UC Education academics deliver strategies for socio-emotional support to teachers from San Miguel

The support to the more than 480 professionals from nine schools in the commune is delivered through the course taught by the UC Center for Educational Transformation, CENTER. The program considers face-to-face and remote classes, and began in December 2021.

In March 2022, it is expected that the return to face-to-face classes will be a priority for schools in order to leave behind, as far as possible, remote classes. For many, this is a challenge not only on a logistical level, but also on a socio-emotional level, since two years of a pandemic and several months of confinement plus a social outbreak left no one indifferent in Chile. In this context, for many directors, directors, teachers and professionals in the education system, emotional support is relevant before facing this challenge.

This reality is very clear to the authorities of the municipality of San Miguel who saw the need among their educational communities and opted to accompany and empower their teams. It is for this reason that the Education Directorate of the Municipal Corporation of the commune requested the UC Center for Educational Transformation, CENTER, develop the course "Theoretical-practical strategies for the socio-emotional and affective accompaniment of the educational community"for its teachers and professionals.

The objective of the course is to develop strategies for better pedagogical and emotional support for all members of the educational community: managers, teachers, educators, para-teachers, professionals and administrators. It is a hybrid program that had a 100% face-to-face first stage between December 27 and 30, to then continue in March with remote classes.

“These opportunities are always very important to us, both for our teachers and for our education professionals,” he says. Rodrigo Briones, interim director of the Andres Bello High School of San Miguel. “The theme has allowed us to reflect a lot on everything in these times of pandemic. I have seen that our colleagues have opened up, they have expressed their feelings, they have expressed what they think, and that is important because a community that listens to one another, that dialogues and talks, is a community that will grow."He adds.

Accompaniment is done through the UC Center, which depends on the UC College of Education, and is framed within the commitment and connection with the environment, where the academics of the unit put their knowledge and evidence at service to support the improvement of the continuity of the educational communities of the country and Latin America.

El academic Jaime Balladares, of the Faculty of Education, is the one who leads the course together with a team of 5 external rapporteurs from the university. The professor explains that "this course seeks to recount what has been the Covid for schools and the entire educational community. And we look for three important elements: identifying what happened to us and identifying emotions, secondly, being able to work with them on a day-to-day basis and, thirdly, projecting certain strategies to work on during the year and that this be a learning for what is to come”.

Involve the entire educational community

One of the particularities of the course is that it integrates both teachers, teachers, counselors, para-teachers, technicians and administrators in the classes and proposed activities. “We all had the chance to connect without any kind of difference and without any kind of taboo when expressing our experiences,” he says. Erika Martínez, member of the psychosocial team at the Andrés Bello high school. "I think there was a need for instances where everyone could share with others, bond, express how we feel after these two years of pandemic, in addition to the social outbreak, so there were too many things and it was necessary to express them," he adds.

In the same way, for the basic education teacher Antarctic Territory School from San Miguel, Cinthia Carrasco, “It's nice to think that we have that sense of togetherness. An important collaborative work has been generated here and the course has been the instance to lead it to reflection, because that is what we lacked, taking time to talk. It has been a very good experience".

“We are very happy that the San Miguel commune wanted to work with us. It has been challenging but the experience has been super positive, the teachers and professionals are involved in the activities, they have been able to have this space for themselves and that is super important”, adds Balladares.