Interview with Alejandro Carrasco, Dean of Education UC:

"In 20 years from now I would like to see how the Faculty manages to impact through interdisciplinary research and transfer in the changes that the Chilean educational system needs"

This month marks two years since Alejandro Carrasco took office as the highest authority of the Faculty for the period 2021-2025. In the middle of his management, he tells us about his vision and the label that he wanted to work in the unit, as well as the projections and expectations that he has to meet.

Two years have recently passed since the dean Alejandro Carrasco assumed the direction of the UC School of Education. Two years in which Chilean education had to move from forced remote classes to a return to face-to-face classes, going through a process of educational reactivation and multiple difficulties. During his term, in addition, a significant milestone was reached, as the Faculty celebrated its 80th anniversary, training more than 24 professors for Chile.

Within the framework of this second anniversary, the dean of the unit, Alejandro Carrasco, who started at the unit in 2021, takes stock of his management since he took over as director and gives himself a space to project the future and the challenges that await him. in research and teacher training at UC.

-Last October we turned 80, a great story. I invite you to look to the future, What do you expect from college when you turn 100?

Generate an impact, in being able to produce relevant and systematic knowledge, and that, in addition, can be applied. That the educational research we do can be a guide for major public policy decisions, as well as influence transformations in the practice of the school system and be a model in teacher training. In 20 years from now I would like to see how the faculty, through its academics, manages to impact the changes that the Chilean educational system urgently needs through research and transfer. And for that we need to work on two things: give full support to our academics, and then identify the research areas that we have to promote.

Finally, to strengthen our leadership in the university in educational conversations, to be a beacon on how to do good teaching, activate learning, and how to impact student motivation. A faculty connected with its graduates and graduates. And very dynamic in interdisciplinary. In the end, at 100 years, a faculty that maintains its current leadership, but moves towards leadership with a greater sense of purpose and relevance to the school system. 

-In that logic, what are your big dreams for college?

In teacher training, We are convinced that future teachers are going to educate in a world very different from ours and conceptually and technically they have to be connected with the students., with their values ​​and previous experiences and also help them relate to society and be critical citizens. With this vision, we are interested in working on the issues of sustainability, gender equality, leadership and applied research to improve teaching practice, from a transversal perspective in our meshes.

Let's go back to the present. What is the stamp you wanted to print during your tenure? And how has this seal translated into achievements?

The first thing has been to organize priorities in response to the mandate that the community and the university made to the new deanship. Many initiatives derive from this, such as working on academic development, infrastructure and ensuring the changes underway in the postgraduate course. One of the essential tasks of a dean is to take care of his academic staff so that they carry out quality teaching, advanced research and have a public impact. To this end, some achievements have been promoting a dialogue process of update of the complementary norms of the ordinary plant, build a special plant, improve the working conditions of the attached plant, promote and support changes in the category of assistant professors to associates, and also to tenured professors, and promote a new competition for ordinary plant with a projection of educational areas in which the faculty has been absent. Regarding postgraduate, we did a careful job to implement well a master's degree that we received recently renewed, as well as the accreditation of it and the doctorate. And in undergraduate, ensure the good closure of the FID project, the accreditations in progress in these 2 years in our three programs and the curricular renewals of some.

Second, we needed to have a base platform and infrastructure to support the teaching and research that we do. For this reason, we created the sub-directorate of communications and the sub-directorate of development. And we have also promoted several infrastructure projects, very important and sensitive for the community. In terms of management, the focus was placed on promoting a participatory mode with great confidence in the vision of people and teamwork, in order to be able to take care of the permanent processes of the faculty with quality.

-What role have you played as a public actor?

We have a role in the conversation about education, ensuring that academics are involved. Something very outstanding was linking us with Public Education through the Lagar Alliance, where we have thought about educational research together with the communities. We also care to be present throughout the constitutional discussion, together with generating spaces for public dialogue with other actors.

-What strategies have you developed to face the enrollment deficit in pedagogies, both in political discussion and in attracting careers?

It has been key to actively participate in this conversation. Both in commissions, in the technical table in the context of the teaching career and as members of the Council of Deans of the Faculties of Education (CONFAUCE), as well as in international studies with the UNDP.

And regarding low enrollment, we reviewed the selection instruments to generate greater inclusion and capture students who perhaps want to study at UC and cannot. We are convinced that what predicts performance is also motivation together with academic preparation. In this context, we generate the Diverse Access Program (PAD), as well as changes to the weights in the admission test selection instrument after a study of simulations. This allowed us to increase enrollment in nursery schools and stop the decline in basic education.

-Despite a complex scenario, they decided to pursue the Special Education Pedagogy career together with the Faculty of Social Sciences...

A great achievement of academic criticism and student movements was understanding that education is connecting with the potential and needs of everyone, without exclusion, starting to talk about inclusive schools, which are those that consider that everyone is educable. This gave rise to several reforms at different times, such as the SEP Law, the Inclusion Law, PIE programs, which as a whole increased the importance of having more special education teachers in schools, and in that the UC had to be present with all his abilities. Special Education received the first cohort in March 2023.