New perceptions: the role of the school
The school has to be reconsidered as an integral, total space, and not only as a structure with multiple classrooms. It is far more. The four classroom walls seem to constrain and limit instead of protecting it, and the classroom does not seem to be the only appropriate space for the new times and needs. We need a school that assumes the educational task fully and that is why it is important and eventually indispensable to recover the educational process for all stakeholders. So all the people who work and are part of education must be seen as and must be effectively turned into educators. It is not only the teacher in the classroom who educates. All education workers present in the school must do so, and this includes students as being part of this task. It is necessary to reaffirm that seeing all education workers as educators does not mean that
they will all be teachers, as teaching is a vocational route entailing a teaching and learning process. The educational task is not only teaching and does not occur only in the classroom. Seeing professional, technical and administrative staff as educators requires breaking down historical prejudices and discrimination that have been present and acted in a naturalised way without being questioned. This occurs also in our own organisations, many of which have not always been able to think in terms of that dimension, i.e. the dimension of education workers and not only teaching staff, teachers and professors. The names of the organisation reveal the history. It suffices to go over them on the Latin American landscape to see it, and it is necessary to make clear that it is not a criticism, but a measure of the insufficiencies that Education international for latin america Education support personnel: an integral part of the educational process
21