Original article

Educational management and family orientation for pedagogical vocational training in lower secondary school

0000-0003-1378-6869Nelsa Caridad Semanat Aguilera^{1  *}  , 0000-0002-7718-1052Martha Gloria Martinez Isaac²  , 0000-0002-7715-8493Yorleidis Parra Diburt¹ 

¹Dirección Municipal de Educación. Cuba

²Universidad de Oriente. Cuba

ABSTRACT

Atempered to the needs that social transformations impose and that require better prepared professionals from the vocation, this article aims to develop a system of actions to enhance the process of family orientation for pedagogical vocational training in Basic Secondary and cause a social impact in the training context, with a proactive and multi-intentional dynamics, methods were used as: document review, analysis and synthesis, surveys, interviews, descriptive statistics, among others. The implementation of the proposal guarantees changes from the formative management and favors the pedagogical continuity of the territory.

Key words: Management; Guidance; Families; Vocational training; Professional guidance

Introduction

The formation of new generations is a subject of obligatory analysis and a pending task for any social system and within this for educators; particularly when it comes to perfecting an educational model that transversalizes all the elements whose purpose is to return to society a product that can give continuity to social projects from a transforming perspective.

The baselines that support the elaboration and continuous updating of the Institutional Educational Project as one of the forms of work that dynamize educational management, must guarantee that innovative proposals are elaborated, evaluated and approved according to the social diagnosis of the communities where the educational institutions are located and the real interests of the students.

A curriculum that takes into account the motivations and interests of the members of the school community, with emphasis on the students, will be an evident sign of the progressive construction of the hopes and dreams of the adolescents and young people of that institution and will contribute to the construction of optimal life decisions.

The pedagogical practice leads us to recognize and agree with other researchers that ignorance is the main reason why adolescents do not have clarity in the order of priorities about the careers to study, essentially the pedagogical specialties as a valid option for the continuity of studies and focus it as a life project that in the future will be their livelihood and that of their families.

The support, accompaniment and understanding of family members is fundamental, guided by the experience of teachers and other educational agents of the institutions. The importance of vocational training and professional orientation towards pedagogical careers and the recognition of its current and future impact on the guarantee of pedagogical continuity, based on the country's traditions, is a subject evaluated by several authors, adjusted to the social context from the point of view of the management of the training and continuous improvement of teachers.

Among the researchers who have addressed the issue of the family and its role in the guidance process we can cite, ^{Avila (2016}) who highlights families and peer groups as other actors in the professional guidance of students in Higher Secondary Education in Cuba, ^{Barrera (2016}) and ^{Cueto et al. (2014}). It is assumed with sense and purpose the research of ^{Padilla et al. (2019}), who express the urgency of gaining cohesion between school and family, contributing to the achievement of better results in the process of pedagogical professional guidance.

In this way, the teachers' functions become more complex, hence the need to improve the ways of acting with respect to the methods and ways to carry out a family social diagnosis of the students that provides the appropriate instruments to take to higher levels the process of vocational training and professional orientation towards pedagogical careers in the Basic Secondary School from the family orientation.

Manifestations of the initial diagnosis

Insufficient teacher management for family orientation associated with vocational training for teaching careers.

Insufficient selection of teaching careers as first option.

Families transmit inadequate patterns

Inadequate design of the system of methodological activities that make possible a better preparation of teachers to develop family orientation activities.

Lack of creativity in the planning and development of institutional curriculum activities to achieve a real transformation in the process of vocational training and professional orientation towards pedagogical careers, involving all members of the school community.

In this order, it is pertinent to emphasize that the study carried out reveals the need to reevaluate the educational management directed to the process of vocational training and professional orientation towards pedagogical careers from the family as the family as the guarantors of the preparation regarding the fulfillment of their orientation intention towards the pedagogical profession in their children.

We worked with a population made up of 3 Basic Secondary Schools of the Palmero territory with a total of 15 teachers, 3 directors, 8 officials and students, as well as families and other agents of the school community agencies as part of the school and socio-educational network.

Development

For the theoretical deepening around the declared problematic and the search for possible solutions, we start from a social concept given by ^{González (2019}) and materialized in each classroom space of the Cuban territory, referred to the fact that education is a right of all and not a privilege of a few.

Evidently, the ways in which the preparation actions are developed, have not contributed effectively to solve the previous problem, which biases the educational management of the family in terms of the future choice of the profession of their children, in this case pedagogical careers. Therefore, the criterion cited by ^{Pérez (2019}) is assumed, who evaluates aspects of the raised problematic by denoting that it is revealed the insufficient coherence in the relationships that should be established between the different forms of preparation to the family, the non-use in a harmonic way of the school diagnosis and the elevation of the quality of their learning from the fulfillment of the educational management of their parents.

Consequently, it is suggested that the work of preparing teachers based on the institutional design is insufficient from the methodological point of view, which reaffirms the previous statements. In other words, the work of teachers is limited because they do not have enough tools to favor the integration of the forms of guidance to the family based on the diagnosis of their preparation needs, since the documents that regulate this work go more to the description of the problem than to the guidance and demonstration of how to solve it.

This requires teachers to transform the way in which they manage their continuous improvement and preparation in order to materialize the actions that, from the institutional educational projects, are designed to develop the process of guidance to families and students.

There are many national and foreign authors who have dealt with the subject of guidance and within this the professional guidance, ^{Ávila (2016}) stands out, who defines it as:

A vital activity in the preparation of young people for their insertion into the labor market. Both school and out-of-school socializing agencies participate in this activity. Among the latter, the family and peer groups are gaining prominence as agencies providing professional orientation among young people, given their capacity to respond to the challenges imposed by the changing contemporary labor environment. (p. 133).

In order to achieve these purposes, it is necessary to guarantee a coherent work that starts from the first moments of development, taking advantage of all the possibilities offered by the teaching-educational process to transmit to the students knowledge that challenges them to search for their own spaces to create and develop from the potentialities that each one of them possesses.

The management indicators designed for the research were:

1. Motivational profile associated with the profession of adolescents and young people in the Cuban Educational System.

2. Vocational training at the Basic Secondary Education level.

3. The dynamics of vocational training towards pedagogical careers.

4. Family approach to pedagogical vocational guidance

Actions to enhance the teacher's work in the process of family orientation towards pedagogical careers in Basic Secondary School:

The actions, are organized in a logical and coherent manner in their stages of diagnosis, planning, execution and evaluation, make it possible to characterize and transform the state of the family orientation process, creating as a resulting quality the new relationships that are established between the Institutional Educational Project and the family actions in function of the vocational development of the students.

For the elaboration of the proposal, it is assumed as identifying features:

• The systemic approach with predominance of coordination relationships.

• The conception in basic moments and corresponding to interrelated stages.

• It is concretized in the logic and development of the work and functionality of the forms of work of the Third Improvement of the Educational System, as a dynamizing element of the actions to be carried out in the process of family orientation for vocational training in Basic Secondary Education.

• The dialectic character in its conception from the constant changes and adaptations in correspondence with the social context.

• Its applicability at the moment and as a condition that does not contradict that one or several of its actions can be repeated in other contexts.

• It constitutes an eminently practical contribution, which has a theoretical foundation when considering its conception from an elaborated model that serves as support.

• It imposes stability and continuously tends to reconcile these forces with those of change based on the baselines that support the development of the Institutional Educational Project.

These in turn indicate the urgency of improving the cohesive work between school and family, in order to achieve better results in the process of vocational training and pedagogical professional guidance, an aspect considered to be improved from the point of view of educational management.

In the analysis carried out with the indicators, it became evident:

• Level of evaluation of the reaction of the training act: The aim is to seek the satisfaction of the subjects according to the training, taking into account the correlation between training needs and personal expectations. Operationalization: Adequate/inadequate.

• Level of development reached in the participants of the training: characterized by an inquiry of the transformations that have been occurring in the subjects (learners and teachers) as a result of the influence of the training actions and variants conceived and applied in the context under analysis. Operationalization: Adequate/Inadequate

• Level of transfer achieved by the participants: which seeks to investigate and assess how what has been learned through the various training activities has been applied in one or more contexts.

Operationalization: Adequate/ inadequate

• Level of changes produced in the performance contexts of the subjects: also called transferred contextual effect, since it assesses the durability of what has been learned through one or more training variants. It combines the level of development achieved by the subjects, their transfer and personal improvement. Operationalization: Adequate/inadequate

• Level of motivation towards pedagogical careers: Also referred to as the learners' interest that favors pedagogical vocational training. Operationalization: Adequate/inadequate.

• Level of involvement of the family in educational management for vocational training in pedagogical careers: Given in the follow-up and control of objectives, contents included in academic management and the characteristics for the adequate development of the adolescent in the school and family context.

Operationalization: Adequate/inadequate.

Statistical techniques for the presentation and analysis of information:

Descriptive analysis with numbers and by hundreds.

Nonparametric X2 Square test:

The X2 square test was used to test hypotheses about whether certain data are as expected, in addition to association or independence (It is used only in characteristics that can take two values only).

For the development of the diagnosis, information gathering techniques were used with the help of the members of the support group for this research:

Interviews: direct oral interrogation that allows observing the subjectivity of the answers of the person to whom the instrument is applied.

Surveys: indirect interrogation where an anonymous behavior is maintained and elements related to questions that address the topic are openly expressed.

Observation: observation of classes or other activities complementary to the Educational Teaching Process was carried out on the basis of the proposed guide.

Methodological preparation system: in this technique, the entire planning process and the procedural and cognitive organizational scheme addressed were verified.

School of Family Education: As a participatory technique, it has the objective of exchanging experiences based on the diagnosis; it should encourage debate and collective reflection in neighborhoods and communities.

Interviews: 23 teachers, 344 students, 12 families and 44 parents or guardians. Table 1.

Table 1: Results of the interview with figures of the formative process in the community. 

Source: Self elaboration

The students prevailed in the application of the interview, representing 81.32%, followed by the parents with 7.09%.

Source: Self elaboration

Graph 1: Results of the interview with figures in the community formation process 

This bar graph 1 reveals an increased tendency in students as a figure of the community formation process, which represents 81.32% with respect to the total.

Surveys to: 9 managers, 12 staff, 35 teachers, 54 learners and 9 parents or guardians. Table 2

Table 2: Results of the survey of educational managers and figures in the community training process. 

Source: Self elaboration

Students prevailed in the application of the survey, representing 45.38%, followed by teachers with 29.41%.

Source: Self elaboration

Graph 2: Results of the survey of educational managers and figures in the formative process in the community  

This graph 2 of composite bars shows that the representativeness of the instrument used was achieved in the students, representing 45.38%, followed by the teachers with 29.41%.

Observation of 11 classes, 7 Methodological Preparations, 10 family education schools and other P-E activities (7). Table 3.

Table 3: Results of participant observation. 

Source: Self elaboration

Classroom observation prevailed, representing 31.43%, followed by family education schools with 28.57%.

Diagnostic results (table 4):

• In relation to the management of the vocational training process towards pedagogical careers by the directors of the institutions and some officials, it is evidenced that it is concentrated in the fulfillment of goals based on figures, for 38.99% (225).

• Only 29.98 (173) % of the methodological preparations in the educational institutions involved in this research, have the intention of treating the topic of family orientation towards pedagogical careers.

• There are insufficient updating, training and improvement activities developed in the educational institutions related to the process of family orientation for vocational training towards pedagogical careers, with only 17.5% (101).

• 44.02% (254) have within their work strategies joint actions with educational institutions aimed at promoting work with families as a different way of motivating them in educational management for the future choice of a pedagogical career.

• In the functioning of the school and socio-educational network, it has not been possible to fully promote the work with vocational training towards pedagogical careers as a necessary priority according to the community diagnosis.

• Only 32.92% (190) of the students state that they are consciously aware of the content of the careers they can opt for at the end of the middle school level.

• 64.99% (375) of the parents state that educational institutions do not always carry out activities in family education schools that integrate aspects related to a personal-occupational project determined in the future of their children, as well as information related to the interests, aptitudes and preferences of the students.

Table 4: Socio-educational and psychological indicators associated with vocational training according to initial factual diagnosis. 

Source: Self elaboration

Conclusions

The research leads us to a reflective process, where it was demonstrated that the implementation of the proposed actions facilitated to confirm the novelty of transforming the educational management of teachers according to the process of family orientation for vocational training in Basic Secondary School, essentially towards pedagogical careers; We note that the new historical and social conditions that determine the context of development of the students oblige us to create and strengthen the leading role played by families and the community as important educational agents in the development of the professional interests of the students; this conception justifies the importance of preparing families to achieve common objectives together with the educational institution.

It was possible to enhance the socio-professional projection of teachers regarding the fulfillment of their role as educators of new generations; the activities of the Group and Institutional Educational Project intend to work in coordination with families and their adequate educational orientation, in order to promote actions aimed at the selection of pedagogical careers; In addition, the functioning of the school network was favored based on coexistence in the different educational environments and inclusive practices at the family, classroom, school and community levels, as one of the premises of the attention to diversity that contribute to the achievement of the goals and objectives of the educational level.

Referencias bibliográficas

Ávila, D. (2016). Familia y grupos de pares: otros protagonistas en la orientación profesional de los estudiantes de la Enseñanza Media Superior cubana. Iberoamericana de Educación, 71(1)

Barrera, I. (2016). El proceso de orientación profesional pedagógica para el desarrollo de intereses profesionales pedagógicos con enfoque grupal en la formación inicial de la carrera Matemática Física (Tesis doctoral, Universidad de Pinar del Río)

Cueto, Y., Cueto, R. & Sánchez, S. (2014). Trascendencia del papel de la familia en el proceso de orientación profesional de sus hijos. Mendive, 12(4), 436-441

González, T. (2019). La educación es un derecho, no un privilegio. Dialogos Sobre educación. Temas actuales en investigación educativa, 10(19). https://doi.org/10.32870/dse.v0i19.611

Padilla, O., Cancio, E. y Del Pino, J. L. (2019). Estrategia con enfoque multifactorial para la orientación profesional pedagógica. Formación y Calidad Educativa. REFCalE, 7(3), 45-59

Pérez, R. M. (2019). La preparación de la familia para el cumplimiento de su gestión educativa en el contexto del pre universitario. (Tesis en opción al grado científico de Doctor en Ciencias Pedagógicas)

Received: February 12, 2024; Revised: April 08, 2024; Accepted: June 04, 2024

^*Autor para la correspondencia: [e-mail]