Bologna process & initial teacher

education in Europe

Apostolis Dimitropoulos
University of Athens
The ENTEP Network

Vienna, 7 November 2006

 Bologna process

• Intergovernmental
• pan-European
• no historical precedence
• scope & membership (45 countries)
 Bologna process:
main goals
• improve quality of European higher education
systems
• make higher education degree strucures more
comparable and readable
• facilitate mobiliy in the EU
• construct a European Higher Education Area
• increase international competitiveness of European
HE system
 Bologna process:
A top-down process
• collective decisions at European level
• implementation at national level
• by national governments and higher education
institutions
 Bologna process:
requirements
• political will
• ability to reach consensus
• overcome resistances
 Teacher education structures
& the Bologna process
• Specifities -large variation across EU countries
– locus (cuncurrent -consecutive)
– practical training
– length
– content
 Teacher education structures &
the Bologna process
• No reference in official declarations , coomuniques,
texts
• no reference in the Stocktaking report (2005
Bergen)
• no Bologna or European model proposed
• Why?
 Teacher education structures &
the Bologna process

The ENTEP on-going work

• to collect information about existing structures &
recen reforms
• to examine the evolution of teacher education
structures
• to examine comparability of teacher education
structures
• tentative conclusions!!!
 Teacher education structures &
the Bologna process
• European diversity of teacher education structures
• even sub-national diversity (Germany, UK,
Belgium)
• from local & national to European and international
goals
• diversity of schools systems and school types in the
EU
 Teacher education structures &
the Bologna process
• The ENTEP countries compared:
Austria, Cyprus, England & Wales,
Germany,Greece, Finland,
France, Luxembourg, Latvia,
Malta, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden
 Subject teachers and their initial
education structures
Two main models:
• the concurrent model
Austria, Cyprus, Finland, Greece, Spain, Sweden,

• the consecutive model

France, Germany, Portugal, Luxembourg

• both models-varying degrees of flexibility

 Subject teachers and their initial
education structures
Type of institutions
• university
• non-univeristy higher education institutions
• state agencies
• even at schools
 Subject teachers and their initial
education structures
Type of institutions
• academic drift
• blurring of boundaries among higher education
institutions
• teacher education & academic drift processes
Austria, Greece, UK, France etc.
 Subject teachers and their initial
education structures
Academic drift in teacher education
• improving quality
• professionalisation of teaching
• professional status of teachers

• Teacher education increasigly in univeristies or

university like institutions (few exceptions)
 Recent reforms of teacher
education and the effects of the
Bologna process
• National differences
• national distances & implementation roadmaps
• degree of compatibilities with the Bologna 3-cycle
¨framework¨.
• volumes of reforms and changes required
• policy efforts
 Recent reforms of teacher
education and the effects of the
Bologna process
• In some countries most recent reforms of teacher
education structures predate 1999 (Bologna)
Slovenia 1987, Greece 1985, Cyprus 1998,
Luxembourg 1997, Malta 1999
• The Bologna process seems to have a stronger
effect in some other countries
Sweden 2001, Finland 2005, France 2005, German
 Teacher education and the
introduction of the ECTS
• ECTS is being currently introduced in Austria,
Finlad, France, Germany, Latvia, Malta, Portugal,
Spain
• unclear how it is implemented!
 Teacher education and
introduction of the BA/MA
structure
• The MA a possibility for teachers and part of CPD
• The MA and the consecutive model
 Teacher education and duration
of study programmes
• Years of study versus credit accumulation
•
• diverse effects across countries (Spain, Germany;
France)
 Conclusions

• teacher education structures in the EU are, indeed,

changing
• many of the reforms are directly or indirectly related
to the Bologna process
• there are gaps in the Bologna implementation
process
• national selectivity
• path-dependences
 Conclusions

Convergence or new diversity

in teacher education structures in Europe?
 Conclusions

Is the role of the national state in teacher

education changing?
Thank you for your patience!