doi.org/10.15198/seeci.2020.53.153-164
RESEARCH
APPROACH TO THE THEORETICAL BASES FOR THE STUDY OF THE LABOR EXPECTATIONS OF THE STUDENTS OF THE METROPOLITAN UNIVERSITY: CASE EARLY EDUCATION
APROXIMACIÓN A LAS BASES TEÓRICAS PARA EL ESTUDIO DE LAS EXPECTATIVAS LABORALES DE LOS ESTUDIANTES DE LA UNIVERSIDAD METROPOLITANA: CASO EDUCACIÓN INICIAL
APROXIMAÇÃO DAS BASES TEÓRICAS PARA O ESTUDO DAS EXPECTATIVAS TRABALHISTAS DOS ALUNOS DA UNIVERSIDADE METROPOLITANA: CASO DA FORMAÇÃO INICIAL
Enrique García García1
1San Pablo CEU University. Spain.
ABSTRACT
The main objective of this study is to compare the labor expectations of the students of the Initial Education degree with those of the students of the Service Professionalization Program of the Metropolitan University, in addition to this, it has three specific objectives that consist of investigating and verifying the job expectations of both groups and describe both income profiles. The present non-experimental descriptive and comparative research with quantitative methodology aims at highlighting sustainable communication as a potentially determining factor towards its objectives.
KEY WORDS: labor expectations, professionalization, university students, job, education.
RESUMEN
El presente estudio tiene como objetivo principal crear un marco teórico sobre el que comparar las expectativas laborales de los estudiantes de la carrera de Educación Inicial con las de los estudiantes del Programa de Profesionalización en Servicio de la Universidad Metropolitana, aunado a esto posee tres objetivos específicos que constan de indagar y constatar las expectativas laborales de ambos grupos y describir ambos perfiles de ingreso. La presente investigación no experimental de tipo descriptivo con metodología cuantitativa busca un enfoque orientado hacia la comunicación sostenible como principio potencialmente determinante para sus objetivos.
PALABRAS CLAVE: expectativas laborales, profesionalización, estudiantes universitarios, trabajo, educación.
RESUMO
O principal objetivo deste estudo é comparar as expectativas de trabalho dos alunos do curso de Educação Inicial com as dos alunos do Programa de Profissionalização de Serviços da Universidade Metropolitana, além disso, possui três objetivos específicos que consistem em investigar e verificar a expectativas de trabalho de ambos os grupos e descrever os dois perfis de renda. A presente pesquisa descritiva e comparativa não experimental, com metodologia quantitativa, busca uma abordagem orientada para a comunicação sustentável como um princípio potencialmente determinante para seus objetivos
PALAVRAS CHAVE: expectativas trabalhistas, profissionalização, estudantes universitários, trabalho, educação.
Translation by:
Paula González (Universidad Católica Andrés Bello, Venezuela).
Correspondence:
Enrique García García. San Pablo CEU University. Spain. garcicomunicacion@gmail.com
Received: 08/06/2020.
Accepted: 27/08/2020.
Published: 15/11/2020.
How to cite the article:
García García, E. (2020). Approach to the theoretical bases for the study of the labor expectations of the students of the Metropolitan University: case early education. [Aproximación a las bases teóricas para el estudio de las expectativas laborales de los estudiantes de la Universidad Metropolitana: caso educación inicial]. Revista de Comunicación de la SEECI, 53, 153-164. doi: https://doi.org/10.15198/seeci.2020.53.153-164
Retrieved from http://www.seeci.net/revista/index.php/seeci/article/view/651
1. INTRODUCTION
The word expectation derives from the Latin exspect?tum, which means the hope of accomplishing or achieving something (Great Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary).
Pinazo, Gracia, and Carrero (2000) point out that:
Expectations are the result of the person’s interaction with the situation they are in. A result caused by the subjective perception of the environment. It is possible to have developed an understanding of the work situation regarding certain aspects of the job before facing the work experience. This elaboration, in young people who have no previous work experience, can develop during anticipatory socialization. In this sense, young people whose anticipatory socialization has allowed them to develop thoughts regarding certain work aspects will be able to foresee the possibilities of developing the work role in socialization and respond accordingly (p. 104)
Sustainable communication means communication aimed at promoting sustainable development. This is: communication aimed at drawing attention to sustainable activities, their benefits, and their authors. So that they can benefit from the reputational bonus derived from activities designed a priori to benefit society through sustainable practices. At the university level, we understand that transparency concerning the employability margin of professionals aimed at providing the population with basic education has an intrinsic value in terms of sustainability, as well as socially.
Batlle, Vidondo, Dueñas, Nuñez, and Rodríguez (2009), mention that work expectations are taken as “the choices that involve more realistic aspects, being able to recognize and include a certain knowledge of oneself about abilities and interests, and also aspects of the context” (p. 5).
On the other hand, Bandura (1986), points out that the expectations of results, what we relate as work expectations, can be of three types:
Caram, Gil, and Naigeboren (2009) point out that in Education Sciences there is ambiguity regarding professional expectations when entering the career. The authors observed that in the first years of the career, only a minority linked the role of the pedagogue with the teaching function, while in the last stage of the career, professional expectations widen and open to other fields of work insertion. Besides this, they highlight that in the education career it is possible that there are misinformation and degradation of the importance of the teaching profession, which directly and negatively influences the interest of new students when considering it as their future profession, believing that it will not meet their job expectations.
In 2018, Laura Ocanto and Valerie Tirado carried out a research project entitled: “Study of the work expectations of the initial education career at the Metropolitan University” tutored by Professor Natalia Castañón. It was of a descriptive non-experimental design and a mixed methodology, whose general objective was “To determine the work expectations of the students of the Initial Education career at the Metropolitan University to contribute to the process of continuous improvement of academic quality” (p.19).
2. OBJECTIVES
Create a theoretical framework that makes it easier to compare the work expectations of the students of the initial education career with those of the students of the service professionalization program of the Metropolitan University in a complementary academic work that inquires about the work expectations of the students of the Service Professionalization program; allows you to discover the entry profile of the students of the Service Professionalization program, and help to verify the job expectations of the Initial Education career and the Service Professionalization program.
3. METHODOLOGY
It will be based on a meticulous collection of objectively pertinent academic and scientific literature, selected with the criteria of suitability for the collection of information on the entity studied or on its background and most important facets, as well as those of its students and their characteristics, which are the human object of this study. A descriptive non-experimental model made up of two variables: characteristics of higher education students and job expectations. As well as the figures and statistics that may be of special interest exclusively for the short-term objective of establishing a coherent theoretical framework.
4. DEVELOPMENT
4.1. Work Expectations
For years, it has been tried to see how professional interests develop. In this sense, Bandura, (1986) considers that the cognitive-social approach is determined by the expectations of self-efficacy and the expectations of results.
Self-efficacy is the set of beliefs in one’s own abilities to organize and execute the courses of action required to produce certain achievements or results (Bandura, 1986).
For Bandura (1986), the beliefs that a person has play an essential role in their motivations. In this sense, self-efficacy refers to the confidence that a person has that they have the ability to do the activities they undertake. The judgments that the person makes about their self-efficacy are specific to the tasks and situations in which they are involved, and people use them to refer to some type of goal or task to be achieved.
4.1.1. Work Insertion
Work insertion is the term commonly used to refer to the individuals´ process of incorporation into economic activity. This process tends to coincide, for the majority of the members of modern society, with the youth stage and, therefore, it comes to consist of a social transition that goes from positions of the educational system and the family of origin towards positions of the job market and family independence (Gutiérrez and García, (n/d)).
Work insertion is understood as the integration of the individual into the work market, so Palacio and Álvarez (n/d) speak about the fact that the job market presupposes the existence of an employee and a job seeker, that hires the worker in exchange for remuneration (salary). Said links are mediated by the guarantees provided by the State. These norms are established and modified as the circumstances and interests of the social groups involved change.
4.1.2. Work
Work is an activity, carried out by one or more people, oriented towards a purpose, the provision of a service or the production of a good that has an objective and external reality to the subject who produced it, with a social utility: the satisfaction of a personal or other people’s need. Work, understood in this way, involves the entire human being who puts into action their capacities and not only their physiological and biological dimensions, since at the same time that they support a static load, with gestures and postures they display their physical strength, mobilizes the psychic and mental dimensions.
4.2. University Education
4.2.1. History
The Venezuelan university educational subsystem, according to official sources from the National Council of Universities, had, in 2005, 6 autonomous universities, 16 national experimental universities, 24 private universities, 9 university colleges, and 99 university institutes, between public and private (Rojas, 2005).
Therefore, Rojas (2005) mentions that this system had its beginnings in 1696 with the inauguration of the magnificent, royal, and seminary Colegio de Santa Rosa de Santa María de Lima de Santiago de León de Caracas from which it will be erected in 1721 the Royal and Pontifical University of Caracas, the author mentions that this was an institutional, pedagogical, scientific, and cultural process that is still taken into account for Venezuelan historical research.
Between 1726 and 1827, the colonial period, properly speaking, of our university took place until the statutory reform of 1827, decreed by the Liberator Simón Bolívar. It is the first republican university reform, which predates the modernization of university studies in the late 19th century, under the influence of positivism. In this period, our second university was created, the University of Mérida, in 1808, whose antecedent is found in the Major Seminary of San Buenaventura de Mérida de los Caballeros, founded in 1785.
Between 1936 and 1958, it was the transitional stage in which the bases were formed for the expansion of the national university system with the reopening of the University of Zulia in 1946 and of the University of Carabobo in 1958. In this same period, it was created in Caracas the first two private universities in the country, the Santa María University, non-denominational, and the Andrés Bello Catholic University, by the Society of Jesus, both in 1953.
Between 1958 and 1970, it was defined the legal status of a new educational subsystem that began to grow and diversify with the emergence, alongside the Autonomous Universities and private Universities, of the National Experimental University model, finally regulated as a whole by the Law of Universities of 1970.
Currently, Venezuelan University Education is governed by a set of principles, laws, and norms, therefore, it should be noted that the purposes, structure, and operation of higher education in Venezuela are defined in the National Constitution (1999) in a varied set of laws and regulations, among which the Organic Law of Education (2009), the Organic Law of the Central Administration (2018), and the Law of Universities (1970) stand out, all of which require reforms to fully adapt to the principles and to the spirit of the new Constitution (Morales, Medina, and Álvarez (2009).
4.3. Main Actors of University Education
The Royal Spanish Academy defines a Student as “a person who studies in a teaching center”, students are the protagonists of a higher education entity because they are the ones who are going to be educated.
The Venezuelan University Law refers to teaching and research staff as the faculty or academic staff of universities and, by extension, those of other higher education institutions (Morales, Medina, and Álvarez, 2009).
In higher education institutions there are unions that group employees, which in most national universities are constituted as Employee Associations. The workers’ sector is grouped in the United Workers’ Unions. Both forms of association have their national representatives in the National Federation of Higher Education Workers (FENATESV by its acronym in Spanish). Most of the higher education institutions have programs to improve their workers in areas related to the services they provide to the university, besides the fact that some unions promote initiatives to improve their members (Morales, Medina, and Álvarez, (2009).
For the Royal Spanish Academy, the term “Graduate” means “to come out of somewhere”. The graduate is considered a main actor in higher education because this is the one who will represent the academic entity from which they graduated to the world (Morales, Medina, and Álvarez, (2009).
4.4. World Declaration on University Education in the 21st Century: Vision and Action
Access to higher education should be actively facilitated for members of some specific groups, such as indigenous peoples, cultural and linguistic minorities, disadvantaged groups, peoples living in occupation, and people suffering from disabilities, since these groups, both collectively and individually, may possess experiences and talents that could be very valuable for the development of societies and nations. Special material assistance and educational solutions can help overcome the obstacles encountered by these groups both to access higher education and to carry out studies at that level (World Declaration on Higher Education in the 21st Century cited in Silvio, 2000).
Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights says that access to higher education should be based on the merits, capacity, efforts, perseverance, and determination of the applicants and, in the perspective of lifelong education, it may take place at any age, taking due account of previously acquired skills.
Consequently, in access to higher education, no discrimination based on race, sex, language, religion, or economic, cultural, or social considerations, or physical disabilities may be admitted (World Declaration on Higher Education in the 21st century cited in Silvio, 2000).
It is also important to highlight that according to the World Declaration on Higher Education in the 21st Century cited in Silvio (2000), the diversification of higher education models and the modalities and criteria of recruitment are essential to respond to the international trend of massification of the demand and at the same time to give access to different modes of education and to expand access to increasingly diverse public groups, with a view to life-long education, which means that it is possible to enter the higher education system and get out of it easily(...) More diversified higher education systems mean new types of post-secondary educational establishments, public, private, and non-profit, among others. Such institutions should offer a wide range of educational and training possibilities: traditional degrees, short courses, part-time study, flexible hours, modular courses, assisted distance learning, etc.
4.5. Metropolitan University
4.5.1. History
The Metropolitan University (n/d.) had its beginnings in the 1960s, and Eugenio Mendoza Goiticoa stands out as one of the main leaders of this management. In May 1964, a non-profit civil association was created and from this, the Metropolitan University was born.
In 1970, specifically on October 1st, with the consent of the National Council of Universities (CNU by its acronym in Spanish), the authorization of the organization, plans, and programs of said institution was approved. The Metropolitan University began its activities on October 22nd, 1970, constituting its only headquarters in El Colegio América, located in San Bernardino, Caracas. This project started offering only the following careers: Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Administrative Sciences, and Mathematics. It is well known that the icon that represents the Metropolitan University is the saman tree, this has a place in the first tree that was in the San Bernardino headquarters, being the proof of the 198 students who represented the first generation of UNIMET. At this time, there were 29 full-time professors. Six years later, the Metropolitan University established its headquarters in Terrazas del Ávila, thanks to the donation of the lands of Hacienda La Urbina (UNIMET, history, (n/d)
4.5.2. Mission and Vision
Mission: To train professionals recognized for their high ethical level, solid comprehensive education, for their entrepreneurial, leadership, and teamwork skills, proficient in at least one second language, and committed to the development of the productive sector and society in general.
Vision: Strengthen UNIMET as a university institution recognized for the competitiveness and comprehensive education of its graduates, noted for the quality and relevance of its intellectual and technical production, for the value it assigns to the ethical conduct of its members, and for the permanent effort and commitment to respond to the changing realities of the national and international environment.
4.5.3. CLDE Academic Model (Collaborative Learning in Distributed Environments)
UNIMET has created its own educational model, the objective of which is to prepare a graduate with comprehensive education, relevant professional skills, managerial and entrepreneurial capacity (...) and is aimed at fulfilling the Mission of the Metropolitan University, whose fundamental aspects are a solid comprehensive education, the development of entrepreneurial capacity, leadership development, command of the English language, connection and commitment to society, and relationship with the productive sector (UNIMET, Academic Models, (n/d)
4.5.4. Ways of Entry
The Metropolitan University to enter its undergraduate program has several entry ways: Diagnostic Exam, Location, and Comprehensive Evaluation (PDU), Preparation Course for Higher Studies (CPES), and Comprehensive Evaluation.
4.5.5. Faculty of Sciences and Arts
The Faculty of Sciences and Arts offers four careers within it, these are: Education, Modern Languages, Industrial Mathematics, and Psychology. The Faculty of Sciences and Arts has nine departments. In parallel, the Faculty of Sciences and Arts encompasses a large part of the teaching, research, and extension activity of the Metropolitan University, dedicated to the teaching and research of science and technology, according to a scientific, social, and humanistic conception (UNIMET, Faculty of Sciences and Arts, (n/d).
4.5.6. Education career at UNIMET
The mission of the Metropolitan University in terms of the career of Education is to train its students to practice teaching, research, social-community development, and the administration of education. This program is aimed at promoting change in the Venezuelan pedagogical vision, based on educational practice with an innovative sense. (UNIMET, career of education, (n/d).
This Education program has the possibility of obtaining both a Higher Technician in Education degree or, if preferred, you can obtain a Bachelor of Education degree (UNIMET, career of education, (n/d).
The flowchart of this career is special since all the subjects are included in modules, where knowledge is classified by its similarities and links between them, in addition to this, the course of the subjects is free, that is, there are no priorities between the subjects of the modules, promoting in this way, comprehensive education and self-management (UNIMET, Education Career, (n/d) (Ocanto and Tirado, 2018).
4.5.7. Initial Education Career at UNIMET
The career encourages you to do internships, these internships respond to five (5) stages, which are: General Teaching Practice; Maternal Phase Teaching Practice, Preschool Phase Teaching Practice, Transition Phase Teaching Practice, and Non-Conventional Program Teaching Practice. Subsequently, this career also allows internships with adults, which would be Teaching Trial and Educational Manager practices (UNIMET, Initial Education Career, (n/d).
4.5.8. Initial Education Curriculum
The Initial Education curriculum is the most important instrument that a teacher can have. This gives tools to the future teacher to optimize the learning of their students at the beginning of their schooling (…) and guarantee the success and comprehensive training of useful citizens (Nadal, (n/d).
Education in Venezuela is governed by the Initial Education Curriculum, which was published by the Popular Ministry for Education in 2005.
4.5.9. Program of Professionalization in Service at UNIMET
Currently, the Service Professionalization Program has 68 participants immersed in the different mentions offered by the Metropolitan University. (UNIMET, professionalization program, (n/d).
Objectives:
4.5.10 Study Regime
The study regime proposed by the Metropolitan University to study Education under the modality of Service Professionalization can be carried out in four (4) years through the quarterly arrangement. The studies that the student has, which have been previously approved, have the possibility of being recognized by the relevant authorities.
To approve the degree, you must present, in the same way, the Degree Project. (UNIMET, professionalization program, (n/d).
5. CONCLUSIONS
We have established a descriptive framework of the Venezuelan university reality from which it is possible to start a comparative study on the employability of the students under study. On this basis, a quantitative investigation will be carried out by Natalia Castañón Octavio, Giovanna González Reyes, and Valeria Lupo Carbone. We maintain our hypothesis regarding transparency and education as fundamental bases of sustainable development, and therefore the need to evaluate and communicate the complete results of this dual research.
The education programs described are comprehensive and are visibly aimed at employability on paper. But given the paramount importance of initial education within the general teaching curriculum, a test of its actual effectiveness is in order.
AUTHOR
Enrique García García
Bachelor of Journalism and Humanities from the San Pablo CEU University, Master CES in audiovisual communication. He has practiced radio production and production on national channels, with special emphasis on the application of new technologies to old and new programming formats, as well as to the informative fields of culture, electronic entertainment and national information. He currently focuses his interest on the academic analysis of the phenomenon of post-truth, infoxication and false news, with a view to drawing applicable conclusions in the fight against said phenomena.
Garcicomunicacion@gmail.com
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1872-5013