With the slogan ‘Discovering new pedagogical routes’, 18 teachers from the Marist Sector of Chile travelled to Durango, Province of Vizcaya, Spain, to be part of the third version of the Maristak Internship, through an alliance with Colegio Técnico Profesional Marista de Durango.
The internship took place the week of 23 September with the aim of getting to know the experience of Learning Based on Challenges (ABR) and the model of professional technical innovation, and then continued in the city of Barcelona until Wednesday 2 October.
The Chilean Delegation is composed of seventeen representatives from the Marist Schools of Alto Hospicio, Colegio Hermano Fernando; Las Compañías, Colegio Nuestra Señora de Andacollo; La Pintana, Colegio Marcelino Champagnat and Colegio Diego Echeverría de Quillota, accompanied by Jorge Radic, coordinator of the Sectorial Mission Area.
During the internship, as well as visiting the Maristak Technical Centre, other educational centres were visited, such as the Marist School of Bilbao and eight Marist schools in the city of Barcelona, in work segmented by groups.
During the first day, the delegation was received by representatives of the Marist Iberian Province and the Director General of Maristak Durango, Daniel Irazola, who presented the week’s agenda, the local animation structure and Marist history. They were then received at the Durango town hall by the Mayoress Mireia Elkoroiribe, who, as well as greeting and welcoming them, gave a presentation on the history of the place and the alliance maintained with the Marist network.
This was followed by a visit to the Maristak Centre, led by the education coordinator of the Marist Iberian Province, and in the afternoon the Marist foundation ‘Azterlan’, a metallurgical training, research and certification centre, which operates independently, providing services to various metallurgical industries in the world such as Boeing, Airbus, Siemens, as well as to functions and mining companies in Japan, Canada and the United States, among others, with the possibility of getting to know the work and technology they use.
They also visited other non-Marist vocational technical education experiences such as the Somorrostro School, which depends on the local Archbishopric, or the Goierri School, which has very active agreements with industry, and is characterised by a learning methodology based on challenges and projects in the area of vocational training.
Then they visited the Innovation Centre for vocational technical teacher training ‘Tknika’, a training entity in the Basque Country with research carried out by the teachers themselves, a powerful and avant-garde project, which works with artificial intelligence, with 3D technology, in such a way as to test new forms and technological resources for vocational technical education.
In addition, they had a long day of work in the Marist School of Durango observing classes, discussing with teachers and making a comparative analysis of what they observed those days in Durango and what exists in our schools in Chile, to glimpse how to enhance the TP education of our 4 schools.
During the weekend our delegation travelled to Barcelona to visit Marist schools that work with project methods and then returned to Chile.
Joaquin Meli U. – Head of Communications Santa María de los Andes Province
