Initial teacher training is considered one of the most important means to promote the improvements that society currently demands to educational systems. Several international reports (McKinsey, 2007; OECD, 2005) and works done in the field of education (Estebaranz, 2012; Darling-Hammond, 2001) highlights this significance as decisive aspect in students learning. To constitute fundamental mission assigned to school the "ensure good learning for all", is necessary a system of initial training to ensure future teachers acquire skills allowing effective teaching (Bolivar & Bolivar Ruano, 2012).
Today, great dissatisfaction with the quality of the initial training of teachers has been observed globally. Many groups question the capacity of the institutions responsible for training to respond to the training needs of the teaching profession (Ball & Forzani, 2010; Korthagen, Loughran & Russell, 2006; Vaillant & Marcelo, 2015). Criticism has focused on several aspects: little relationship between theory and practice, lack of coordination between key elements, training disconnected from professional reality and fragmentation of the curriculum, among others (Feiman-Nemser, 2001; Flores, Santos, Fernandes & Pereira, 2014; Marcelo & Vaillant, 2009).
In this sense, criticisms aimed at the initial pedagogical formation of Secondary Education teachers in Spain have addressed the need for it to acquire a professional character (Santos & Lorenzo, 2015), since in many cases it is a mere requirement for those who study it in order to teach (Martín-Romera & Molina Ruiz, 2017; Valdés, Bolívar & Moreno, 2015).
The conditions under which initial training begins don’t seem to be the most suitable when meeting the challenge of providing the intended training. No attention has been paid to the principles fundamental to addressing the challenge of training Secondary teachers to "educate all adolescents". It should be noted that one of the aspects lacking in the implementation of the FPES Master model is a reflection on various essential elements of any training process, such as the training principles that must be followed and, consequently, the type of teacher we want to train, and how this should be articulated to achieve the intended training (Bolívar & Bolívar Ruano, 2012; Estebaranz, 2012).
This research is configured with the purpose of contributing to this reflection, addressing the considerations, assessments and perceptions of the teachers in practice, and other agents involved in the training, regarding the three indicated aspects: the “for whom” do we want the training; the “what”, inquiring about the necessary pedagogical component; and the “how”, addressing the elements that are desirable for training and those that can be improved within the current training model.
Transferring this knowledge to the training implies that it will have an impact on actual teaching work (Cochran-Smith, 2005), which is an unprecedented social and educational benefit. In this sense, our work is focused on and we are interested to find out, among other aspects, what elements are considered desirable in the initial pedagogical training programmes. We understand that from the study of these aspects useful considerations will arise to guide the improvement of training, based on the assumption that a training programme will be more effective the greater the number of agents there are involved in its design.