The concern towards improving the quality of the teaching profession has had a notable presence in the last decades. As a part of this concern, the quality of the Initial Teacher Training (ITT) offered has been highlighted as an essential factor for this aim, becoming a priority of the international policy agendas and academic literature (Álvarez, 2015; Batler & Duncombe, 2008; Pérez-Díaz & Rodríguez, 2013). More specifically, the recruitment and selection of the best candidates for the ITT have been shown as key elements for such quality by several educational authorities (European Commission, 2015; OECD, 2016). However, the discussion about those criteria that are sought to determine which qualities define the best candidates arises. At the same time, under a comparative approach, it is possible to find a vast majority of educational systems that select its candidates based on a generic common examination shared with the rest of qualifications, versus a minority that considers other kinds of dispositions and personal competencies beyond cognitive skills. Therefore, there are notable differences among the relevancy of certain entry criteria against others as well as the level of demand of the selection processes and accessing policies to the ITT.

In particular, the Spanish recruitment and selection processes contribute to the above-mentioned majority. Spanish candidates are required to pass a generic knowledge examination in order to compete with those who apply to the ITT programs, considering only the academic criteria. According to the reading of the draft corresponding to the “White Paper” of the Eurydice Network (Blanco, Pérez, Vázquez, & Arias, 2016), this situation would lead to an overcrowded and increased formation, so that the quality of the initial training and the prestige of the profession are threatened. In order to face this undesirable situation, it is advisable to select the most brilliant secondary students who show real interest in starting the teaching career before the initial formation. Thus, this work is based on the hypothesis that the best educational systems are those that conduct more selective processes for accessing to ITT, generally transcending a generic examination or the mere consideration of the secondary education academic results.

The decision of establishing different entry requirements to the ITT programs has always existed for the history of education. In fact, since the institutionalization of the educational systems in the XIXth century and, as a consequence, of the teachers’ training, it is possible to find diverse requirements and selection processes to start the teaching career. In this context, the present work seeks to reach a historical overview that studies the different entry requirements established to access to this formation from the emergence of the first Spanish training centre for teachers (“Escuela Normal”) to the current educational policies. Consequently, what is aimed to explore is the candidates’ profile focused on the ITT as of the analysis of the policies.

Following a historical and political approach, several questions arise, such as: what type of entry requirements to ITT have been considered since 1838? What are the relations between a more demanding selection process and a deeper concern of the profession? What causes and consequences could be drawn by this selection? What are the pedagogical implications of establishing those requirements?

Considering its aim and nature, this work is framed under a historical and political approach. First of all, a review of literature aimed at finding and selecting the different legislations concerning the access policies to ITT (from the settlement of the first “Escuela Normal” in Spain in 1838 to nowadays) has been done. Simultaneously, different historical sources have been used in order to contextualize the aforementioned legislations. It is worth mentioning that it was only considered the Spanish literature (books and journal articles) written from 2010 to 2020. With the purpose of creating a base of data which includes the most relevant publications, the following databases were selected: Scopus, ISOC, Dialnet, Teseo, and EBSCO. Once the databases were selected, units of analysis as keywords were established in order to search the publications. After a deep search, as well as applying the inclusive and exclusive criteria, a total of 42 academical works were finally selected for the revision. Once the literature was read, a content analysis of the policies focused on the entry requirements was performed. In total, the number of documents analysed rises to 17. However, the findings of this analysis had to be contrasted by secondary sources because of the difficulty to fully access to some of the primary ones. Then, the information was categorised in order to conduct a descriptive analysis related to the entry requirements. The result of this process was a timeline in which the different selected categories were located for further analysis. Finally, the results achieved a critical approach with regard to the selection of candidates for ITT, so that the controversies, limitations and educational implications have been analysed.

Since the emergence of modern societies, the need of having a well-trained teaching staff who can be adapted to the current needs has been evidenced. With that purpose, several entry requirements seeking to select the best candidates to ITT programs have been established. Considering the Spanish context, those requirements have been determined by the social and political situation and the urgency of having new generations of teachers. Consequently, the age of accessing to the initial training has ranged from 12 to 18 years, so that the candidates access to the training centres by having different previous sheds of knowledge. With regard to the minimum required formation, it is possible to appreciate the tendency of progressively increasing the level of education of the candidates. Nevertheless, there are some exceptions, such as the beginning of the post-civil war (1939-1950), when there was necessary to compensate the consequences of the teachers’ purification. Additionally, an entrance examination aimed at evaluating the acquired knowledge in the previous levels of education has been widely popular. On the contrary, physical, moral, or socioemotional requirements have been slightly considered. Lastly, the influence of the Bologna plan in the tertiary education, that has attempted to homogenize the educational systems, has had notable implications on the selection process to ITT.

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