- As principals, it is fundamental that we recognize the importance of promoting mutual care in the teaching community in order to guarantee the well-being of the students and their learning.
The quality of the ties established among the different members of the educational community impacts both the well-being and learning of students, as well as the well-being of teachers and their motivation to overcome the daily challenges inherent to their work.
But do we know what venues to deploy throughout the year to strengthen the ties and collective identity of the school’s teaching team? Do we know how to advance in the implementation of actions aimed at mutual care?
Promoting venues where the affective aspects and ties among teachers are developed and strengthened is fundamental for the emergence of the school as a community of care, where relationships recover their human nature and infuse the formative work with energy, as well as the sense of identity and belonging.
This transformation in the school culture requires actions sustained over time and transversal to all the venues of life in the school. The challenge is for the administrative team to establish venues where teachers can share experiences that are meaningful and guided by an ethic of care.
Steps to follow
Here are some types of venues and activities you can carry out with your community:
- Holding ceremonies that bring together the teaching community around key moments.
● Ceremony for the beginning of the year: to present orally and visually the good wishes and resolutions for the new year, expressing what one feels and longs for, as a community ritual.
● Also, ceremony for the closing of the year: as a moment of recognition, harvest and celebration of learning processes, challenges overcome and achievements reached. - Implementing venues for collective reflections: where the teaching team may reflect on their own practices, as well as to deploy actions that are transformative and creative of a community of care. For example:
● Commitments of care: where teachers may express needs and establish actions for mutual care.
● Shared meanings: where teachers identify unifying purposes and difficulties common to the group, proposing alternatives for practical and collective solutions. These venues can be implemented at the beginning and closing of each semester. - Implementing venues of recognition and gratitude that bring together the teachers for a mutual valorization and recognition among peers for the efforts and results achieved.
We encourage you to schedule these venues with your teams periodically. You may incorporate them as part of the Annual Work Plan or the Curricular Project of your institution.
Finally, keep in mind that, to promote the well-being of the educational community, it is necessary to create an institutional context that allows to cultivate care among all its members by promoting healthy and collaborative relationships. It is in your hands to drive the transformation of the culture of your institution and generate the conditions to make your school a community of care. We invite you to start implementing the proposed actions. Find more educational and guidance resources on our website.
