According to Griffin (1999), teacher education has become a more responsive activity when it comes to the needs of the schools. Griffin (1999) suggests that teachers have been expected to be agents of change, but unfortunately, they don’t always develop the capacities to do so. The challenges in the teaching profession require that teachers obtain specific knowledge, intellectual skills, and professional orientations; however, Griffin (1999) suggests that this represents a challenge.
Teacher education in Mexico has been thorough a sustained expansion; in the beginning of 1900, the efforts of the government was focused on the increase of education centres, especially in elementary education (SEP, n.d.). Once the expansion of the elementary education occurred, the demand for secondary education increased, therefore the need to produce teachers became a priority for education stakeholders in Mexico (SEP, n.d.). The TTI were founded in the mid-1920s by the Secretariat of Public Education (SEP, n.d.). During that decade, the federal and state governments founded the rural TTI, “escuelas normales rurales”, the main purpose of these institutions, was to produce teachers to assist in the development of the rural communities, especially those with indigenous populations (SEP, n.d.).
By 1934, Mexico’s constitution declared basic elementary education free and obligatory, and in the consequent years, preschool education and secondary education also became mandatory (SEP, n.d.). An important step was taken when teacher education was raised to higher education on 1984, as an attempt to raise the standards and meet the needs of the education system (SEP, n.d.). According to INEE (2015) only 40.4% of the TTI graduates have received the proper preparation exams. Derived from the poor educational results nationwide, teachers’ education has become a policy priority for Mexico in the recent years; key issues include strengthening the process for selecting teachers and assigning them to schools, the balance in their evaluations, the quality of teacher training programmes, the incentives to improve performance and the quality of teaching (Tatto, 1999).
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The TTI curriculum
According to UNESCO (2013), “the curriculum is a way of organizing and sequencing learning experiences with the aim of achieving specified learning outcomes”. It is a guide to how, why and what must be learnt (UNESCO, 2013). In the recent years, policy makers have adapted the TTI curriculum to face the new challenges in Mexico’s society. The current curriculum was implemented in 2011 and is divided in five blocs (SEP, n.d.), as shown in the next figure.
Figure 2.2. The structure of the TTI curricula (adapted by the author)
Teacher practices, courses that gradually involve students in the school life (8 courses)
Optative courses (e.g., art and physical education) (4 courses)
Additional language and information technologies (7 courses)
Preparation for the teaching-learning practice (e.g., math and sciences) (20 courses)
The psychopedagogical bloc, courses that focus on the teaching process (16 courses)
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As shown in the figure 2.2, the TTI curriculum consists of 5 blocks as the core structure. Each block comprises a series of courses. The TTI curriculum is presented in the appendices.
According to SEP (n.d.), the TTI curriculum was designed with the support of teachers and students of TTI across the country. School principals, educational stakeholders, representatives of the teacher’s union named Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educacion (SNTE) and researchers specialised in teacher education were also involved in the design (SEP, n.d).
The participants were called for national meetings, online surveys, visits to TTIs, focus groups and interviews (SEP, n.d.). The TTI curriculum includes 8 semesters, 55 courses, 291 credits, and a final dissertation to obtain the grade (SEP, n.d.). According to SEP (n.d.), the TTI curricula is designed to assist the TTI students to develop a set of competences in the personal and the professional level, that will be required in the teaching profession. Some of the personal competencies include analytical thinking, problem solving skills, decision making, continuous learning, initiative, research skills, teamwork, ethical, communication skills, use of technology, and respect of the diversity, ethnic group and gender (SEP, n.d.).
As SEP (n.d.) points out, the TTI curricula attempts to develop very specific professional competences in the teachers; teachers that are capable to do class planning according to the needs if the social contexts, to build diagnostics and motivates the students. In addition, teachers must be able to adapt the curricula accordingly, to plan and execute integral education and to utilise the diagnostics evaluations and plans accordingly to produce teachers with the ability to use education research to develop professionally, and who knows and respects the principles derived by the educational law and the values of the teaching profession (SEP, n.d.).
Teachers with the knowledge to create positive work environment in the classroom, that develops and promotes the student’s competences (SEP, n.d.). Teachers who promote inclusion, tolerance and acceptation, and who are sensitive to those with learning barriers (SEP, n.d.). It is relevant to point out that there are two courses that aim to promote equity and inclusion (E&I) in the TTI curricula, those are “attention to the diversity” and “educational attention for the inclusion” (SEP, n.d.)
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The TTI’s teaching practices
According to Gordon (2007), TTI students often question how to apply the theories they learn to the problems they will confront in the classrooms; teachers are concerned of the gap between educational theory and the practice of teaching, hence, they see teaching practices as a chance to make that connection possible (Gordon, 2007). The block of teaching practices in Mexico’s TTI is divided into eight courses (semesters) the first seven are a mix of theory and practice (SEP, n.d.).
The courses focus on exploring the different contexts of Mexico’s schools in a gradual manner;
the last course in the eight semesters, involves an intensive participation of the student in one of the schools that the TTI teachers have previously selected (SEP, n.d.). For 16 weeks, students are expected to take full control of the classrooms (SEP, n.d.). According to SEP (n.d.), the last semester attempts to connect the student’s knowledge acquired during the previous seven semesters with classroom intervention. This semester is planned to prepare students to respond to situations and problematics (real and suggested) in the reality of schools (SEP, n.d.). It is expected that the teaching practices allow students to analyse the diversity of contexts, social situation of the communities, learning needs and to relate those to use the appropriate pedagogic and didactic methods (SEP, n.d.).