Sistema Regional de Información
en línea para Revistas Científicas de América Latina,
el Caribe, España y Portugal

Public Technical Secondary Education is a Costa Rican educational modality, conceived as an alternative for the early insertion of the young population in the labor market. Despite its importance at the national level, it is not a central theme of existing academic research about the education system, which rather addresses aspects such as the technical offer of the Instituto Nacional de Aprendizaje, technical specialties, the labor market and evaluation by competences -among others -, leaving aside the formulation, orientation and execution of the Technical Education policy itself. This article arises as a result of a research study to opt for the Bachelor of Social Work degree from the University of Costa Rica, and aims to reconstruct the main elements of the Costa Rican policy of Secondary Technical Education, developed by the Ministry of Public Education (MEP), in the period 1950-2014. The reconstruction is guided by a model of public policy analysis, based on General Systems Theory, and with a mixed methodology of qualitative preponderance of descriptive and exploratory scopes. The population participating in the study is made up of five professionals from MEP with experience in the formulation and implementation of the Technical Education Policy from three different scenarios: educational centers; the Direction of Technical Education, Capacities and Entrepreneurs; and the ministerial function. The main technique for collecting information corresponds to the documentary analysis of the annual reports of MEP's work from 1950-2014, which is complemented by semi-structured interviews with MEP’s professionals. The research concludes that Secondary Technical Education is more an approximation to the labor market than a real guarantee of insertion in it, since the target market is unable to absorb all the labor that is formed

Some results of the research contained in the author´s doctoral thesis are shown around the factors associated with the preparation of master´s and doctoral theses, where the selection of the content made for this article, was the aim was to analyze the factors associated with the elaboration of master and doctoral´s thesis from Universidad Nacional de Asunción, taking data from the 2004-2014. A quali-quantitative study was carry out, with analytical, retrospective and cross-sectional design, with a non-probabilistic sample of 189 research subjects. Significant association between part/full time workX2 (1, N=189)=5,934, p=0,018,scholarshipX2 (1, N=189)=12,45 p=0,0001, teaching and research activityX2 (4, N=189)=20,44, p=0,0001, meeting with the advisorX2 (3, N=189)=84,6, p=0,001 and make the thesis were found; and not significant association between sex, age to begin de postgraduate program, thesis committee o advisor, making curse or workshop about thesis, publication and to make de thesis was found. In both, as the main factor that prevents the realization of the thesis, was methodological question (22%), it does not how to do it, has problems with writing. The interviews showed the demotivation of students regarding the lack of agreement between evaluators, tutors and jury. It was possible to visualize the complex and multifactorial character that leads to a non-thesis situation.

The goal of this article is to show the results of a research process that began in 2018, and that it has the purpose of re-signify the notion of education in the framework of the initial teacher training, considering the new requirements that the 21Th Century society puts to the educational system. These requirements are associated with the description of Bauman about the liquid societies; that's why we worked on the elaboration of a construct for the notion of learning for a society of uncertainty. The study has a qualitative focus, from which to investigate the notion of learning, through a focalized textual corpus, around the context and the use of the word learning. The findings of this investigation show the characterization of learning through the following dimensions, (i) learning as an experience, (ii) learning for a world in constant motion. In summary, the idea is to comprehend the constant transformation that each person has to live to be in a world in constant and interdependent evolution. In this way, the notion of learning for the society of uncertainty, it is expected to develop dialogical thinking, retroactive, recursive, hologrammatic that aboard the condition of autonomy and constant dependence, that assumes the uncertainty.

Between the years 2017 and 2019, four qualitative research studies were conducted in four socially vulnerable communities in the province of San José, Costa Rica: Los Cuadros de Purral de Goicoechea, DosCercas de Damas de Desamparados, Tirrases de Curridabat, and Alajuelita (San Felipe, Concepción and Alajuelita Centro). The purpose of the project was to analyze, using the Photovoice methodology, the recreational activities carried out by groups of women and their communities, as well as the contextual factors that facilitated or hindered their recreational participation. This article highlights the comparison of the study results among the four communities. A total of 23 women participated in the study and took photographs for two weeks and selected the 16 images that best represented their experiences. Each community group analyzed and categorized their photos. The themes that had emerged in the four communities were analyzed by the researchers using the constant comparison method and content analysis. The results showed new themes including four factors that promoted recreation, five barriers that made it difficult, and nine types of recreational activities enjoyed in the communities. Not all the new themes were evident in the four locations. In all four communities, lack of hygiene, insecurity, and lack of facilities and poor maintenance affected participation in recreation. It was also found that the communities received support from local or national entities that favored recreational activities. It was concluded that the people of these communities participated in diverse types of recreational activities and that, in difficult conditions, they negotiated to do so, despite the fact that the barriers were more numerous than the factors that promoted recreation. 

This article presents the process of contextualization of the the Ministry of Education’s Pedagogical Guide to Early Childhood from Birth to Age 4, to the open framework educational approach from the Centro Infantil Laboratorio Emerlinda Mora (CILEM). For this research, the two principals and six teachers working for the institution were interviewed. Likewise, a research workshop was held with experts who know the trajectory of this Educational Center. With the information provided by the participants, a philosophical framework was built, with the purpose of adapting the different sections of the Pedagogical Guide to the pedagogical model of the institution. As a result of this process, the curricular components of the guide were characterized according to CILEM’s educational model. The relevancy of the role of the teacher, and the facilitation performed, are recognized in order to implement what the model establishes. It was possible to determine that, in such facilitation processes, the setup classroom space and the learning environment itself allow girls and boys to develop life long skills through the engagement on practical everyday life exercises.This favors the active role of children in the educational process. A finding of the study reveals that the evaluation processes, in an open framework model, include the teacher’s constant reflection on the classroom setup space, the materials and the activities presented, as well as on the role of the girls and boys. The document provides planning tools to implement this educational model, as well as final recommendations to guide pedagogical facilitation processes in an open framework model.

This essay focuses on the integration of psychoeducational evaluation and pedagogical mediation in the diagnosis and intervention of cognitive difficulties that impact learning processes. Its objective is to present and examine examples of such integration in studies carried out in a research program developed in Puerto Rico originated in the Study of Executive Functions and Language.  Both these studies and the present examination adopt the historical-cultural approach as a conceptual framework, in which the concepts of instrumental and semiotic mediation, social interaction and communication are central. It is proposed that pedagogical mediation is an effective strategy to promote cognitive modifiability. To support this proposition, theoretical arguments linked to the historical-cultural approach are presented, such as those offered in the PASS Intelligence Theory. Methodological tools such as the Cognitive Assessment System and PASS Reading Enhancement Program are also examined. It is proposed that these are cultural tools that allow us to confront the traditional vision of intelligence as an immutable property of the subject. From the examination of the results of investigations carried out with different populations and age groups, it is argued that the use of these tools in the practice of pedagogical mediation validates it as a strategy for cognitive education. It is concluded that pedagogical mediation fosters cognitive modifications that can positively impact academic performance and promote greater equity and fairness in the evaluation of intellectual functioning.

This essay examines how participation in schools was formulated in the educational reform undertaken in Mexico in 2012-2018. The intention is to know some of the main implications derived from its conception as a means to strengthen public, secular and free education, to ensure greater equity in access to quality education, to strengthen the management capacity of schools, establish the evaluation of the different components of the educational system and establish the professional teaching service that would converge in the implementation of the Project from the School to the Center and the New Educational Model. The central assumption is that the instrumental and pragmatic vision of participation was materialized in the schools through the operation of the Educational Reform Program, the Full-Time Schools Program, and the School Coexistence Program, quickly revealing the contradictions and limitations of the reform in this matter. The essay expresses that this conception preserved and strengthened the preeminence of the Mexican State in participatory processes, the production, and reproduction of a pseudo-social autonomy, as well as a subordinate, simulated, and passive participation, anchored in a vertical, bureaucratic and hierarchical logic of the Mexican educational system. Undermining the autonomous and independent expressions of actors such as parents and students who have historically been subordinated and made invisible despite their potential contribution to the expansion and deepening of the right to education, education for democratic life, and educational inclusion.

El objetivo de este artículo es discutir algunas de las contribuciones de la Epistemología Cualitativa y del Método Constructivo-Interpretativo a la investigación en Educación, especialmente en lo que se refiere a los procesos de aprendizaje escolar,  elaboradas por Fernando González Rey en su propuesta teórica para el estudio sobre la subjetividad, desde una perspectiva cultural-histórica. Aunque la investigación cualitativa ha avanzado en términos metodológicos en las humanidades, la prevalencia de un imaginario positivista en la investigación científica cualitativa ha persistido, sin muchos cambios. En este sentido, entre las aportaciones que se debaten, cabe destacar, sobre todo, la urgencia de concebir la epistemología como una herramienta de pensamiento crítico para la investigación cualitativa, al pretender abarcar la dimensión histórica, cultural y subjetiva de los fenómenos humanos. Para ello, se presenta un estudio de caso, realizado en una escuela pública brasileña, en el que se pretende comprender procesos subjetivos producidos por el participante en el curso de sus dificultades escolares, teniendo en cuenta el uso de los supuestos teóricos, epistemológicos y metodológicos antes mencionados. Se utilizaron como instrumentos la dinámica conversacional, la producción de textos y complemento de frases. Los resultados apuntan a los aportes de la investigación desde esta perspectiva, que permitió abarcar el análisis de complejas tramas sociales, individuales, históricas y culturales, a partir de la forma en que surgieron en las producciones subjetivas del estudiantado frente a sus dificultades, dimensiones generalmente no cubiertas sin que una excluya a la otra en el estudio de los procesos educativos en el camino científico caracterizado como cualitativo.

It aims to identify sociodemographic and occupational characteristics of graduates of the Bachelor's degree in Ecotourism and Bachelor's Degree in Ecotourism Management at the University of Costa Rica. This research follows a quantitative approach and a descriptive scope. The population under study includes 728 graduates of the Eco-Tourism Bachelor and the Tourism Management Licentiate, since the first graduation in 1995 until the year 2014. A sample of 251 graduate people was analyzed, using a probability sampling, stratified by headquarter and branch. The information was collected through an online questionnaire which was applied between May and October 2015. The article presents the characteristics of a population never analyzed, so it is of historical interest for the profession. Among the main findings it was found that 82,9% of the population is employed and a 12,4% is still studying, only. The unemployment percentage for these professionals is a 4,8%. The graduated people have job stability. This academic option has had a positive impact on the most remote areas of the country, where tourism is an engine for local development. Opportunities must be offered in the short term for these students to obtain a licentiate’s degree, as a way to face underemployment and improve job insertion.