Community Building in Times of Pandemic: University Camilo José Cela, Spain

Abstract

University Camilo José Cela (UCJC) is a private university located in Madrid (Spain) that belongs to the SEK Education Group, an institution with 125 years of tradition and a strong innovation identity. This case study presents the response that UCJC has given to facilitate the adaptation of the educational community (students, families, and teachers) to the situation arising from the pandemic caused by COVID-19. It will explain the coordination actions between students from the School of Education at UCJC and the impact derived from their interventions. Specifically, it will detail students’ participation as teacher assistants in online teaching within the IB pedagogical model to respond to the demands of primary and secondary teachers. This collaboration is the most outstanding due to the number of students and schools involved and the efficacy and efficiency of its implementation.On the other hand, there were other interventions of a smaller scale but a high social impact committed to disadvantaged sectors of the population. For example, our students’ support gave refugee students from Syria reinforcing their training or the psycho-emotional, educational, and legal assistance that volunteers from the bachelor’s degree of law provided to children and families in social exclusion. It is also significant to highlight the UCJC international actions: the teacher training program, EachTeach, provided educational methodologies, resources, and media to refugee teachers at the Kakuma refugee camp (Kenya), helping them to raise awareness about COVID-19, and the Cambodian program dedicated to training volunteers on how to combat the pandemic on these vulnerable contexts, where children live on the streets.Finally, to define broader collaborations and scale these initiatives in the future, this case study will reflect on the reasons for the success achieved, especially in training and pedagogical innovation and in the use of educational technology. The UCJC and SEK Schools collaboration allowed the use of a common technological language, sharing values. The development of training, support, and advice, between the university community (professors and faculty students) and the schools’ community (teachers, students, and families), enabled a wide range of relevant issues to be addressed in dealing with COVID-19 by schools and the broader education community.