Francisca Elgueta, winner of the Global Teacher's Prize Chile 2022 and her position on school dropout: "She tells us that schools need to readapt"

The winner of the Global Teacher's Prize Chile 2022 and History teacher of the #EducaciónUC Pedagogical Training Program comments on current educational needs and her work with school reinsertion.

A teacher graduated from Pedagogical Training Program (PFP) of the Faculty of Education of the Catholic University, was awarded the Global Teacher Prize Chile 2022 after his enormous work in school reinsertion. Her name is Francisca Elgueta, she is 33 years old and currently works as a history teacher at the Betania de La Granja College.

entered to study Degree in History at the Catholic University without thinking of becoming a teacher. However, after participating as an assistant in her career and volunteering in the La Chimba de la UC Pastoral decided to enroll in the Pedagogical Training Program (PFP) of the Faculty of Education from his own house of studies. There, his experience was significant for the sense of justice of education and the formative seal that it promotes. Francisca Elgueta defines it as a “space that allowed me to revalue the profession. (...) That marked a stamp on me, because I enter the classroom with the commitment to give my best, because only by giving my best can I get the maximum potential out of my boys and girls”.

From that enriching experience, Francisca began to work in the area of ​​education. He was a member of the network of schools of the Primary Instruction Society (SIP) for five years and later began to work at the Betania College, belonging to the Sumate Foundation of Hogar de Cristo, which currently led her to win this recent award. About it, the teacher He declares that he feels an "enormous honor, because without a doubt this award has to do with the recognition of teaching work."

When did you start working on school reinsertion?

I came in with the idea that I wanted to work in contexts of high vulnerability and for 10 years I have been doing it like this (...) I got to know the Fundación Súmate project where I started working in the context of reinsertion and It's the biggest challenge I've ever taken on in my life., but with all the ups and downs, the changes that are generated with the kids They make me feel happy to have come here.

How has your work methodology been on this topic?

The first thing that an affront when arriving at these spaces is the disaffection, disinterest of the students that translates into bad behavior, but one realizes that behind it is a very low academic self-esteem, it is a fear of this space to which you were once excluded, expelled or marginalized.

Entonces it is necessary to rebuild the academic self-esteem of these students. The students perceive immediately when you enter the room believing in them, when you plan something challenging, when you invite their questions to have space in the classroom, when you trust the skills they are going to develop. When you design learning strategies in the classroom, students challenge themselves.

-According to him Study Center of the Ministry of Education (MINEDUC), are more than 50 students who dropped out of the school system between 2021 and this year. This is 24% more than the figure in 2019. Why do you think this increase in student dropouts occurred?

There are so many reasons for dropping out from school, from teenage pregnancy, the need to work, being expelled from schools, but today support is needed in regular schools to be able to care for boys and girls who need a team of psychologists or social workers. Let us remember that the school is a space that solves many social needs that do not correspond exclusively to the school And if we are asking this of the schools, then we must give them support.

The fact that this has accelerated in the pandemic tells us that schools need to readapt, they need to have instances to talk about how we transform post-pandemic education, we have to address socio-emotional issues which we were not taking care of and we have to make a mea culpa of why as a society we are failing children and adolescents.

What else is needed to improve school reinsertion in Chile?

We have to give new meaning to schools and we have to say that schools are important, that teachers are important, that the classroom is sacred (...) We have to have conversations with the teachers, they know what is happening and they know their educational communities. We have to stop designing educational policies without teachers. Also You have to open up to listen to the teachers, open up to listen to the parents, open up to listen to the girls and boys, because they know the needs that are required.

it happens too for asking us why we have neglected the school space. This is everyone's fault. Why have we said that teachers are not valuable? Why have we said that school is not worth it? Why are there parents who authorize their son or daughter not to go to school? At the same time, other social issues such as crime and drug trafficking. We have to attend to those spaces, we have to dare to have those conversations and only then can we return to give value to the school.

How can teacher training contribute in this matter? What can be done from the University?

The University must be invited to be a fundamental space in teacher training and who will be in the schools, we must have dialogues with the communities and that this does not function as a separate world. You also have to have difficult conversations in teacher training. It is an enormous challenge, but education is also one and must be accepted as such.