UC School of Education inaugurates the 2025 academic year with the Patricio Vilches Global Teacher Prize

The meeting brought together authorities, professors, and novice students in a space for reflection on pedagogy and its diverse educational contexts.

With a motivational talk and presentation by the professor Patricio Vilches, winner of the 2024 Global Teacher Prize, the UC Faculty of Education inaugurated its 2025 academic year on March 12. The event brought together authorities, professors, and novice students in a space for reflection on pedagogy and its diverse educational contexts. 

The inauguration featured words from Dean Alejandro Carrasco; the territorial councilor 2025, Calen Dote and a panel discussion moderated by Aurora Badillo, Head of the UC Internship System, and in which participated Mr. Jesús Viviani, Head of Pedagogy in Early Childhood Education; Constance Kameid, Head of Physical Education and Health Pedagogy; Patricio Vilches, single-teacher. 

Dean Carrasco welcomed the nearly 600 new students who chose the Faculty to pursue undergraduate teaching training. "We are very pleased that students trust our educational program. We welcome the highest-scoring students who choose to study teaching, with a team of excellent academics and first-class training," he noted. 

Along with reviewing what was accomplished in 2024, the dean mentioned the unit's challenges for this new period. Among these, he addressed the implementation of the new 2025-2029 strategic plan, highlighting the change in the Basic Education curriculum for undergraduate programs, as well as an improvement to the UC Internship System. 

Representing the students, Calen Dote, an English Pedagogy student, delivered a message to the new students and reflected on what it means to teach from the perspective of Gabriela Mistral and Paulo Freire. “We need educators who help their students gain the tools to create their own realities, their present, and their future. Pedagogy is a prerequisite, and teachers never stop learning,” he said.  

He also invited everyone to actively participate and learn about the various spaces for university growth. Among them, he highlighted the "Paulo Freire School of Students" initiative, which arose from the concerns of a teacher in training and supports students in vulnerable areas. 

Making the invisible visible 

When Patricio Vilches took on the challenge of directing the G9 “El Guayacán” Elementary School, more than 47 kilometers from Cabildo, nine years ago, he says he found a precarious facility, surrounded by chicken wire, infested with termites, with electrical problems and walls that seemed to be falling down.  

In addition to these structural problems, Vilches also faced the reality of teaching in a single classroom: "I fulfill the role of teacher from first to sixth grade in most subjects. I also have administrative roles; I'm a principal, inspector, UTP, in charge of school coexistence, school meals, and I also voluntarily transport my children in my own vehicle," he explained during the UC Education event.  

That's the situation more than a thousand teachers in Chile must face, says Patricio. "Children deserve better conditions than this," he told his students' parents once he arrived at the school. He found the key word to begin improving the situation: community. "I'm not looking to blame anyone, or to be controversial in my speech, or to blame the State, the current government. No. We're so far away, and being heard takes so long, that it's better to tell the community. The huaso club, the hopscotch club. 'What if we all come together? What if we start making unique dishes, and we pool our money and start improving little by little?' And that's how the small improvements began. Refurbishing that school, which was falling apart," he recalls.  

He began to understand that he needed support, and that there were people interested in providing it. That's when the idea of ​​social media emerged, and he created an Instagram account. "@el_profe_solito" is the name of his account, which already has more than 15 followers. In his profile picture, he can be seen holding up the 2024 Global Teacher Prize, which recognizes him as the best teacher in the country. This award supports the work he's done in previous years: partnerships with companies, universities, and the intersection of formal science with rural science in his area.  

A few days after winning the Global Teacher Prize, he traveled with his students to the third region, invited by the Chañaral de Aceituno Foundation to inaugurate the whale-watching season. He says he treasures a photo taken there.  

“Those days, and to this day, we felt happy. Someone had seen us. The eyes of pedagogy in Chile were focused on the single teacher, who was delivering a speech not for himself, but for the 1087 others doing the same. We had achieved something important; we were no longer alone, we were no longer among that scum, those termites, that crumbling room. We were telling Chile that this was very important, and that there were many of us,” he reflected. 

Everything they've done in recent years, he assured, will have much greater significance later on. The award wasn't won because of their Instagram or TikTok followers. "It was won because we're truly trying to give our children a quality and excellent education, and so far we're achieving it," he said. He also expressed his gratitude for the invitation to the Faculty, because there he once again had the opportunity to do something he's been doing for a long time: "make the invisible visible."