Selected pairs Docente Activo 2024: Socioecological Perspectives Towards Collective Resilience

Docente Activo 2023

Connecting childhood with the natural environment and biocultural knowledge, supporting school adaptation processes, resolving conflicts in the classroom, efficiently managing water, and restoring social ties within the educational community are some of the needs presented by those selected for this new version of Docente Activo 2024. Following a public call aimed at the communes of Villarrica, Curarrehue, and Pucón in the La Araucanía region, ten pairs of teachers will participate in this experience through artistic experimentation and co-learning, where they will develop strategies to transform their educational spaces under the premise of resilience.

Resilience “relates to the collective capacity to self-organize, learn, and adapt to return to dynamic stability after a rupture,” explain from the learning team of our foundation. At the same time, resilience delves into ways to deal with uncertainty in the face of changes experienced in the context of the socioecological crisis facing the planet, highlighting diversity as a value, where collectivity, transdisciplinarity, and flexibility are essential for ongoing reinvention.

Learn about the issues identified by applicants for Docente Activo 2024:

Childhoods in connection with nature and its cycles

Francisca Müller (early childhood education and german) and Johanna Lochner (education for sustainable development). Colegio Alemán de Villarrica, Villarrica commune, La Araucanía region.

The issue raised by this educational community aims to enhance free exploration at an early age in nature, in relation to the development of skills related to problem-solving and adaptation to change. The purpose of this project, aimed at kindergarten students aged 5 to 6, is to impact the educational and family community in order to promote pedagogical initiatives that bring childhood closer to the natural world.

Support in mental health and socioecological bonds in youth from the “Mejor Niñez”” program

Aurora Vergara (occupational therapist) and Elisa Tironi (psychologist). Bayos Foundation, Molco Alto, Villarrica, La Araucanía region.

Bayos Foundation, an organization dedicated to assisting and accompanying children and young people facing various development difficulties, through therapeutic interaction with horses, presented an issue framed within the governmental program “Better Childhood”, in order to address behavioral difficulties, school dropout, mental health problems, and drug use in contexts of systematic vulnerability and lack of protection of basic rights. The initiative seeks to support the mental health of the beneficiaries of the foundation to rebuild their socioemotional bonds personally with their families and environment. In this way, they will seek to stimulate socioemotional learning through repair experiences based on mutual care in interaction with nature and interspecies bonding.

El despertar del ngen:adaptation of the educational community after the socio-environmental crisis

Valentina Campos (special education) and Doris Quintuman (intercultural basic education). Ruka Ngen Educational Complex, Curarrehue region, La Araucanía.

This educational complex will address various issues related to the development of adaptive and socioemotional skills of students, who were affected in their interaction due to the Covid-19 pandemic experienced by the planet. In this educational community, the teachers report, there is an institutional gap regarding support for the creation of pedagogical tools that respond to the specific needs of students, while students show little motivation to actively participate in the educational process. Under this context, through the program, they seek to incorporate new methodologies related to art and ecology to diversify the school curriculum and improve the learning experience of students.

Strengthening the family-student-school bond

Braulio Muñoz and Natalia Salazar (special education). Panque No. 200 Private School, Puala Alto Sector, Curarrehue, La Araucanía region.

This pair focuses their work on children aged 4 to 8 years old and at the same time, they aim to motivate families to acquire greater commitment and involvement in the education of students, who present self-esteem issues, lack of motivation, and low tolerance for frustration. Through workshops and school coexistence work, this pair seeks to address socioemotional dimensions in order to contribute to solutions related to school dropout.

Medicinal plants to reconnect with ancestral knowledge

Carla Paras (natural sciences) and Williams Caamaño (indigenous language). Santa Rosa de Llafenco School, Curarrehue, La Araucanía region.

Reconnecting students with their roots and environment, through the recognition and valorization of ancestral knowledge, is the issue detected and directed at students from 3rd to 8th grade. The proposal suggests establishing a space for the cultivation and care of medicinal plants to strengthen students’ connection with the natural environment, while also providing the opportunity to relieve ailments and reconnect local knowledge with the support of the community and key actors in the territory.

Efficient management of drinking water in the educational space

Brisa Morandi (natural sciences) and Lorena Acuña (language). Fragua Educational Space, Licanray, Villarrica, La Araucanía region.

This pair focuses on improving the management of drinking water available in the educational space and generating strategies for its correct use. Students and educators will reflect on the socio-environmental crisis affecting the planet and the local community, and will problematize the limited access to drinking water in a geographically humid area. Thus, they propose to address, from multiple dimensions, the search for solutions involving the entire community.

Environmental restoration of the Trancura river

Gerela Ramírez (visual arts and indigenous language) and Helga Krause (sciences, language, and mathematics). San Luis School, Curarrehue, La Araucanía region.

The Curarrehue pair set out to address the environmental deterioration of the waters of the Trancura River, contaminated by sewage discharges and waste from fish farming companies. They propose to create awareness spaces and concrete actions, such as reuse, recycling, and forest care. By being part of the program, they hope to acquire pedagogical tools and develop strategies to raise awareness with the aim of creating action plans aimed at sustainability and biodiversity conservation.

Support in adaptation in the continuity of rural education

Valeska Duten (cinema workshop facilitator) and Adelina Ordiqueo (basic general education). Pichares Basic School, Pucón, La Araucanía region.

Generating methodological strategies that allow strengthening the adaptation and resilience capacity of students from the rural school of Pichares is one of the issues detected by this pair, focused on facilitating, from a transdisciplinary approach, tools to prevent school dropout. Through pedagogical actions linked to cinema, the initiative seeks to support the socioemotional transition process of students when they graduate from basic education provided in this school to new high school establishments.

Conflict resolution in the school space

Karla Leiva (natural sciences) and Alberto Cofre (visual arts). Santa Cruz School, Villarrica, La Araucanía region.

The increase in cases of physical and psychological violence among members of the school community has created an atmosphere of tension and demotivation in this educational space, as reported by the teachers of Villarrica. Thus, the intention of this proposal is to promote a healthy coexistence climate and provide tools to students for conflict resolution through dialogue and respect.

Docente Activo experience

The selected teachers will experience three in-person sessions during May 2024: Wednesday 8th in the city of Villarrica, Thursday 9th in Bosque Pehuén – an area protected by the Mar Adentro Foundation and an open-air experimental laboratory for transdisciplinary conservation and research – and Friday 10th in Kodkod to develop project design work in their respective educational spaces. Additionally, the program will include online and in-person support and accompaniment from our foundation during the various stages of project development and implementation.