Themes such as evaluation, feedback, equity, inclusion, quality and leadership, were the main axes that educational researchers presented at the International Congress for School Effectiveness and Improvement (ICSEI), with the aim of providing tools to face the challenging circumstances of current education.
The activity was organized by the Educational Leadership Center for Network Improvement + Community, the Associative Center for Educational Leadership C Líder and the Center for Innovation in Educational Leadership CILED.
Between January 10 and 13, 2023, the 36th version of the International Congress for School Effectiveness and Improvement (ICSEI) was held in the city of Viña del Mar, which was organized by the three Leadership Centers School that have been created in agreement with the Ministry of Education: the Associative Center for Educational Leadership C Líder; the Center for Innovation in Educational Leadership CILED, and the Educational Leadership Center for Network Improvement +Community.
In the congress, entitled “Educational systems learning under difficult circumstances: Global perspectives, collaboration and local solutions to reinvent education”, more than 280 researchers and speakers from the educational area presented their studies to contribute to the great challenges that were exacerbated by the pandemic.
Nadezhda Yáñez, Director of Learning for the Future of Fundación Chile and Head of the Innovative Training Line of +Comunidad, He valued this instance as it invites a real transformation of education: «As the motto of this congress states, learning under challenging circumstances is an imperative for leadership at all levels of the system. In addition to the post-pandemic educational urgency, the challenges of transformation for a real social inclusion in the 21st century are added, an issue that implies leading practices in which a more comprehensive and inclusive vision of learning is shared, based on confidence in the capacities of the school communities.
«As the motto of this congress raises, learning under challenging circumstances, is an imperative for leadership at all levels of the system. In addition to the post-pandemic educational urgency, the challenges of transformation for a real social inclusion in the 21st century are added, an issue that implies leading practices in which a more comprehensive and inclusive vision of learning is shared, based on confidence in the capacities of the school communities.
Nadezhda Yáñez,
– Director of Learning for the Future of Fundación Chile and Head of the Innovative Training Line of +Comunidad
RESEARCHERS IN EDUCATION
The main exhibition of the first day was mel ainscow, a world expert on educational equity and inclusion, and Emeritus Professor of Education at the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom. “Inclusion and equity are fundamental principles, they should be in the law,” said Ainscow, ensuring that these principles are a path towards educational excellence and that, although the challenges to achieve it vary from one country to another, in all countries there are students who are marginalized or excluded from local educational centers and it is in them that one of the main focuses should be.
Ainscow emphasized the importance of creating a collaborative culture, in which each school is a space in which ideas and resources are shared, where planning is done together, where it is possible to look from different points of view, dialogue, share ideas about the practice and also about the problems and their solutions.
elle goldring, an expert in educational leadership, who led the second day with her presentation “Performance evaluation and feedback for professional growth: tools and approaches for continuous improvement”, addressed feedback, pedagogical practices, professional performance and educational improvement. According to the researcher, feedback is essential for professional development and it is the leaders of the organizations who play the role of guiding and contributing to the learning processes.
About this day, the Coordinator of the Innovative Training Line of the Metropolitan Region of +Community, Libertad Manzo, highlighted that “feedback not only has to do with the delivery of information, but also with the accompaniment to implement the changes that are required. In this, the generation of collaboration and trust links with schools is key, as well as understanding their particular contexts and the joint construction of alternatives for improvement”, he stressed.
The third day of ICSEI featured a presentation by Lorraine Ortega, academic from the University of Chile, who developed the theme “The search for equity, inclusion and quality in Chilean education.” In addition to taking a tour of public policies and improvement programs in our country in recent decades, she addressed the development of equity and socioeconomic inclusion, which are currently part of the proposals of the Ministry of Education.
«This conference is very special, because it puts researchers in contact with people who are in the small area of education, carrying out and implementing improvement programs and initiatives in their schools and educational communities. In this sense, very enriching conversations take place with the different actors that we meet at this congress,” he said. ortega.
The final conference of ICSEI was in charge of the professor david hung, expert in educational research and learning technologies. “Leadership prepared for the future of learning: Perspectives from Singapore”, was the title of his presentation, where he delved, from the point of view of his country, into the transformations that educational systems require to face complex and uncertain scenarios, with an interdisciplinary collaborative perspective. , from the cognitive, emotional and social.
“I wanted to let everyone know that we have to get out of our comfort zones, because the world and education move very fast. We have been used to institutional educational practices, even in our field of educational research, and certainly education is a much more complex field. So, we have to position ourselves at the applied intersection for all the other domains that contribute to education and transfer it to the educational system. I think the key message of conferences like ICSEI is to put a specific leadership role, to be able to make this happen and benefit all those who are learning”, he concluded.
SCHOOL EXPERIENCES
Additionally, seven schools in our country, from the regions of Coquimbo, Valparaíso, Metropolitana, O’Higgins, and Biobío, attended the event on January 11, where they spoke about the experiences and challenges of their establishments.
These educational communities implemented educational improvement strategies during the pandemic, as well as many of the schools throughout Chile. The instance gave rise to sharing the methodologies and actions carried out, which contribute to a collective and collaborative work between educational establishments.
It should be noted that next year’s congress will take place at Trinity College Dublin, between January 9 and 14, 2024, under the motto “Quality professional education to improve school effectiveness”.
Educational Leadership Center for Network Improvement + Community was present at ICSEI 2023