REX Book Store and Miriam College form ‘The Teachers’ Press’
On Sept. 30, REX Book Store and Miriam College signed a memorandum of agreement, which cements the foundation of The Teachers’ Press. Touted as established by teachers, for teachers, REX Book Store and Miriam College decided to combine their expertise in establishing a noteworthy endeavor to make an impact and help transform the landscape of Philippine education. The Teachers’ Press is the Philippines’ first comprehensive publication house solely dedicated to the production of both traditional and technology-enabled professional teacher education training and development process.
At the launch held at the Manila Hotel, REX Book Store Inc. COO Don Timothy Buhain said that REX is continuing to evolve and deliver what is needed from them, especially for the Para sa Bata advocacy, which is the core of the company’s vision and mission, with an aim to create a convergent pathway towards educating the Filipino Whole Child.
“We are committed to provide a complete learning solution for the Filipino Whole Child, and a partnership program for the Whole School, Whole Teacher, Whole Parents, Whole Community, that nurture the Whole Child. As it takes a village to raise a child, collaborative and collective work among key players in the education industry is indispensable,” Buhain said.
A total of 10 out of the 74 national centers of development and excellence in teacher education were selected for the initial stage of the project. The University of the Philippines (Diliman), The Philippine Normal University (The National Center for Teacher Quality), West Visayas State University (Iloilo), The University of Southeastern Philippines (Davao), Mindanao State University Iligan Institute of Technology, Angeles University Foundation (Pampanga), St. Paul University, Philippines (Tugegarao), St. Louis University (Baguio), De La Salle University, and Miriam College.
Dr. Edizon Fermin, director for Innovation Development High School Department of Miriam College presented the plans for the first volume of “Innovnation”, which are essays on innovative delivery of teacher education programs set to be released by December this year. The 10 higher education institutions
selected will be participating in the first title of The Teachers’ Press, which aims to capture the perspectives on innovation in Philippine teacher education. Moreover, professional teaching organizations such as CHED, PAFTE, SUCTEA and PATEF will be invited to annotate the first volume.
“The Teachers’ Press is made by teachers for teachers. That alone is a revolutionary approach to how we see pedagogical, craft and procedural knowledge about teaching being brought out in the open. Here you see teachers collaborating with each other to identify the best practices that happen in the field,” Dr. Fermin said. “Let’s write about those practices by telling people the very outcome that those practices have generated. So what you consume in The Teachers’ Press are actually outcomes of outstanding practices in teaching and learning, and what better way to teach outcomes-based education than you consuming exactly what those outcomes are like from the vantage point of the very persons who manage the teaching and learning process.”
Marie Therese Bustos from the University of the Philippines (Special Education) said that they have been looking for resources, especially Philippine-made resources that would support activities in the classroom and within the field. They have always had to depend on foreign books as reference, and this endeavor would pave the way for the production of comprehensive textbooks that would support professors in the field relating to the Filipino child.
This would be in line with Dr. Fermin’s call to “glocalize” teacher education approach. He said that “glocalizing” teacher education approach to the documentation of practices done by Filipino teachers through The Teachers’ Press empowers Filipino educators to compete and adapt to the changes happening in education at a global scale.
The event also highlighted the unveiling of The Teachers’ Press logo, whose meaning behind was explained by Jeanne Marie Tordesillas, REX managing director. The logo consisted of an owl, which embodies the teacher, and represents wisdom. Behind it is a two-toned circle symbolizing the sun and the moon, awareness in the superconscious mind, and awareness in the subconscious mind. Together, they represent heightened awareness, which begins with the use of undivided attention with purpose. Beneath the circle is a stack of books representing publishing, sharing of learnings and ideas and epitomizes the pipeline of ideas and branches of energies. Collectively, the whole picture looks like a light bulb, which represent concepts of innovation, learnings, insights and discoveries. Lastly, the green leaves depict truth, hope, renewal, revival and growth. The leaves are from the Upas tree, to represent exemplary research in addition to it being where the Philippine owl is usually seen perching on.