El equipo docente de Debate de Nivel Primaria, ha realizado un trabajo transversal para promover el liderazgo de los alumnos durante el presente año escolar. De esta manera, nuestros niños desarrollaron habilidades que les permitieron satisfacer sus expectativas planteadas y resolver dificultades a través de la innovación creativa.
El desarrollo de las capacidades de liderazgo permite el reconocimiento de procesos que los alumnos implementan en su día a día para fomentar la colaboración participativa los demás. Asimismo, promueve la cultura de la organización y la implementación de tácticas y estrategias que facilitan el logro de los diversos objetivos que se plantean, tanto en su vida académica como personal.
Al respecto, el profesor Miguel Perales Morales, PYP Debate Mentor, comparte con nosotros una pequeña reflexión en inglés sobre el papel del liderazgo en la formación integral de los alumnos:
“All and every each of educational institutions feel the need to execute good communication to set up goals and objectives, perform teamwork to obtain the best outcome, manage conflicts assertively to solve arising difficulties, innovate creatively to satisfy stakeholder´s expectations, and meet the growing demanding needs of pupils and families. How can all that be done successfully? Is there a way to do so? Well, none of these would be feasible and/or possible without the welfare of leadership.
Leadership is viewed as a process that includes influencing people within the organization to implement the strategies and achieve the objectives set up, inspiring group maintenance and identification, and shaping the culture of the organization to improve the firm performance (Yukl, 1989). This kind of leadership comes from the outside. Nonetheless, what is really demanded is leadership as a sort of process of dynamic collaboration, where individuals and organization members authorize themselves and others to interact in ways that experiment with new forms of intellectual and emotional meaning (Gemmill and Oakley, 1992). This is the kind of leadership that comes from the inside, from the soul of the firm.
And this is exactly what leadership has been and is being fostered at San Ignacio de Recalde School (SIR) through the Primary Years Programme (PYP). The kind that empowers all and every single member of the Learning Community to enhance their skills, pursuing the best academic performance throughout the different areas and subjects. It is in the heart and spirit of every SIR teacher to excel in their pedagogical practices with the aim of serving and shaping new lives to rewardingly face a faster, more modern and continuous changeable world.
Students at SIR are not strangers to this paradigm; quite the opposite, they are starring actors and innate leaders of their own schooling and integral development by means, for instance, of the approaches to learning (ATL), which allow them to improve (a) their communication skills to be able to set up accurate, assertive messages, (b) their self-management skills to learn to become self-sufficient, (c) their social skills to learn how to negotiate and solve conflicts through assertive and active listening, (d) research skills to get prepared to solve local and global difficulties scientifically and creatively, and (e) thinking skills to deepen critical comprehension to be able to make the best decisions. Besides, the PYP profile plays a crucial role, giving students the opportunity to sculpt their attributes with every intentional action promoted by the teacher from the strategic transdisciplinary planning, which is designed by the whole team of teacher’s active participation.
Leadership is a long-term process in which we seek to achieve useful changes to achieve a vision, and where there is a voluntary action of followers who act by the charisma, personality and credibility of the leader (D´Alessio, 2017). It plays the role of fuel that triggers a more motivating and positive culture of continuous improvement, which bathes all and every single member of the school community”.
