This article aimed to examine recent policy documents and other reports on the education sector. It also analysed the ways in which initial teacher education (ITE) deals with poverty issues, within the post-Bologna context, through the voices of student-teachers who have finished their practicum at school. The findings pointed to the deterioration of working conditions at school for teachers. The authors argue that the strategies used by teachers to face poverty situations have made student-teachers more aware of their lack of preparedness to deal with teaching in such a demanding context.