The internationalization of Spanish higher education: An interdisciplinary approach to initial teacher education for CLIL

Abstract

Teacher education for primary CLIL in Spain is a pressing concern as Spanish higher education embraces internationalization and reform in accordance with the Bologna Process, which called for a unified European Higher Education Area by 2010. As a result, higher education programmes partially conducted in a foreign language, very often English, have increased during the last decade. Internationalization in the Spanish context is closely linked to the prevalence of a language teaching approach where educational content and language are taught/learned through an additional language. This educational initiative is referred to as Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) at infant, primary and secondary education levels and Integrating Content and Language in Higher Education (ICLHE) in tertiary education. The nationwide implementation of CLIL programmes at pre-university level demands high-quality initial teacher education and continuous professional development for CLIL. This chapter looks at initial teacher education for primary CLIL in a bilingual (English-Spanish) undergraduate degree programme in English-medium subjects. A Teaching Innovation Project that addresses issues of interdisciplinary teaching and learning will be described to show how teacher educators in the School of Education of University Complutense of Madrid, deal with the demands of initial teacher education for CLIL in the Primary Education Degree. The project is managed and implemented by collaboration across academic disciplines through joint planning, decision-making and goal-setting.