The 1st Cross Campus Moral Education / Pastoral Care Workshop

On the afternoon of 13 April, the 1st Cross Campus Moral Education / Pastoral Care Workshop was organized by the Xiehe Education Center (Group) School Management Department (SMD) at SUIS Hongqiao Campus. All the pastoral care leaders from Xiehe middle schools and high schools participated in it. Leaders from the campuses outside of Shanghai joined in the workshop online. The workshop consisted of three sessions: thematic analysis, campus sharing, and group discussion.

Session I – Thematic Analysis

At the workshop, the Research Department (RD), the Strategy & Business Development Department (S&BD) and SMD of the Center shared the thematic analysis reports based on their research and the previous survey information provided by the Xiehe schools.

The speech given by RD regarding the comparative research of Chinese and western De/Pastoral education was started with the enquiry about the Chinese character ‘De’, and founded that although we were from different national background, culture and language, the value and philosophy beneath the concept, content and educational approaches are quite similar, aimed to cultivate the students’holistic development. It also urged us to think about how to fully integrate the essence from both sides and promote the ‘East Meets West’in De/Pastoral education.

S&BD delivered the speech on ‘The Introduction and Analysis of Moral Education/Pastoral Care-related Policies’at the workshop, sharing the framework structure of moral education-related policies, the aerial view of moral education and the specified responsibilities of school moral education-related work. S&BD also compared the Chinese moral education with the western pastoral care in responsibilities to figure out the similarities and differences, helping foster the mutual understanding of both Chinese and expat pastoral leaders from all Xiehe schools and helping establish the Xiehe moral education system in the multicultural context.

SMD then shared the general information of moral education / pastoral care of Xiehe schools based on the survey analysis. The team structure, main duties, features, difficulties and challenges were specified. The features of moral education and pastoral care mainly focus on three aspects:

(1) Student activities, which cover the activities led by students, house system, merit credits, etc;

(2) Home-school collaboration, which includes student code of conduct, student/parent handbooks, parent lectures and workshops for parents, etc;

(3) External link with local community, like all kinds of public community service involvement, social practices, etc.

Session II – Campus Sharing

A special thanks to representatives of Hongqiao Campus middle school, Wanyuan Campus middle school and Jiaoke Campus BC high school for sharing their experience and practice at the workshop.

The representative from Hongqiao Campus middle school shared us with the routines and features of their pastoral care focus on C.O.S (Communication, Organization, Support). It includes the communication with students, parents and staff, organising their systems, consistency and culture. The pastoral care of the middle school is led by the Heads of Grade (HoG). HoGs provided the various support to their students and staff.

The representative from Wanyuan Campus middle school shared their featured case of students joining in Shanghai Municipal People’s Congress and Shanghai Committee of Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC). These activities helped students gain knowledge through the experience, improved the students’ citizen consciousness, the sense of rule of law and promoted the smooth development of moral education in a broader social life situation.

The representative from Jiaoke Campus BC high school, made an in-depth sharing at the workshop. With the tacit cooperation of Chinese and expat teachers, the pastoral work of BC program has established a set of complete and all-round system, actively encouraged the students’ initiative, and regularly organized a series of activities with the topics on Chinese cultural heritage, students’ professional rules, campus safety, family relations, guidance for further study, students’ psychology, etc.

Session III – Group Discussion

During this session, all the participants shared the campus experience and good practices, reviewed the difficulties and problems, and put forward to their expectation on the upcoming workshops.

Campuses outside of Shanghai also joined the discussion.

 

As a summary, the thematic analysis reports shared by those three departments of the Center provided us with a general understanding of the Chinese and western moral education and pastoral care work, policy guidelines, and the operation and features of all schools. The campus sharing provided us with a glimpse of the actual practices based on the integration of Chinese and western cultures. The group discussion made us reach a consensus on how to further develop the moral education and pastoral care. All these guidelines, sharing and discussion inspired the participants with new ideas and advice on their daily work.

More Highlights：Tour Hongqiao Campus Middle School