Mallillin and Salvador attend Global Education conference in Hawaii

Jose Salvador, Head for Student Affairs and Formation of the Ateneo Junior High School, joined Gabriel Mallillin, Principal of the Ateneo de Manila High School, in a one week overseas conference in Honolulu, Hawaii from July 27 to August 3, 2013.

The conference was held at Punahou School- a school whose alumni include US  President Barack Obama.  Spearheaded by the school's Wo Center for International Studies, the conference managed to bring together educators representing various school systems from several countries across the globe.
This gathering of a global community of educators enabled them to spend time in shared inquiry about global education and to design learning environments that they could apply in their home schools.

Many of the sessions were designed around challenging paradigms and offering alternatives that are more product-based, student-centric and global in thrust.  These sessions were complemented by hands on experiences with an international contingent of Junior High School and High School students who simultaneously were in attendance for a workshop. The teacher-participants were given occasions to facilitate sessions with them and at the same time gather their thoughts on such global issues as food and the environment.
There was also an opportunity for educators to share ideas. The Ateneo contingent had a chance to share with other teachers about the struggle for our national identity, given the diaspora of Filipinos in search of a better life outside the Philippines.

In the end, the opportunity given to the two educators from the Ateneo de Manila could not have been any more timely. Their return home, on the month that the Philippines commemorates its annual Buwan ng Wika (Language and Heritage Month)  affirmed the pervasive view that global education is never just a process of going out but a looking in and reflecting more deeply on that which defines who we are as a people.