacher programs have always focused on developing teacher’s awareness that their role as educators meant being proactive, able to adjust the curriculum making, and therefore capable of thinking critically about their practice. However, a lot remains to be done in the field of Initial training Teachers Education, namely, Geography teacher education.