with contributions from

In French-speaking Belgium, teachers ’ initial training is organised in two ways. In both, academic knowledge and professional practice are mixed in variable proportions. The initial training of primary school (for pupils between 6 and 12 years old) and lower secondary school (12 to 15) teachers is organised in non-university colleges, called in Belgium Hautes Écoles (HE), in a three-year cycle and lead to a bachelor’s degree with a professional orientation. The initial training of upper secondary school teachers (for 15 to 18 year old students) 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. This division is the source of several problems. 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. 1. National Situation on Teacher Training In Belgium, education is not a national matter. Belgium is divided in three territorial regions (Brussels, Flander