Teaching competencies of ELE teachers at Instituto Cervantes: competency profile and type of contract

Teaching competencies, professional development, and reflective practice are basic issues faced by teachers of foreign languages. To work on these aspects, reference documents have been prepared that propose a way of categorising teacher competencies, and that offer evaluation frameworks. The objective of this study is to determine the relationships between teaching competencies based on the type of contract a teacher is on, and its effect on their professional development. A questionnaire on the competencies of teachers of Spanish as a foreign language was designed based on the document Competencias Clave del Profesorado del Instituto Cervantes. The factorial analysis applied to the data obtained from a group of teachers (N = 67) from the Instituto Cervantes, identified several subcompetencies among the original competencies. The results allow us to characterise the competency development of teachers and to explore the relationships established between different competencies. The comparisons made show different behaviours between permanent teachers and those on an hourly-based contract, regarding their involvement in professional development and their participation in teacher improvement activities. While permanent teachers refer to a high level of active participation in the centre, among hourly-based contract teachers this participation presents greater variability and determines the development of other competencies.