With De La Salle Brothers now comprising less than two per cent of the Lasallian teaching body, the responsibility to preserve the Lasallian heritage and promote Lasallian ethos in our schools has fallen mostly on the lay-teachers who work in our schools. We believe that one of the methods by which the heritage will be preserved and ethos promoted is through the newly developed Online Lasallian Leadership Course. This course, developed by the Lasallian Educational Services in Australia, is a two year action research course, specially designed to enable participants to fully explore what it means to be an educator and leader in a 21st century Catholic school. The course is best suited to teachers who are in senior or middle management positions. Because the course is online, it allows participants to learn at their own pace and manage their own time. All resources are available directly through the website (http://www.lasallian.org.au). There is no fee payable by the participants here in Ireland as fees are covered by the District Council.
The first cycle of the course in Ireland began in September 2009 with eight participants. It is being facilitated by Ms. Mary Guthrie and Mr. Brendan Ryan (members of the Shared Mission Team). The course is broken into four units and each unit is broken further into eight modules. The unit titles are as follows:
- A Historical Understanding of Lasallian Pedagogy
- A Contemporary Understanding of Lasallian Pedagogy
- Lasallian Spirituality for Teachers and Leaders
- Leadership in Lasallian Workplaces
The participants meet at the start of each semester for an orientation session. The first orientation session took place in St. Benildus Pastoral Centre with participants attending from several counties. We hope that in the coming years many teachers in our schools throughout the country will participate in this course and benefit from a greater understanding of the De La Salle heritage that we all share. For further information please email Mr. Brendan Ryan (Coordinator of Shared Mission Team) at brendan.ryan at lasallian dot org dot au
Labels: Lasallian Leadership Course