15 professionals from educational centres in the municipalities of Carahue, Nueva Imperial, Toltén, Teodoro Schmidt and Saavedra, together with the territorial early education coordinator of the Local Service, are taking part in this professional development program for educational leaders. The aim of the program is to generate concrete improvements in educational processes, focused on ensuring the quality of teaching and learning for children.
On Monday 4 April, the Diploma Course "Leadership for continuous improvement for JUNJI VTF kindergarten directors" began. The program involves 15 professionals from educational centres, together with the territorial coordinator of early education of the Local Service Costa Araucanía, in the region of La Araucanía.
The diploma course, given by Fundación Educacional Oportunidad in agreement with C Líder: Centro Asociativo para el Liderazgo Educacional, seeks to develop leadership skills for the continuous improvement of the processes of educational units, through the application of tools for leadership and continuous improvement in the development of a project to improve the practices of classroom teams.
Carmen Montecinos, executive director of C Líder, highlighted that "Fundación Educacional Oportunidad has a vast experience developing high-impact projects to improve educational opportunities for children in the early education stage. For C Líder, this collaboration is very valuable, as it allows us to have a greater reach in terms of the levels of the educational system that we hope to support through our various training activities. Supporting the development of educational units in the SLEP Costa Araucanía demonstrates our commitment to strengthening public education.
The academic coordinator of the Diploma, Lorena Espinoza, explained that the relevance of the program lies in the fact that "it is a unique instance, because usually head teachers usually participate in training in contexts that do not respond in such a specific way to their reality. Last year, the students of this diploma course told us that this was a unique experience, since, as kindergarten educators, we have to adapt to the models developed for primary and secondary education".
He added that "what is remarkable about this methodology is that they work on a real problem in their educational centre and apply what they have learnt in their management, the short and fast improvement cycles mean that the students see results. This, together with the accompaniment of a tutor, who guides them in this new learning process, makes them feel motivated and supported".
The course has a duration of 56 chronological hours and the directors will participate in theoretical and practical sessions, reflection activities, feedback and design. For this, there will be face-to-face and remote instances.
José Mauricio Gutiérrez Millanao,in charge of training and professional development at the Local Public Education Service Costa Araucanía, highlighted that this is "an instance of professional development that is directly related to the new reality that kindergartens are facing, mainly those that have official recognition or are in the process of obtaining it, that have to understand the functioning of an Improvement Plan and that are beginning to be incorporated into the teaching career".
José Mauricio added that he hopes that "at the end of the training, our kindergarten directors will have a broad vision of the process of continuous improvement and how the Educational Improvement Plans support it".
The directors participating in this diploma course are from the nurseries and kindergartens Los Rieles, Omilen Kuyen, Conejito Blanco, Mis Primeros Pasos, Los Pecesitos Nehuentue, Taiñ Ruka, Antü Newén, Las Golondrinas, Meli Rewe Kayupul, El Esfuerzo, Agua Luna, Semillitas del Sembrador, Los Pitufos, Los Cisnes and Los Pecesitos del Budi.
