Last school year, Aranzadi Ikastola embarked on a profound transformation process. Placing pedagogy at the heart of our work and with the support of educational guidance from Ikastolen Elkartea, we launched a transformation process called Bagoiaz. From the very beginning, one thing has been clear to us: formal education currently fails to meet the needs of the children and young people in our community, nor does it adequately address all the challenges we face as a people. In an effort to change this reality, we have raised the following questions: what kind of people do we want to educate at the Ikastola? What kind of people does our society need?
Answering these questions involves a complete paradigm shift in itself. Indeed, the Ikastola's role in education requires us to build upon a system of values that will guide people throughout their lives. And to achieve this, the community itself is the essential driving force: parents, professionals and students working together.
This school year, the process will have two main objectives. Firstly, to develop the narrative of our transformation together with the entire community, focusing on two key questions: why do we need transformation? What do we need transformation for? Secondly, to encourage our professionals (educators and teachers) to reflect on the way we work, including the role of teachers, our methodologies and more.
In connection with this second objective, we have visited several ikastolas in recent months that are putting educational transformation into practice. This week, we visited the latest one: Anoetako Herri Ikastola. Together with members of Azkue Ikastola in Lekeitio, members of Aranzadi's educational team and several Secondary Education teachers visited the school to learn about its transformation process and the educational practices currently being implemented with students. It was a highly enriching educational visit, giving us the opportunity to discover how other ikastolas work and reflect together on how to address new challenges.
