This meeting and formation space was organized by the Salesian Congregation, together with the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, the Silva Henriquez Catholic University (UCSH), and the Caeteratolle Multimedia Center and was sponsored by the Southern Youth Ministry Secretariat (SepSur), School Sector. It aims to reflect on the role of the director in the needs dictated by these pandemic times.
Juan Pablo Vásquez, Director of the Salesian Schools Network, and Sister Cecilia Poblete, Head of the School of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians (FMA), welcomed the hundreds of people connected. "We continue with the task of educating in a very demanding context, why we need to be formed as Salesian leaders," said Sister Cecilia.
Subsequently, the Provincial of the Salesians of Chile, Fr Carlo Lira, addressed a few words to those present, stating that: "It's wonderful that we can meet in this way and see the synergy that is being achieved at the provincial and continental levels. A participatory and creative leadership that puts young people at the center is the basis of our charism. I hope that this adversity we are experiencing is an opportunity and fruitful for us and for our young people."
Among the speakers, we must mention the researchers of the Research Center for Socio-Educational Transformation of UCSH, Andrea Horn and Álvaro González, who also developed the meeting's theme.
The seven main challenges in the context of the pandemic were outlined at the meeting:
- connectivity and distance learning;
- school-family relationship;
- welfare of the educational community;
- planning, adaptation, flexibility;
- professional learning;
- diversity-sensitive teaching;
- assessment for learning.
The professionals then provided five lessons for post-pandemic educational management and leadership: rethinking organizational structures by fostering shared leadership based on horizontal relationships and co-responsibility; strengthening the relationship with the community, generating a bond of cooperation based on common interests; develop a leadership based on values, generating a culture of care; fostering a vision of deep learning via leadership attentive to the pedagogical core; developing pedagogical management based on data and evidence to make decisions in a timely manner.
The meeting, broadcast on the YouTube channel of the Salesians of Chile, can be viewed at the following link.
