Chemistry Teachers’ Training in the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles (Belgium)

In Belgium, education is not a national matter. Belgium is divided in three territorial regions (Brussels, Flanders and Wallonia) and three communities based on the three official languages of the country (Dutch, French and German). Education is the responsibility of communities, in our case the French-speaking Community, officially called “Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles” (referred to as FWB) as French is spoken in Wallonia and Brussels. In the FWB, teacher training depends on the Ministry of Upper Education. Two approaches to teachers’ initial training are organised: The initial training of primary school (for pupils between 6 and 12 years old) and lower secondary school (12 to 15) teachers is called “régendat”, or AESI. It is organised in non-university colleges, called in Belgium Hautes Écoles (HE) This training last three years and leads to a bachelor’s degree with a professional orientation. The AESS is the initial training of upper secondary school teachers (for 15 to 18 year old students). It is organised in universities in a five-year cycle and leads to an academic master with a didactic orientation, or in a six-year specialised academic master with extra training in didactics. A project of structural reform of teachers’ initial training is currently under consideration to change the composition of the upper education landscape. The project intends to extend the non-university training cycle in order to harmonise it with university training and to build new frames of reference of skills. All secondary school teachers would therefore be trained in the same way. This approach has to redefine the profession of teacher in its multiple missions: pedagogic, didactic and as a social and cultural partner.