Access and admission policies towards initial teacher training programs in Spain and Portugal A comparative study

Abstract

This work focuses on a comparative study of the processes of access and admission to initial teacher training programmes in the education systems of Spain and Portugal, based on the most relevant and influential aspects involved in both systems. In this respect, we begin from the idea that Spain and Portugal are two countries that share many common features in terms of the administrative aspects of their education systems, but also have some notable differences, one of them in terms of access and admission policies to higher education studies. Therefore, the following objective is none other than to identify the main similarities and differences found between the two systems in this transition process, taking as a reference the socio-historical, political, economic and cultural context surrounding both educational systems. From a methodological point of view, we shall use the classical method of comparison, developed by Bereday and Hilker in the last third of the last century, and which has been redefined by numerous authors up to the present day. The research is based on a number of variables that have been analysed individually in each of the educational systems; these are the ones that, in our opinion, are most relevant in the process of university transition. Subsequently, the comparison phase begins, finding meeting points around access policies, such as the incidence of the upper secondary education degree or the hetegogeneity of students who are in a position to access the university context. However, we also see significant differences, such as the access tests implemented by the Spanish educational system or the conception that both systems present with respect to the admission process. All of this will come from by the socio-historical, political and cultural context of both countries, which will determine to a large extent the main convergences and divergences in our study.