TO BE FOR THE OTHERS

the idea of ARRUPE CENTRE in Gdynia (Poland)

When I was given the post of a form tutor for the first time I was very afraid. Two years of teaching English in a secondary school was not much. I knew that I lack some basic psychological knowledge and skills to be a leader of a group. This is a standard for most Polish teachers. During our university studies we are not taught how to integrate a group of pupils and help them with their problems and development. Everything that happens when a teacher is given a class depends on their inborn skills and abilities. I wanted to do a good job and tried to find some kind of a training course that would help me to solve that problem. And this is how I met with teachers from Arrupe Centre. Their advertisement was in one of the catholic magazines. The course – “A Christian Tutor in a Reformed School” was just what I needed. During the course I was not told anything about the group dynamics, was not given any philosophical background, but 30 hours of training and workshops equipped me with some ideas for weekly class meetings. Before the training they used to be a kind of “horror hours” for me. Then I knew how to organise a good class meeting. The problem of the group dynamics and values that should be taught was solved when I entered their longer course called “The Integral Pedagogical Paradigm”, which in some countries is also called in “Ignatian Pedagogical Paradigm”.

In Poland there are many organisations that train teachers. They are different and have a wide variety of goals, some are state organisations, some are private. Arrupe Centre was founded in November 1997. Later it was recognised by the Ministry of Education as a private organisation whose aim is teacher training on the area of the whole country. But Arrupe does not limit its activity to Poland. Its trainers travel to Lithuania, Ukraine, Russia and Belorus. They can also be found in Egipt, Moldova, Slovenia and Croatia. Fr. Wojciech Żmudziński SJ is a manager of Arrupe Centre. He is also a headmaster of Jesuit Secondary School in Gdynia, the manager of International Education Leadership Project for Central and Eastern Europe, and an author of books and articles on problems of education, management and drug addiction. In late eighties he was an educator at the centre for drug addicts in Italy. He is a very picturesque and charismatic personality, a real professional and a person from whom one can learn a lot. He is always full of ideas and thanks to this fact the Centre does not only offer teacher training sessions but has some more tasks as well. Most of them focus on helping teachers to be better in their jobs but there is also a project devoted to prevention of violence and drug addiction.

The first course was a session titled “Sects – Between the Challenge and the Threat”, then there was a teacher training called “Jesus as a Leader and a Master”. These two sessions were only the beginning. You wouldn’t find them in the present offer of the Centre, but there are a lot of new ones that try to meet current needs of teachers in the complicated social situation of Poland. The newest one is a course that helps teachers to improve their contacts with parents. The session dedicated to prevention of drug addiction together with the training on teenage subcultures are ones that are resumed regularly. Fr. Artur Kołodziejczyk SJ is the author of the teacher training on mass-media where one can learn how to teach pupils critical attitude to commercials, films and magazines. The courses are usually planned for maximum 30 hours, but the way they are given guarantee that you will learn something useful and won’t be bored.

Arrupe team suggests and uses active ways of learning, which are more efficient and give pupils more believe in their possibilities. Some methods are based on those already known and used by psychologists in the group therapy, some are completely new and invented by Arrupe trainers. When active methods are used you feel that the knowledge was given straight to your hands and that after a short revision it is possible to show it to your pupils or to other teachers. The meetings with teachers are conducted with the use of active methods and teach how to use them during lessons. This happens especially during the course called “The Integral Pedagogical Paradigm”. This is a longer training planned for 240 hours where a person can get a wide variety of knowledge about school and teaching. I would even say that this course teaches you what school should be about. It comprises classes on projects, the ability of asking questions according to Bloom’s taxonomy, supervision of young teachers, assessment of pupils according to school standards. Participants are also prepared to publish articles in different kinds of magazines for teachers and newspapers.

240 hours of classes is a good opportunity to form a fairly stable group, to make new friends, to exchange views on different subjects. Sessions usually take place at weekends. The latest edition was carried out mainly during summer holidays and participants lived together in the training centre for five days or even longer. We were given opportunity not only to learn new things, but also share our opinions and ideas with each other and with Arrupe Centre trainers. It was also a good opportunity to get to know one another and just have a good time together. The hard work, kindness and being together was a good ground for our formation. This is one of the aims of Arrupe Centre. But for some people formation means a priest preaching a sermon. It is usually dull and ineffective. Arrupe trainers do it in a different way: their good work, the fact that they are really keen on what they do, is the best testimony that they give to Jesus. Their attitude to work and their trainees teaches responsibility for pupils. It is the way in which they show how to be for the others. Once taught by a good example how to be for the others you will surely transfer this idea to your students.

There were thirty one participants at the third edition of “The Integral Pedagogical Paradigm”. When asked for evaluation of the whole course when it was just being finished, most of them wrote about self confidence that meetings had given them, about feeling of community that had been created, about partnership that had taken place during classes. After a year once again asked what the course brought to their professional lives, they gave different and diverse answers, but agreed that the course was a success. Some say that personality of trainers was what mattered most for them, some mention the fact that they were given techniques to work with the group which they apply during their classes, they say that the course helped them to be more aware as teachers and form tutors and that it was an enormous incentive for their further development.

I am sure that these are not empty words. Their professional lives have changed and some of the participants have already their own course within Arrupe Centre’s domain. There are some of them who became teacher trainers in the area where they live and work, others just follow Arrupe’s bulletin “To Be for the Others” and try to help its editor by writing articles about their work, problems and different solutions that they find. There is a handful of those, who just because of circumstances, did not do anything and wait for their time to come.

One or two years ago an idea of creating an Interschool Teacher Club was developed. It is both a place, which has its real address in Gdynia and a “place” in Internet where teachers can exchange their views and ideas. The real club is a site where teachers can meet and talk, where famous people are invited to give lectures or concerts. Teachers can show their works there or watch educational films. The overall task of this project is to integrate teachers of Gdynia, Sopot and Gdańsk by creating a friendly atmosphere in a nice place. I wish there were more places like this club in other cities in Poland.

The Interschool Teacher Club is situated in the cellar of a building of Educational Clinic for Drug and Violence Prevention, which is another project conducted by the Centre. It is not a clinic in a full meaning, it is rather a place where a person who has a problem can come and is sure to get information or professional support. Two psychologists, an educator and two people who have experience as trainers at treatment centres for drug addicts work there. Five people is not many but it is enough because of the organisation of this project which is based on personal connections. The Clinic with its five permanent employees is an informal network of friends (doctors, directors of centres for addicts, etc.) who are always ready to help when help is necessary.

Arrupe Centre came into being six years ago. It offers teacher training courses in Poland and other Eastern European countries, tries to integrate teachers, has its own bulletin, has published some books on Ignatian model of education, it is even starting postgraduate studies in methodology and ethics of teaching this year, organises help for people who abuse drugs and who are subjects of violence. It is an organisation and idea to help people to improve their lives. Two fields that have been chosen by its Founder: teacher formation and training, and help to violence victims or drug addicts are probably ones of he most difficult as far as working with people is concerned. The success in this areas is not measurable, but I dare to say – it can be noticed in human hearts and faces. Thanks to meeting with people joined by the idea of being for the others they express hope for future and joy of life.

Aleksandra Wawrowska,

a teacher from Poland