The current perspectives in education challenge research to identify the characteristics of an initial teachers’ education that promotes life long education and adequate professional projects, in terms of cognitive, emotional, relational, social and practical aspects. This research is about teachers’ knowledge (Tardif, 2002), professional development (Day, 2001) and in the building of teachers’ professional identities (Beijard, Meijer, & Verloop, 2004). Studying teachers’ education from building identities point of view allows the relationship between the construction of individual and collective identities (Lopes, 2001), between emotional dimension and cognitive dimension of the professional activity (Bolívar, 2006) and between persons education and the quality of developing contexts – groups, organizations and societies(Lopes, 2007). Therefore it is important to study initial teachers’ education as the context where the first professional identity is born. This paper aims to contribute for that effort, through the presentation of a research carried out with the objective of relating curricula of initial teachers’ education and the basic professional identities generated in them (Lopes, Pereira, Sousa, Carolino, & Tormenta, 2007; Lopes, Pereira, Ferreira, Silva, & Sá, 2007). This research had its starting point from results of previous studies (Lopes, 2002a, 2002b). In these studies the impact of the continuous formation was verified in the change of the professional identities, however these changes were hardly sustainable and with very little impact in relation with the effort committed in that particular task. Our aim was to know what kind of impact initial teachers’ education had in the construction of professional identities. Furthermore, we aimed to understand which aspects of the initial teachers’ education were specially related with particular aspects of the professional identities. In order to study curricula we have adopted a social/critical theoretical orientation (Marcelo Garcia, 1999) that distinguishes "formal", "informal" and "hidden" curricula (Pacheco, 1996). Professional identities were studied through the theoretical perspectives of Claude Dubar (1995). These define the construction of the professional identities as a double transaction - biographical (between inherited identities, actual identities and identities people wish for themselves) and relational (between people and contexts of education or work). Initial teachers’ education makes part of people’s biographic path and at the same time is a relational and cognitive context which transforms identities in relation with biographic paths and the quality of contexts. Dubar (1995) considers that basic professional identities are a projection of one self in the future, which can be later analysed through the illusions and disillusions to that gave origin to teachers’ professional journey.

This study involved one school of initial teachers’ education located in one of the most important urban centres of Portugal. In order to characterize curricula we collected documents – laws, school programmes, Curricula, students’ notes and school works, training reports, minutes, reports, dispatches and official letters, from different organizations (governmental instances, unions, school and students’ associations) -, of four periods of time of the last thirty years of the 20th century: (i) 1970 decade - before the democratic revolution (until 25th of April 1974); (ii) 1970 decade - after the democratic revolution; (iii) 1980 decade; (iv) 1990 decade. In order to study teachers’ basic professional identities 40 biographical interviews (10 from each period) were carried out. Two roads of inquiry – documentary and biographical – were adopted, both used content analysis and afterwards results were correlated. The following dimensions of analysis permitted to characterize curricula in each period of time: "Culture and society", "political education" and "education/professionalization". The analysis of the biographical interviews permitted to identify a category system from each the following categories are detached: psychosocial identity (when entering to initial education); basic professional identity (when leaving the initial education); current identity (basic professional identity transformed due to his/her professional journey and contexts).

When correlating the results of the two, above mentioned, roads of inquiry we came to the following study achievements: • there is an effective impact of the initial teachers’ education in the construction of teachers’ basic professional identities; • formal curriculum is specially important to explicit the collective project held by that particular school; • informal curriculum is seen as a means to reflect upon educational situations, becoming a knowledge dimension that is specially felt as valuable to these teachers; • after the democratic revolution professional basic identities are teaching centred, while in the 90s they are learning centred; • in the 90s curricula became more academic and less professional in comparison with the second time period; • in the late 70s and 80s friendship between students played an important part in the learning process, while in the nineties they were separated. These results will be discussed to the light of the Bolonha Process. Learning Climates’ of and teachers’ identities will also be focused.