Coming from the Nordic setting, the French culture, hierarchical to its DNA is an interesting bridge to cross to understand other international contacts and their way of doing things in ways that differ from ours. My wish was also to get an insight into Hexagon style management to enhance our chances to get Erasmus projects pass with our partner school in Brittany.
Savoir (Knowledge)
The course proposed by the renowned Cavilam offers a crash course in "pedagogic coordination". In the well defined structure of Alliances and Instituts français across the world the post includes both organising teaching, choosing and creating pedagogic materials, developing language centers and their teaching and assisting to recruitment.
On a more general level the work of the pedagogic coordinator is making sure everybody is happy and has a smooth work flow: teachers, clients, learners and accountant. The role of the manager was quickly passed through with a historical glance at the development of management and a more important part was left to work interpersonal relations and teacher development.
There was also a very interesting afternoon treating conflicts in intercultural relations - recognising the fact that we may have culturally speaking very different backgrounds even inside the same national culture.
The course offers a "driver's licence" to work in a management position in language teaching - it's quite clear that the mastery comes through practice and time.
Savoir-faire (Know-how)
First of all, the jargon! Oh, the backbone of any institution, vital to master if you wish to get your message across. Very little to do with the everyday speech or literature that you come across in your studies or during your free-time. A real cornucopia of conceptualisations to define the what, who, when, why, how and to whom. Quite a bite to swallow during "la canicule", an exceptional heat wave staggering between +34C and +40C under modest air conditioning, but exactly the core substance that is hard to acquire otherwise.
With this newly gained knowledge we discovered how to support teachers in their development, how to start a quality procedure, how to follow lessons for better results, how to organise exams and in-service trainings - not to forget the importance of making publicity for the language centers.
Outside the classes, there were also publishers' visits and pedagogic ateliers to participate, so the luggage was way heavier on the way back than on arrival.
Savoir-être (Know-to be, social skills)
Formally speaking, we had interesting session on personal relations of a teaching team. Some advice seemed shocking, for instance how to best shame a colleague that sleeps during a meeting (!) or comes in late. At the same time these bits of insight will help to understand people coming from different backgrounds. A good emphasis was put also on managing time, leading oneself and communication.
The conviviality proclaimed by our host organisation Cavilam was warmly lived inside the group of teachers coming from all around the world. Representatives of French teachers and organisers from Kambodza, Seychelles, Angola, Brasilia, Switzerland, Romania, Portugal, Czech Republic, Finland and true globetrotters who had already covered another half a dozen of countries got to share their (very similar) troubles in managing material, tricky teaching situations and keeping up "Le rayonnement culturel de la France".
During the free time there was an abundance of excursions to participate and yet more friends to make. The small town of Vichy allows easily these contacts, as you will come across the same people - straight from the railway station, as I had the pleasure of coming across lovely Carolin and Christine from Germany and Ireland, or during the designated times of "Verre d'amitié" in cosy cafés of the thermal town.
The best pick up from the different sessions, however, were pedagogical in nature, either by beautiful examples of well built lessons and materials on publicity and quality management or said out loud, sweet and short by the director of the center, Michel Boiron whose nomination of Chevalier de l'Ordre des arts et des lettres coincided the course : "The more I tell you you are good at what you do, the better you will get also where you are weak".
