This paper presents a brief analysis of teacher education in five European countries: Italy, Germany, England, Sweden and Finland. The responses given by each country are different. However, two tendencies emerge: on the one hand, the English model, which seeks to make a teacher a faithful executor with regard to centrally decided learning objectives; on the other, the Nordic model that conceives the teacher as a 'fully-fledged' professional. From the point of view of the sustainability and of the safeguard of the educative mission of the school, the Nordic model presents some advantages when compared to the English model.