Original article

Family orientation, its theoretical positioning and impact on the school-family-community relationship

0000-0003-1585-8280Miladis Vargas Fernández^{1  *}  , 0000-0002-7556-341XMayelin Cabezas Salmon²  , 0000-0002-2083-3136Ana Norvis Caballero Rodríguez² 

¹ Dirección Municipal de Educación. Cuba.

²Universidad de Oriente. Santiago de Cuba. Cuba.

ABSTRACTS

The aim of this paper is to offer a general perspective of the conceptual bases on family orientation, seen as an important tool in the formative process with the first ages and to strengthen the school-family-community relationship, which originates different disquisitions when it comes to this work in socially complex communities. It is based on the importance of the family-school-community relationship in the professional performance of the primary teacher for the fulfillment of the guiding function to the families. A systematization of the theoretical references that has made possible to characterize the particularities of this process in Cuba has been carried out.

Key words: Family guidance; School-family-community relationship; Educational agencies; Community context

Introduction

In its most general meaning, family counseling is understood as a process of help, it is also a way of understanding with the educational institution. It has been interpreted as a set of techniques and professional practices aimed at strengthening the capacities and connections that unite the members of the same family system, with the purpose of making them healthy, effective and capable of promoting the personal growth of each of the family members and their emotional and affective ties. Becoming a service of help and support to families who are having difficulties in their life cycle, which aims to enhance their resources and skills, serving as prevention against possible more serious psychosocial disorders.

Family orientation has a procedural, gradual and progressive character that affects the establishment of certain home-school relationships, a way used by the primary teacher to diagnose the family's problems and project its attention on objective bases.

Family orientation becomes a latent problem within the functions of the primary school teacher, since the importance of the family in the growth and development of individuals is recognized. However, in the professional practice of the primary school teacher, the tendency has been to carry out programs and projects of personal, educational and vocational-professional guidance, without taking into account the characteristics of the socio-community context where the families of the child population of the various educational institutions of the country live.

The education of future generations of Cubans has among its principles to promote the school-family-community relationship, as the basis on which the Cuban social project rests. It is a feasible way to promote the ethical and responsible formation of the subjects. If this base does not have the necessary solidity to carry out the Cuban social project, fissures will emerge that will weaken civic behavior in society.

It is a matter of addressing a problem present in integral education, the relationship school¬-family-community; in this particular case, the behavior of the process of orientation to families in socially complex communities is studied in depth, with the purpose of preparing families in the fulfillment of their educational management.

This article socializes a research developed within the framework of the institutional project: Trasversal Project: Institution-wide instruments for high performance research, innovation and technology transfer, IUC-UO VLIR. The main objective of the research carried out in order to promote doctoral training, one of the pressing issues was directed to the work in vulnerable communities, therefore, a general perspective on family counseling is offered, through a critical analysis of its theoretical positioning and the impact on the school-family-community relationship.

The contributions of authors such as ^{Jaramillo, 2002} and ^{Repetto, Pena, Mudarra, & Uribarri, 2007} are particularly important and valuable references in their study; they coincide in recognizing the work with the family as an interdisciplinary activity of teachers, psychologists, sociologists, physicians and other specialists.

There is, of course, a wide range of perspectives on family counseling and on the problems that are a priority. Various authors have found it difficult to define it according to its scope and contexts of action.

The systematization carried out was based on the theory of systems or general theory of systems that makes possible the interdisciplinary approach in the study of systems in general and in the case in question, it delves into the study of family counseling as part of the framework of relationships established between family-school-community.

In various academic fields it is fully accepted that guidance is not only a simple consultation; it is a process of actions and practices that take place in several moments with the main purpose of helping the person to become aware of himself; of the ways in which he interacts with others and of the influences he exerts and suffers in order to classify his problems and the possibilities he has to overcome them (^{Portero, 1990}).

Regarding guidance (Martínez de Codès, 1998) refers that it has been treated from different approaches, both as a process that helps the person to make vocational decisions, as a way of advising the individual for the resolution of personal and/or social problems, as a system or model of intervention that provides assistance to the subject and more recently, as a transversal axis of the curriculum. It is present in the actions undertaken by the teacher in the school and out-of-school context.

About guidance E. ^{Gómez, A.L. Gómez and Núñez (2019}) indicate that "guidance in itself contemplates individual and social objectives, since at the same time that it benefits the full development of man, it makes him capable of contributing more to society" (p. 84).

On the other hand (^{Jaramillo, 2002}), when referring to the joint work between the family and the school, highlights the importance of achieving a harmonious and planned work, since the result of this guidance process will have an impact and will be part of the coexistence of the student, both in the family and in the context of the educational institution.

Undoubtedly, guidance is a complex term, which made necessary the exhaustive search of diverse sources that contributed to the approach of its understanding. For the development of the study, it was necessary to analyze its meaning, the principles that govern it and its social function from the point of view of different sciences.

In coherence with the framework provided by the literature and the objectives of the study, an interpretative approach was chosen, articulating it with a qualitative research method (^{Taylor & Bogdan, 1992}), in order to discern in the data offered by the people participating in the research and to carry out the necessary feedback to determine the particularities of the process from the reflection of their contributions, as evidences that support the development of family counseling in socially complex communities. (^{Johnston y Rabbins, 1977})

Development

Several definitions of orientation have been provided as a theoretical construct. This word comes from the verb orient, which has its origin in the Latin oriric whose meaning is "to be born". The word orient is derived from the Orient from where the Sun rises. In ancient times people were oriented by the position of the sun to determine their relative location, it was essentially the existing way to locate themselves in time and space. Nothing far from its current function when our children and young people demand orientation for better decision making.

Guidance, as a formal and scientifically based activity, began to be instituted worldwide within the educational process at the beginning of the 20th century. In the understanding of guidance as a science (^{Repetto et al., 2007}), they consider that it is the action deployed from an educational perspective. This facilitates its usefulness for the application and evaluation of exchanges aimed at the development and optimized change of the client and his/her context.

In its understanding as a process, it has been given importance as the help offered by a duly trained person to another person or group of people. In this way, it contributes to the subjects learning to know themselves and their environment, discovering their potential and limitations, so that they can choose, decide and make responsible life projects for the sake of full health.

^{Pino (2009}) considers it as the scientific activity deployed by the teacher to effectively help someone at a given time and space, to facilitate the highest level of personal growth possible according to the specific stage of development they are in and their specific social and personal situation. In this way, they focus the attention of guidance on counseling the student.

In the particular case of family guidance, authors such as (^{Lautin, 2014}) agree that family guidance is the way to strengthen the link of socializing systems in the attention to a diversity that reaches particular dimensions in the Cuban social context. This aspect is relevant due to the impact it has on the training process, which shows the constant enrichment of guidance to assume its integrative conception, through foundations that support the relationship between the teacher and the family, with emphasis on socio-educational contexts. This makes clear its conceptual, guiding and contextualized function in the formation of students coming from families in socially complex communities.

In the guidance process, communication is essential to lead the sensitization and involvement of the subjects, as well as the identification by the counselor of those subjective units of development to promote and mobilize the action in order to stimulate the fulfillment of the educational function of the family.

The community context and educational agencies

With the development of the Third Improvement Process of the National Education System, from 2011 to the present, the search for new ways to manage the school-family-community integration as a way to meet the demands and challenges in terms of raising the quality of the educational process is proposed.

The literature shows how the term orientation is intertwined between different currents of psychological and pedagogical thought. There is evidence of a sustained inclination to integrate the school institution with other social factors in the guidance process. These modes of action include the intention to take as a reference the particularities of the educational context, in correspondence with the educational policy and the Cuban pedagogical tradition.

The active participation of all community agencies and community agents in the educational process is a determining factor for the aspiration of making this an efficient process in which the teacher's work is a determining factor. In this regard, it is pointed out that "educators are usually the first professionals to suspect that something is happening and are the ones who raise the first alarms. They are also the first to begin to intervene, even when there is still no final diagnosis of the existing need" (^{Bermúdez and Delgado, 2019}, page. 9).

En la praxis se hace evidente que la orientación a la familia le compete a diferentes agentes sociales; sin embargo es la escuela como centro cultural de la comunidad, la responsable de orientar el desempeño de su labor educativa, es el maestro quien establece los vínculos de la escuela con la familia, donde la institución educativa rige el sistema de influencias que de conjunto con la familia, las organizaciones políticas y de masas; así como de las restantes instituciones de la comunidad inciden en la educación de los escolares.

In this regard (^{Isagué, 2019}) refers that it is part of a system of contexts, the school context, family context and social or community context. He adds that a necessary and coherent relationship must be established between these contexts, since all three act on a single subject - the learner - and also respond to common objectives.

The diagnosis and the characteristics of each family within the social or community environment is essential to project and coordinate the actions to be carried out in terms of educational work. It is not only about the socialization process of the individual, but also about the realization of social and moral values, respect for ethics and appropriate civic behavior.

Family orientation is undoubtedly a priority for the whole process of preparation that the family requires in order to face its educational work. It confers it more appropriate variants in the educational process and in terms of decision making. Its multidisciplinary, systemic and systematic character is directed to address the limitations identified in the family and community context. The extension of this view, where the socio-community context is prioritized and the conscious participation of educational agencies as the integrating axis of this process.

Conclusiones

The different conceptions about guidance nowadays have a holistic approach; significantly influencing the different educational contexts, promoting a guidance focused on the subject as an integrated whole.

A call is made in relation to the process of family guidance, seen from an inclusive approach that contributes to transform the influence of the school in the relationship with families in the diversity of socio-community contexts.

In the search for the integrating logic of the multifactorial management of the primary teacher in the process of family orientation in socially complex urban communities, it is necessary to increase the participation of the family social group in order to achieve consensus in the process of making timely decisions regarding the relevant social development of schoolchildren.

All with the objective of improving the quality of life and human development of the inhabitants of socially complex communities; that in the medium and long term, favorably affect the establishment of stable community social relations and the involvement of the family and the school institution, effectiveness of the professional performance of the primary teacher as the main mediating agent in the process of transformation of the community socio-cultural dimension of family guidance in diverse contexts.

Referencias bibliográficas

Bermúdez, G. E y Delgado, L. A. (2019). Orientación familiar hacia padres con hijos que poseen una necesidad educativa especial, Revista Atlante: Cuadernos de Educación y Desarrollo. https://www.eumed.net/rev/atlante/2019/07/

Gómez, E.; Gómez, Á.; & Núñez, O.(2019). El trabajo de orientación a las familias de educandos con disfasia del desarrollo (Original). Roca. Revista Científico - Educacional De La Provincia Granma, 15(2), 80-90. https://revistas.udg.co.cu/index.php/roca/article

Isagué, R. (2019). Procedimiento para la gestión del trabajo metodológico de la Dirección Municipal de Educación con los agentes educativos, EduSol, 19, Núm. Especial. http://edusol.cug.co.cu

Jaramillo, J. (2002). Familia y colegio. Colombia: Grupo editorial Norma

Johnston, R. & Rabbins, D. (1977). The development of specialties in industrialised science. TheSociologicalReview, 25: 87-108. https://doi:10.1111/j.1467-954X.1977.tb00280.x

Lautin, I. (2014). La orientación a familias en situación educativa compleja por reclusión de padres, madres o tutores de escolares primarios. Tesis presentada en opción al grado científico de Doctor en Ciencias Pedagógicas. http://eduniv.reduniv.edu.cu/

Pino, E. (2009). La dirección científica educacional en la compleja sociedad del siglo XXI. Curso 20 Congreso Internacional de Pedagogía. La Habana.

Portero, L (1990). La orientación familiar una cuestión social. Familia. Revista de Ciencia y Orientación Familiar, 1(5). Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca. pp.7-26.

Repetto, E.; Pena, M.; Mudarra, M.J. & Uribarri, M. (2007). Orientación de las competencias socioemocionales de los alumnos de Educación Secundaria en contextos multiculturales. Revista Electrónica de Investigación Psicoeducativa, Vol. 5(1). ISSN: 1696-2095. pp: 159-178

Taylor, J. & Bogdan, R. (1992). Introducción a los Métodos Cualitativos en Investigación. Barcelona: Paidós.

Received: March 15, 2022; Accepted: July 10, 2022

^* Author for correspondence: [e-mail]