UPH Master of Education Program Holds Seminar ?Educational Leadership in Indonesia?

(L-R) Connie Rasilim, Bethany Schutingga, Gunawaty Tjioe and Niko Sudibjo

“Leadership is the ability to guide others without force into a direction or decision that leaves them still feeling empowered and accomplished.” ? Lisa Cash Hanson, CEO, Snuggwugg. The statement above is one of the best definitions for the word ?Leadership? in the world. As the Christian institutions that are consistent with the Christ-centered education, Universitas Pelita Harapan (UPH) sees leadership from a slightly different yet significant perspective. This matter was discussed in the Seminar ?Educational Leadership in Indonesia? by UPH Master of Education program on 23 May 2015 at MYC Multipurpose Room UPH. This seminar invited the education experts of UPH, such as Connie Rasilim, S.S., B.Ed., M.Pd., the Vice President for Academic Affairs UPH, Bethany Schuttinga, Ph.D., Senior Academic Advisor, and Gunawaty Tjioe, Ph.D., Dean of Teachers College, and as the moderator of this seminar, Dr. Niko Sudibjo, S.Psi., MA., the Head Department of UPH Master of Education.

Opening the seminar, Connie Rasilim spoke as the first speaker to share her teaching experiences at UPH, especially when she searched for the lecturers or teachers to serve at UPH or schools under Yayasan Pelita Harapan. She shared how difficult it was to find the educators with proper skill and knowledge, as well as truly believe in Christ and have been renewed. To answer this issue, UPH opened a new program, Teacher College on 2006. She added that to show UPH real identity, it needs both clarity to stand clearly for the identity it holds, and intentionality, meaning the persistence to deliver that identity to group of people with same vision and mission with clarity and intentionality.

The participants of Educational Leadership Seminar

The next speaker was Bethany Schuttinga shared that leadership is a gift that God has given so it must be used to do His will. ?It is important to view leadership from God?s ?eyeglasses?,? said Bethany. Meanwhile, Gunawaty Tjioe emphasized that leadership must be prepared and trained. She explained that leaders should consider the 4Cs, Calling, Competence, Character, and Courage. However, there are another 1C that must be the center of all Cs, which is Christ. ?Christ is the only example of the perfect leader, so He should be the center of all Christian leadership,?said Gunawaty.

This seminar, moreover, was also the launching of the brand new UPH Master of Education program, which is the UPH Master of Education in Systematic Educational Leadership. This program was launched based on the high demand of special teaching system with leadership education, as well as theology and biblical education to generate leaders in the educational aspect of leadership, skill, and quality knowledge, especially the leaders who follow the role of Christ. ?Therefore, this program was made to equip leaders with calling,? added Gunawaty in the interview regarding the program.

In Indoneisa, the implementation of Educational Leadership already exists, for example like the organizations that offer trainings/teachings about leadership, however the educational institutions that give educational leadership teachings from Christian perspectives for the first time is UPH. One thing that is unique and different is this program has partnership with Corban University, which has been accredited by Northwest Accreditation Commission, so the graduates of this program will receive two titles, M.Pd., from UPH and M.Ed,. from Corban University.

The requirements to enroll this program are Bachelor degree certificate from any majors, have three years experiences in teaching, and the most important requirements is already be renewed and receive Christ as the personal Savior. The curriculum of this program is similar to the other UPH Master of Education programs, yet it has been added with the biblical and theological knowledge. The medium of instruction is in Bahasa Indonesia, but the textbooks are most likely written in English.

Approximately 100 people attended in this event, which consisted of lecturers from different universities like UPH, Universitas Kristen Indonesia (UKI), Calvin College, and teachers from Elementary and Junior High Schools such as SLH, SPH, SDH, and Stella Maris. The Educational Leadership seminar received very good responses from participants, in which they asked questions and also there are already some teachers in their schools who are interested in this program. (fc/el)

UPH Media Relations