One of the key factors in the quality of education lies in its teachers (Darling-Hammond et al., 2005; Eurydice, 2013; Hanushek, 2004). In the context in which we live, increasingly digital, with rapid changes and growing social demands (OECD, 2019), the university must strive to design environments that allow its teachers to carry out their work in the best possible conditions, especially those who are new to the profession. Becoming a good teacher is a long process and it is essential to attend teachers from their first years of professional practice to achieve this goal (Ingersoll and Strong, 2011).This is a key stage in that the teacher's identity is built and the basis of his or her teacher model, which will condition his or her personality traits, motivations and attitudes during his or her professional career.
Consequently, caring for their teaching professional development (TPD), specially for newcomers, must become a priority for those in charge, relying on teaching competence frameworks to guide this policy (European Commission, 2018; Halasz, 2019; Manso and Sánchez-Tarazaga, 2018). TPD is a specific area, conceptualized around various phases, of which we highlight here initial teacher training, initiation to the profession and continuous teacher training.
In most cases, university teachers are not required to have any pedagogical accreditation to carry out their teaching duties. There are universities that have already incorporated teacher professional development programmes into their respective agendas (ICED, 2013), but policies are incipient or are reduced to training programmes. Moreover, a recent study on academic staff in Higher Education (European Commission, 2017) shows that there are almost no professional development programmes aimed at improving their teaching competences (including the digital ones). The international literature shows us some weaknesses in DPD within the university panorama, for example: a) proposals with an overly technical focus, which obviates reflective processes (Bascia and Hargeaves, 2000; Knapper, 2013); b) previous experience as students in their discipline (Barnett and Di Napoli, 2008; Lortie, 1975); c) teachers’ beliefs, which act as a filter in the incorporation of teaching competences (Kane et al., 2002); d) the greater development of the teacher's research identity (Winberg, 2008).
This confirms what other authors have pointed out (Ávalos, 2007; Vezub, 2011), noting the lack of empirical evidence on teacher professional development policies due to the limited tradition of research, systematisation and evaluation in this field. In this sense, they call for the importance of constituting a comparative line of research in order to build an information base.
Given the relevance and interest of policies on teachers and their professional development in terms of improving educational quality, the following questions arise: What specific actions universities are developing to facilitate the incorporation of their teachers, What policies and strategies emanate from the discourses of international organisations and What relevance do competence frameworks in TPD initiation processes? And finally, Can we offer an initial diagnosis of teacher induction in universities?
With these considerations in mind, the general objective of this project is to investigate the TPD policies of university teachers in the induction phase of the profession, with a special focus on the configuration of their competence profile in an increasingly digital world.