The Higher Normal Schools in Colombia: two hundred years of history between challenges and challenges (1821-2021)

Abstract

This article is characterized by following the historical process of teacher training schools in Colombia, in which an analysis of the relationship between pedagogical practicum, research and teacher training is presented, with a review of the different educational levels traced throughout history, showing the role that has been fulfilled in these two hundred years; teachers bring into play their knowledge about teaching, about their students’ own learning; teaching has traditionally been one of the most valued elements in teacher training, both by future teachers in their initial training and by pre-service teachers, which shows the authentic knowledge that is required to carry out the training of a true education professional.

The goals of teachers are centered in their classes and their classrooms which are a sort of laboratories and are designed to teach how to teach, where it is possible to trace the demand of the programs to be carried out in the practicum that shape each person’s learning as a teacher. The teacher, who manages to transcend his limits and conquer other spaces in the universe of teacher training, enjoys the work of his disciples, even though there are traces of injustice and ingratitude along the way.

Teacher training has led Escuelas Normales Superiores to assume the challenge of shortening the distance between the theoretical training received in these institutions, the practical experiences obtained in basic education schools and the social, cultural and technological demands that society constantly imposes. Teaching practicum should be pedagogical praxis, because it is creation, transformation and positioning of the subject in relation to teaching; consequently, because the subject has the possibility of giving another meaning to the daily practice that pre-service teachers observe, analyze and in which they are part of.

Teacher training in Colombia has been the responsibility of Escuelas Normales Superiores and the Faculties of Education from public and private universities in Colombia. Throughout history, both have been the authorized institutions to guide the pedagogical practicum, educational research and comprehensive teacher training as the foundation of the specific knowledge of a true educator.