Northern Iloilo State University (NISU) Barotac Viejo Campus held its AY 2024-2025 In-Service Training for Faculty and Staff at the Sea Garden Resort in Leganes, Iloilo, on August 2, 2024, attributing to the crucial importance of educational transformation.
The event titled “Humanizing Education (The Anti-Oppressive Pedagogies): The Inclusive Teaching-Learning Framework was participated by seventy faculty and staff members from the College of Education, College of Agriculture, and College of Hospitality Management and facilitated by Prof. Dominique J. Maquiran, a faculty member of UP High School in Iloilo, Division of Professional Education, College of Arts and Sciences, University of the Philippines Visayas (UPV).
It highlighted the transformation of traditional classroom practices and the integration of approaches and pedagogies that focused on advocating to cater to the diversity of needs in the teaching and learning ecologies.
Since 2010, Prof. Maquiran has been a staunch advocate for humanizing education and anti-oppressive pedagogies, conducting numerous seminar workshops on these crucial topics. His training session at NISU aimed to emphasize the importance of integrating social, cultural, and emotional aspects into the teaching-learning process.
Prof. Maquiran underscored the need for educators to foster equitable and inclusive teaching and learning ecologies that consider diverse social factors such as class, gender, abilities, ethnic background, and religion among others. He encouraged educators to critically examine their ecologies of education, which include the stakeholders, syllabi, learning outcomes, methodologies, assessments, instructional management, policies, and physical environment ensuring they resonate meaningfully with students.
"Educators must practice reflexivity in identifying and dismantling practices that enable inequalities in our classrooms and other learning modalities," Prof. Maquiran asserted. He also highlighted that teachers themselves often face oppressive and dehumanizing practices within the educational system. He cited examples of negative practices, such as instructors being consistently absent yet giving difficult exams on topics not covered in class, teaching an entire semester without a syllabus, and failing a majority of students.
The seminar provided a platform for faculty and staff to collaborate in an interactive and thought-provoking discussion about the challenges and opportunities in promoting a more humane and inclusive educational environment. It served as a dynamic forum, allowing the participants to unlearn traditional practices and learn innovative opportunities inside the classroom through meaningful discussions and exchanges. They left the training with a renewed growth and commitment to apply these principles in their respective institutions, aiming to make education a more inclusive and empowering experience for all learners. (With sources from Prof. Dominique J. Maquiran)
