Carme Pinya: "There are still people who study Education to change the world"

Carme Pinya (Manacor, 1982) took over the deanship of the Faculty of Education in November, taking over from Miquel Oliver. She was already vice-dean in the previous term and is committed to advancing a continuity project that places teacher training at the center. Among the challenges are ensuring the Faculty stays in touch with educational centers and training teachers capable of adapting to an increasingly diverse and complex educational sector.How have these first five months at the head of the deanship been? What is your assessment?

— Becoming dean has been both easy and difficult. I was already the first vice-dean and had the support of the previous dean, Miquel Oliver, so not everything was new. The progressive entry has made it easier. Nevertheless, management has a complicated aspect: when you are the dean, the responsibility is yours. The project is a continuation, and I have taken the reins of what we had already started. We have kept almost the entire team with the aim of guaranteeing the quality of the studies and putting people at the center. We practice proximity management, with constant communication with students and faculty. We live in a turbulent context, and we understand the faculty as a shared project: the Faculty is all of us.

What are the most urgent needs you have detected?

— Lines that have been initiated must be consolidated. The relationship with educational centers is consolidated, and now we want to strengthen ties with social entities, such as NGOs, foundations, and museums. Another challenge is to maintain the quality of studies and to roll out the teaching master's degree. We are committed to transversality and comprehensive training, incorporating topics outside of subjects, often proposed by students and teachers. We have also improved teaching coordination with smaller teams and more direct student monitoring.

Are we demanding enough of future teachers?

— I don't know if we should talk about demands, because the world has changed. Society has changed so much that I don't know if we have a problem with demands or focus. It's no longer so much about knowing the rivers, but about emotional management and support. Future teachers graduate well-trained, I am convinced, but they need adaptation and continuous teacher training.

Are teachers who should never reach a classroom graduating?

— I don't think so. Our university's initial training is of high quality and equips professionals. If not, it would be complicated for me to do this job. We train teachers, social educators, and integral pedagogues with responsibility, in a turbulent and uncertain society.

There are educational centers that warn that new teachers arrive with a worse attitude, with less vocation or preparation...

— I want to think that, if it happens, it is punctual. I hope the teachers arrive trained, but many other factors intervene that do not only depend on us.

Does the Faculty guarantee a sufficient level of Catalan among future teachers?

— I don't think we graduate students with a low level of Catalan. However, the use of Catalan within the university environment is different from what I experienced as a student. We have conducted a study from the linguistic model commission to analyze its uses. What we want is a snapshot of the situation in order to intervene. We have many students who speak Spanish, but within my classroom and my office, Catalan is the vehicular language. And also within a large part of the Faculty.

Are new generations aware of the preservation of Catalan?

— Yes, but they have a different perspective. When I was a student, language was a central struggle. And it still has to be an element of struggle. Now, however, in my classrooms, there are feminist or sustainability struggles that weren't there before. The struggle for language hasn't been lost, but the student body has changed: they fight for other things and do it in different ways. We build from teaching in Catalan and explain that students go to schools where the vehicular language is Catalan. At times, from the schools, they have told us that they notice that the trainees speak to each other in Spanish, even though in the practice meetings we remind them that the vehicular language is Catalan.

The Faculty of Education was a pioneer in implementing the access tests to Magisterium as we know them. In the latest edition there has been a record number of applicants, but also of failures. How is this explained?

— This year we have had even more applicants than last year, over 900. We don't know the failing grades yet, because we haven't examined them. We are happy because it's good for the profession. Despite the narrative that the teaching staff is burnt out, we have had a record. There might be an effect of people signing up to secure their shot, but there is still esteem for the profession and there are still people who study education out of vocation and to change the world.

The results of tests such as PISA or IAQSE are worrying. Have methodologies been prioritized too much over content?

— They cannot be separated. Methodologies need content. We have not lost content, we have adapted it. Active methodologies can include memorization or master classes, of course. The real debate is how we learn and how we teach better.

It is often said that everyone has opinions on education without sufficient knowledge.

— Education concerns us and affects us all, but we are all also families. They participate in education. It is very difficult to control the educational world because it occupies us all. We are all part of the educational community and we have opinions. I like it when we express opinions about schools or training, that we do so with respect and recognition for the profession.

Artificial intelligence will change the way of teaching. How is the Faculty preparing?

— Incorporating AI into the university world is a challenge and a big question. The university has opened a reflection process and is working on issues such as plagiarism. We have created a commission with students and professors to analyze teaching in this context. We are not so worried about AI as we are about knowing how to teach in a world where it will play a central role.