Abstract

This study examines the social representations of the teaching profession held by stu- dents entering Initial Teacher Education (ITE) at a private university in the Valparaíso Region. The main objective is to characterize the foundational conceptions that incoming students have regarding teaching, exploring how these representations may influence their learning processes and the development of their professional identity. To this end, an open-ended questionnaire was administered, asking students to write “mini-texts” in response to four key questions: the value attributed to the profession, the actions of a good educator, their projection as future teachers, and the transfer of their training to real-world scenarios. The research focuses on the 2024 cohort, whose responses reveal attributes, expectations, and conditions shaping the initial vision of future teachers. Methodologically, the study employs a qualitative approach based on content analysis, which makes it possible to capture the dynamic and holistic aspects of human expe- rience at a critical moment of academic transition. This approach seeks to describe andunderstand the meanings expressed by students, highlighting both continuities and tensions in the construction of their social representations of the teaching role (Vivar et al., 2013). Keywords: Social representations, Initial teacher education, Characterization, Professional identity, Teacher training