Conceptions of Infant Education teachers about their initial and permanent professional training: a collective case study

This research sets out to respond to the fact that the initial and permanent professional training of Infant Education teachers is one of the least explored topics in the prolific field of teacher training. Our objective is to delve into the conceptions of these tea-chers about the initial and permanent professional training they have received, and to explore how they assess the impact of these two types of training on their profes-sional practice. To achieve this objective, we used a collective case-study methodo-logy. The instrument was a semi-structured clinical interview that, through content analysis, made it possible to know and fu-lly understand the particularities of each of the cases studied. In addition, we carried out another analysis to establish semantic networks between the established catego-ries. This analysis allowed us to map out common points and dissensions between both categories. The results showed that teachers considered it was necessary to im-prove initial professional training because it was excessively theoretical and the need for permanent training to be conducted in the schools to facilitate conciliation and adapt it to each context. The Infant Edu-cation teachers who participated in our research were not very satisfied with the initial and permanent professional training they received because they considered it was not very practice-oriented.