UC Education inaugurates Academic Year 2024 with testimony from graduates

The event took place in the auditorium of the Faculty of Education, and featured a conversation panel of UC Education graduates. 

“Pedagogy and its different professional trajectories” was the motto with which the Inauguration of the 13 Academic Year of UC Education was held on March 2024. The event included a discussion by four pedagogy graduates: Florencia Gómez, Manuela Díaz, Paulina Poblete and Xiomara Leiva.

Alejandro Carrasco, Dean of Education UC, highlighted that in 2024 the unit received 640 students, which makes the Faculty one of the largest at the Catholic University. 

“This is good news about the trust of society, of students, in our educational project. A project in which we have a strong conviction of its relevance. I would like, regarding that, to ask a question: why is pedagogy significant as a profession? ”The dean mentioned in his speech. 

Pedagogy, teaching, makes people flourish, said the dean. “And in particular to girls, boys and adolescents. Teachers prepare to guide, to expand curiosity, interests and motivations. They teach to learn from mistakes, to persist. It is a profession, in that sense, elemental in human development. Also because they form citizens,” he added. 

“Citizens are educated in school. It is the social institution where we find ourselves as citizens. In that sense, teachers have a responsibility to educate in respect for diversities, in what is beyond the intimacy of the home. Living in society is learned in schools, and that is what teachers do,” she added. 

Isidora Araya, student of UC Early Childhood Education and territorial councilor 2024, read a speech on behalf of the students. There she reflected on the decision to study this career. “The choice of Pedagogy is not easy. Many of us face the fear of disappointing our families, or the financial uncertainty that can accompany this profession. Unfortunately, there is still a social stigma towards teaching, where the value of the work of educators in our country is underestimated,” she mentioned.

“For me, being an educator is not just a job, it is a calling to drive progress, innovation and positive change in the world. Our profession has the power to cultivate essential values, such as tolerance, empathy, solidarity and mutual respect. These values ​​are fundamental to building a more just, inclusive and equitable society. A society in which we all want to live,” added the student representative. 

Towards the end of the meeting, the conversation panel of UC Education graduates was held, led by Florencia Gómez, professor of Basic General Education and academic at the UC Faculty of Education; Manuela Díaz Recart, teacher of Basic General Education and professional of the Curriculum and Evaluation Unit of the MINEDUC; Paulina Poblete, Middle and Senior School Physics teacher at Andrée English School and Xiomara Leiva Harding, Kindergarten educator, who worked in a municipal establishment in Bajos de Mena, Puente Alto.

The talk aimed to show the possible professional trajectories of education, beyond teaching classes as the main activity. “We find it interesting to see that there are actually many more possible paths, and we believe that newbies could also have a vision of the different paths that open up,” he mentioned. Ainoa Marzábal, director of UC Interfaculty Pedagogies.