The IUFM and Initial Teacher Training in France: Socio-political issues and the cultural divide

Abstract

As part of wide-ranging educational reforms initiated in 1989, the structure and organisation of initial teacher training in France have been radically reshaped. The longstanding binary provision made for primary and secondary training by the ecoles normales and the universities respectively, each with its own traditions and jealously-preserved culture, has been replaced by a single new institution, the Institut Universitaire de Formation des Maitres. The process of transition has proved difficult, largely because of the outraged resistance shown by university and secondary school interests to the inclusion in the training programmes not only of an element of professional studies common to both primary and secondary trainees but also of a component concerned with teaching methodologies and other aspects of classroom practice. This paper traces the debates surrounding the painful birth of the IUFMs, which offers interesting contrasts with reforms of initial teacher training in other countries and especially the UK.