The Social and Emotional Competences in the Earliest Academic Training of Compulsory Education Teachers within Multicultural Contexts

In this article I argue about the necessity to give advantage to the social and emotional competences in the earliest academic training of teachers who work in the different grades of compulsory education, taking into account the requirements of the multicultural contexts currently existing in schools in Spain. In order to develop these ideas, attention will be paid here to the results obtained in our educational research with teachers of Social Sciences in different Secondary state schools in the province of Almería (Andalusia, Spain). With this research line, we are establishing a basic theoretical corpus for the teacher to be able to adjust his/her identities to the effects derived from the existence of a culturally diverse and complex society. We combined both quantitative and qualitative investigation and different methods (surveys, ethnography), as well as data collection techniques (sampling, questionnaire, observation, interview, discussion groups, documentary analysis, statistics analysis).The knowledge provided by a number of research groups from different Spanish universities when applying the Multiple Intelligences theory says that the social and emotional competences development in teachers can solve some of the difficulties he/she can find in the classroom. We believe that Intercultural Education is an adequate educative paradigm to be used as both theoretical and practical tool in these new educative scenarios, and, at the same time, to assist the cultural and ethnic diversity within the formal educative system in the best possible way.In my view, this adjustment will result on the welfare of the teacher and their daily practice in the classroom, achieving a more egalitarian socialization and greater well-being among students in the teaching and learning process of formal education.