The first Network of Deans of Education in Latin America is created

The instance was created and coordinated from the UC Faculty of Education by its Dean and has the support of the Siemens Stiftung Foundation. The launch was carried out within the framework of the 2021 International Education Summit.

This Tuesday, January 5, the launch of the first Network of Deans of Education in Latin America, which aims to promote collaborative work between the faculties and schools of education throughout the region. The activity was carried out within the framework of the International Education Summit 2021, which is organized annually by the Catholic University.

According to academic of the Faculty of Education from UC, Lorraine medina, the network seeks to "build a space for dialogue and collaboration for educational training and research, aimed at sharing practices, raising cross-cutting challenges and proposing solutions and innovation in the regional educational field."

At the international level, there is currently the Global Network of Deans of Education (GNDE), an organization that would have direct contact with the new one, explained the dean. However, in the Latin American continent, "the need to have a network that allows addressing central issues of teacher training, remote education, STEAM education (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics), management and leadership, is being filled." inclusive and intercultural education, educational policies, among others,” he added.

The installation of the Network will count, during the entire first year of work, with the support of the Siemens Stiftung Foundation, in line with the objective of promoting STEAM education in the continent, with special attention to issues related to climate change. In that sense, the representative of the Regional Office of Education for Latin America of the organization, Ulrike Wahl, assured that he hopes that "what is going to be developed here, with the different perspectives of action, can really be a response to the demands of the educational systems of Latin America."

The Network already has the participation of authorities and representatives of different faculties and schools of education from ten Latin American countries, including Peru, Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, Brazil and Chile.

The launch of the organization included the opening words of the rector of the UC, Ignacio Sánchez, who pointed out that “professors play a key role in the training of our students. For this reason, as a founding act, this Network is based on many challenges that it will be able to address and work on in the future”. "Faced with a pandemic like this, collaboration adds even greater relevance together with diversity, where we can all contribute to a common project," he concluded.