From urban nature to local knowledge and fireflies: discover the selection of Active Teacher 2026
Educators play a key role in accompanying, fostering, and facilitating students’ connection with nature and their surroundings. For this reason, it is important to nourish teaching practices through spaces of care and the application of diverse strategies that draw from art and ecology—an approach that has been developed through our Docente Activo program.
This year, the initiative will present a new edition, whose first in-person stage will take place on April 8, 9, and 10. These three days invite pairs of educators to tune in to the guiding theme “Temperatures of the Landscape,” in order to explore how life emerges and transforms through natural cycles, from the most imperceptible processes to those that permeate what happens within educational spaces and shape ways of perceiving the world.
During these days of gathering, educators will be able to find inspiration, share methodologies, and prepare their work proposals focused on caring for nature within the educational context. The selection of educator pairs followed a six-week open call during which more than 30 applications were received, from which ten were selected. The municipalities from which the participants come—just as in the previous edition—span from the mountains to the sea within the Region of La Araucanía.
Following the April experience, the second stage seeks to accompany participants as they address, in a transdisciplinary manner, a socio-ecological challenge proposed in their application, which emphasizes dialogue between art, territory, and ecology. The educator pairs will design and implement these perspectives in a pedagogical project, with guidance from our foundation.
In this way, participants will join spaces of well-being, care, and encounter, forming a community of educational actors and like-minded organizations that work collaboratively to protect nature within the educational context. The final stage of the program will consist of a closing gathering to share the learnings from this process in August 2026.
Fotografía: José Carrasco
Meet the selected projects:
- Escuela Municipal Truf-Truf – Padre Las Casas
Challenge: Raising Awareness through Environmental Journalism
Educators:
Karina Inés Rivas Jaramillo, Early Childhood Educator (transition levels)
Paula Stephanie Norambuena Chesta, History and Geography Teacher
The project addresses the low socio-environmental and territorial awareness identified in the Truf Truf school community, particularly regarding the impact of human actions on local ecosystems and natural cycles. This is reflected in limited interest in learning and acting on issues such as water care, waste management, climate change, and the loss of biodiversity in nearby rural areas. As a response, the project proposes school journalism as a participatory pedagogical tool that allows students to investigate, observe, and communicate about their own territory from educational, artistic, and territorial perspectives. - Escuela Arturo Prat – Temuco
Challenge: Ragintu waria mew: living crack: cartography of the urban forest
Educators:
Ismenia Barría Velásquez, Language and Communication
Alexis Escalona Manquian, Intercultural Education
One identified problem is so-called urban ecological amnesia, which leads students to perceive their environment as a concrete desert, making micro-ecosystems in cracks, walls, urban birds, and natural landmarks like Cerro Ñielol and the Cautín River invisible. A specific case addressed is the “Montuy of Prat Street,” at the intersection of Prat and Rodríguez streets, where a fern and moss grow in a crack of an old building, with spores likely originating from Cerro Ñielol. This finding demonstrates the persistence of life in urban contexts and its ecological role, such as rainwater absorption and concrete thermal regulation. The project seeks to make these phenomena visible as an innovative educational experience in Temuco. - Liceo Bicentenario San Agustín de Lican Ray – Villarrica
Challenge: From Lake to Plate: Caring for Calafquén through Art, Science, and Local Gastronomy
Educators:
Bárbara Sandoval, Natural Sciences
Educator, Gastronomy
Lake Calafquén faces increasing socio-environmental pressures due to seasonal tourism, shoreline pollution, waste generation, and the loss of local food practices connected to respect for nature. This project aims to raise awareness and educate the school community by reconnecting students with the lacustrine ecosystem and the scientific, gastronomic, and cultural knowledge of the territory. Through field trips, scientific observation, visual documentation, reflection on küme mongen (well-being), and the recovery of low-impact local ingredients, the project promotes a conscious relationship with the lake, encouraging responsible consumption, waste reduction, and sustainable resource use in school kitchens. - Escuela Particular Nuevo Amanecer Peule – Teodoro Schmidt
Challenge: Voices and Heartbeats of Peule: Tuning into the Landscape Temperatures of the Toltén Basin
Educators:
Ivonne Curilaf Huircan, Language and Communication
Matilde Venegas Erices, Natural Sciences
The challenge identified is the emotional, cultural, and scientific disconnection of the school community from the Toltén River and Peule wetland ecosystems, despite their proximity. This lack of connection limits the development of belonging, local biodiversity appreciation, and dialogue with ancestral Mapuche knowledge, especially in a context of high student vulnerability. The project seeks to transform geographic proximity into an active territorial identity through place-based pedagogical experiences that integrate scientific observation, language, art, and Mapuche worldview, addressing phenomena such as water cycles and landscape temperatures. With the program’s support, the aim is to strengthen co-learning in direct contact with nature. - Liceo Bicentenario Ciencias y Humanidades – Pitrufquén
Challenge: What Are the Fireflies Telling Us? Memory and Territorial Care
Educators:
Montserrat Inés Figueroa Palet, Chemistry, Physics, Biology, and Science Workshop
Aileen Carolina Paz Jalabert Arias, Visual Arts, Design, and Architecture
In Pitrufquén’s Municipal Island Park, a riparian ecosystem and urban wetland linked to the Toltén River, the local community has observed a sustained decline in fireflies, a bioluminescent species historically present and now recognized as a bioindicator of ecological health. This decline is linked to human activities such as light pollution, urban development, microhabitat degradation, and unregulated tourism, resulting in loss of biodiversity and natural and emotional heritage. The challenge is to raise awareness of this problem from an ecological and socio-cultural perspective, mobilizing the school community toward care and territorial consciousness. - Acuarela Montessori – Pucón
Challenge: Fire Awareness
Educators:
Nicolás Lillo, Principal and Physical Education
Andrea Vallet, Arts
In recent years, summer wildfires have become recurrent, severely affecting ecosystems and biosphere reserves requiring protection, including buffer zones. This project seeks to strengthen local community and visitor education about the conscious use of natural spaces, promoting fire prevention and territorial care. It will involve acquiring low-impact or reused materials such as pallets, second-hand clothing, and paints, and aligning activities with national curricula on environmental education and civic training. Through collaborative learning with artists, educators, and the community, the project aims to deliver an educational initiative with territorial impact and community engagement. - Escuela Pública Aguas y Gaviotas – Toltén
Challenge: Roots of Itrofill: A Space for Living Knowledge
Educators:
Fernanda Andrea Villagrán Guerrero, Early Childhood Education
María Constanza Regollo Ros, Psychology (School Integration Program)
The challenge identified is the weakening of sensitive, cultural, and territorial ties between children and their natural surroundings in Nueva Toltén, reflected in the loss of knowledge related to lawen (ancestral medicine), natural dyes, and Mapuche-Lafkenche identity. Nature is perceived as external rather than as a space for creation, well-being, and identity. The project seeks to transform an underused school area into a pedagogical-artistic greenhouse, where observation of botanical cycles and the balance of itrofill mongen (biodiversity) become sources of artistic expression, learning, and socio-emotional development. This space will serve as a bridge between classroom and territory, integrating ecology, art, and ancestral knowledge to nurture a conscious, affective, and respectful relationship with the land from early childhood. - Liceo Público Trovolhue – Carahue
Challenge: Socio-ecological Study and Awareness of Water Quality in the Trovolhue Wetland
Educators:
Michael Andrés Rebolledo Concha, Visual Arts
Yanadeth Erica Olave Vega, Technical Pedagogical Unit (UTP)
The identified socio-ecological challenge is the need to understand, highlight, and protect the water quality of the Trovolhue wetland, a high-value ecosystem seldom addressed from an integrated educational perspective. The lack of knowledge about its ecological state impacts students, teachers, and the local community, limiting care practices and informed valuation. The project aims to develop place-based educational experiences that integrate science, art, and fieldwork, allowing participants to investigate, communicate, and raise awareness about water quality and ecosystem biodiversity. With program support, the goal is to strengthen interdisciplinary pedagogical practices and consolidate the school community as an active agent in wetland conservation. - Liceo Politécnico Pueblo Nuevo – Temuco
Challenge: Social Thermodynamics
Educators:
Camila Mardones Arismendi, Natural Sciences
Evelin Jeldres Curiqueo, Arts
The socio-ecological challenge at Liceo Politécnico Pueblo Nuevo relates to the impact of urban landscape temperatures on the use of educational spaces, well-being, and school coexistence, in a context of cemented surfaces, scarce vegetation, and lack of shade. These conditions create microclimates that restrict playground use and concentrate the community under covered areas, affecting social and pedagogical dynamics. The project seeks to understand how temperature organizes daily life at the school and, based on this learning, co-design improvements for the school environment through place-based educational experiences integrating science, art, and eco-pedagogies. With the support of Docente Activo, the goal is to promote a more equitable, healthy, and conscious use of the school environment, enhancing the well-being and coexistence of the educational community. - Colegio Santa Cruz de Villarrica – Villarrica
Challenge: Pigments of the Territory: Landscape Memories
Educators:
Luisa Aburto Puñalef, Chemistry
Constanza López Sanhueza, Visual Arts
The socio-ecological challenge focuses on the effects of climate change and rising temperatures on local ecosystems in Villarrica and surrounding areas, impacting the availability and stability of natural pigments in leaves, bark, fruits, fungi, and soils, as well as biodiversity and the daily life of communities dependent on these resources. The project seeks for students to explore these chemical transformations in their territory and reflect on how science and art can reveal and communicate the impacts of climate change. Through place-based educational experiences and exhibitions of creative processes, the project aims to highlight little-known climate alterations, strengthen environmental awareness in the school and regional community, and generate learning that transforms educators and students into agents of change committed to protecting the environment.
If you want to learn more about the program or apply for a future edition, we invite you to read a column that gathers historical learnings about Docente Activo [HERE].
