More than three hundred years ago in the city of Reims in France, a young priest called John Baptist De La Salle, affected by the reality of the poverty and marginalization of the children and young people of his city, began an itinerary of formation and accompanying of a group of teachers with whom, some years later, he would become associated so that they could together build up a network of schools for the service of the most needy.
In telling his own story, La Salle never ceased to be surprised faced with an educational reality which was difficult, oppressive and challenging. He saw in it the presence of God which he lived every day and which kept inviting him to do more. For this reason, aware that he was participating in the plan of salvation of God, – ‘ who desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth’ 1 Tim 2.4 – he used all the means possible so that the school would be an effective answer in a society hungry for answers.
Today, as the inheritors of this pedagogical and spiritual tradition and committed to the world of education across the entire world, we Lasallians wish to continue listening to the calls of a reality which questions us as educators. With this in view, we take up the work of research as a response to the challenges which the 21st Century create for us. This Journal wishes to collect together this strength, by collaborating in building up a Lasallian way of thinking which is offered to the academic world as an alternative form of discussion of the problems of education seen from a transcendent horizon.
Dr. Diego A. Muñoz León fsc
Editor