Cuban universities as centers where scientific knowledge is created and formed have the mission of achieving the training of professionals who are inserted effectively and efficiently in the exercise of their respective professions, committed to the economic and social development of our country.
Fernando Vecino Alegret, stated: «(…) we strive to ensure that universities continue to be the propitious space for intellectual and spiritual enrichment, where students are active protagonists in their learning and in which they can develop the spirit of seeking solutions of problems, critical appraisal of phenomena (…) ».
In line with this, the training of professionals, in full correspondence with the aspiration that they satisfy with independence and creativity the demands of their respective professions.
Therefore, as Vecino Alegret points out, «the urgent need to achieve in university graduates a training that enables them for their competent professional performance, of excellence, together with a broad cultural horizon that allows them to act consistently in a world each increasingly interconnected and dependent ” (2)
Development:
Research work practice today constitutes one of the basic principles of the training of future professionals in Sociocultural Studies.
In order to fulfill the objective, it is necessary to start from the elements of the Sociocultural Studies professional model. The creation of the career is due to a need raised in the country in those regions where there are centers of Higher Education for technical and economic specialties, but where graduates in the branches of humanities and social sciences are not trained, which constitutes a potential for development of the universities themselves in the humanistic order and to contribute to the cultural enrichment of the environment. It also offers higher education possibilities to promoters, instructors and other community workers in aspects directly related to their work. In another sense, it responds to the territorial needs of organisms, communities and other institutions that carry out community social work,cultural and tourist without adequate professional training.
Emerged as part of the massification of the culture that is carried out in the country, it requires the training of professionals identified with the socialist project and with the development of a culture in its broadest sense, which allows them to contribute to the improvement of the spiritual life in the community both intra-university and extra-university.
The Graduate in Sociocultural Studies, as an agent of change, is linked to the sociocultural development of the community, exercising a role of facilitator, organizer and researcher.
To fulfill this mission, a solid training is offered in the field of practical and investigative work in sociology, philosophy, culture and other branches of humanistic knowledge and puts the student in contact from the first year with social and cultural problems. of their future spheres of work in the territory, this aspect of great importance for professional development and the transformation of the community in permanent cooperation and social interaction, therefore they share common interests and objectives, they daily reproduce their life, they share with them their beliefs, attitudes, traditions, customs and common habits, culture and values, which express their sense of belonging and identity to the place of residence, which allows them to have contact not only with people,but also of the institutions and social organizations that are part of it.
In this regard, Martín González points out
“The multifunctionality of cultural practices are a basic component of the dynamics of communities. The development achieved by the community, the richness of popular culture and mutual influences, with their economic base, generate particular ways of thinking and acting, which are, in my opinion, in three different ways:
A way of thinking and acting that seeks profit in competition with others in advantageous conditions (generally cosmopolitan cities). A collective way of thinking and acting in which the group matters a lot but in which one or more people, a class, a group, is the one who decides the result of the activity of the other members (relatively large cities). A truly communal way of thinking and acting, where numerous people, generally poor, unite, participate and cooperate in solidarity based on what little they own or seek (small communities). ”
The student of the Sociocultural Studies career will become, from this point of view, the point of contact between the community and society itself, is part of the cultural historical benchmark and is therefore in charge of the author's opinion of being a faithful exponent of the traditions, customs, habits, beliefs, myths and other ideological elements, basically associated with the identity of the person or group with the community. The student in his work with the community and cultural institutions is a faithful exponent of the sense of belonging and at the same time of commitment and defense of the community, its history, its culture and its values. This aspect is a reflection of their strength and integration based on their transformation, works on education for participation, empowers local resources,prepares the community and institutions for self-management and sustainability and generates its own development from the work, academic and research.
Labor is understood as that aspect that shows the object of the graduate in its entirety as it appears in objective reality, labor is specified in each and every one of the components of the educational teaching process. The content is labor if the knowledge and skills that are present in it are the knowledge and skills of the graduate's activity. The objective is labor if the generalizing ability, center of the objective, is labor, if it is identified with one of the ways of acting of the graduate. The method is work, if the student does or learns to do, what he will do later, in his future work activity.
An academic is understood, when it is an abstraction, a part of that reality. Research is a fundamental way of productive and creative learning. The labor is totalizer, integrator, globalizer; the academic is partial, derived, fractional. Both are essential; the academic, to delve into the essence of this partial aspect of the graduate's object; labor, to integrate all those partial aspects into a unit and bring the school closer to life, to the community, to social reality. The educational teaching process must dialectically combine the academic and the labor. Where they interrelate and complement each other for the training of the graduate.
As stated in the study plan of the Sociocultural Studies career he:
Purpose of the profession: Community social intervention that involves working with ethnic groups, gender, territories, generations, the urban and rural, tourism, etc.
Object of work: Community sociocultural work.
Mode of action: Carrying out a specialized work of detection, investigation and sociocultural intervention.
Fields of action: culture, history, theory and sociocultural methodology. The fields of action cover all social spheres, most especially cultural and educational institutions, work centers and popular councils.
From which it follows that the Graduate in Sociocultural Studies must be able to respond to cultural, artistic, social, political, ideological and tourism demands.
Spheres of action:
- Community social work sphere. Sphere of culture. Tourism sphere. Bodies of the central state administration. Political and mass organizations. Professional training centers for culture and tourism. Middle and upper secondary schools. Higher Education Centers.
The professional problems that present and must be solved by a graduate of the Sociocultural Studies career are determined by the fields of action and the spheres of action in which they carry out their work. Given the broad scope of their profile, the sociocultural worker can work in any of the social spheres already mentioned, trying to organically combine both cognitive and practical-transformative functions in their work, namely:
- Community social work. Sociocultural research. Sociocultural promotion (animation and cultural and tourist management). Sociocultural development. Teacher training. Cultural extension. Consulting.
The future graduate must provide solutions to Sociocultural Problems, which integrate a set of needs of the communities that range from their basic requirements to the forms of recreation, recreation and construction of their future.
Sociocultural issues are embedded in the spheres:
- Environment. Health. Education. Hygienic-sanitary problems. Prevention of negative social manifestations. Other aspects of the biopsychosocial sphere of man.
Miriam Gutiérrez Escobar points out:
"Educate the student to value and defend Cubanness and to be prepared, at the same time, to face the multiculturalism that comes to him at every moment through the different means of disseminating knowledge, taking advantage of its positive aspects, and discarding that product that it is not a true artistic work, it is the primary task of the teachers who teach them; but if these classes are conceived with a curricular design with a disciplinary focus, these students will not be preparing for the challenge that awaits them when they graduate and they will not be able to meet the expectations that the country has with their training ” (4).
All of the above gives us an idea that the investigative labor component within the University - society integration links the student to fulfill professional tasks and requires the joint work of the University professors and the professionals of the labor entities.
The complexity of work tasks must be increased from the first years of the career to the last. In this, the Main Integrative Discipline plays an important role, which is the subject that manages the research-work activity of the students, to which the rest of the disciplines are subordinated and aims to guarantee the training of the professional's modes of action.
From this it follows that it is necessary to establish a system of activities to be carried out by the students in the institutions, and in the community, including the types of evaluation to be carried out at the end of each activity.
Labor is understood as that aspect that shows the object of the graduate in its entirety as it appears in objective reality, labor is specified in each and every one of the components of the educational teaching process. The content is labor if the knowledge and skills that are present in it are the knowledge and skills of the graduate's activity. The objective is labor if the generalizing ability, center of the objective, is labor, if it is identified with one of the ways of acting of the graduate. The method is work, if the student does or learns to do, what he will do later, in his future work activity. An academic is understood, when it is an abstraction, a part of that reality. Research is a fundamental way of productive and creative learning.
The labor is totalizer, integrator, globalizer; the academic is partial, derived, fractional. Both are essential; the academic, to delve into the essence of this partial aspect of the graduate's object; labor, to integrate all those partial aspects into a unit and bring the school closer to life, to the community, to social reality. The educational teaching process must dialectically combine the academic and the labor. in a unit, in which neither the one nor the other lose their personality, interrelate and complement each other for the formation of the graduate.
The process of training professionals in Sociocultural Studies involves the coherent interweaving of three dimensions: Instructive, Developing, Educational.
Instructional Dimension: It involves equipping the student with the essential knowledge and skills of their profession, preparing them to use them when performing as such in a certain job.
Educational Dimension: This principle establishes the obligation to train socially useful professionals, committed to the Cuban reality and capable of acting in it, transforming it, making it more human.
Developer Dimension: The essence of this dimension consists of the link between study and work, a guiding idea that supports the Cuban Higher Education training model, an important principle. Its objective is to guarantee from the curriculum the mastery of the modes of professional performance, of the competences to ensure the training of a professional capable of performing in society.
Carlos Álvarez points out:
"The observation of social practice allowed us to conclude that there is a totalizing process whose objective is to prepare man as a social being called the training process, which groups the educational, developer and instructional processes into a dialectical unit." (5)
He states later:
"This essence is specified in the pedagogical ideology of Martí in two basic or guiding ideas of an instructive nature:
- Learn to work while you are in school. Use the method of science, as a fundamental method of teaching and learning, and of work. ” (6)
In another of its aspects, the aforementioned author points out:
“Everything that enables the development of the productive forces on a social scale, and even universal, in those societies that most stimulate the development of all citizens in the multiple aspects of human activity, shapes an ethic that is transferred, in the educational process, to the new generations.
It is increasingly scientific work, the fundamental content of the training process. The man is more producer the more accomplished he feels with his work, the more he is reflected in what he does, executes, conceives and creates.
Consequently, the training process must be fundamentally labor and research. The student is educated as a result of his preparation to work, using the methodology of scientific research as a basic instrument to make his work more efficient and, also, aware that he satisfies his most expensive need through this activity.
The teaching-educational process has a labor nature because this is the fundamental way of satisfying the needs and the transformation of man; it is investigative, because scientific research offers the instrument, the methodology to solve problems, making their work more efficient ” (7)
In this regard José Martí expressed:
"Man grows with the work that comes out of his hands… With manual labor at school, the farmer learns to do what he has to do later in his own field… And as he sees that to intelligently work the field, it takes science varies and not simple, and sometimes profound, it loses all disdain for a work that allows it to be at the same time as creator, which makes the soul happy and lifts it up, an educated man, skilled in books and worthy of his time ” (8)
Referring to how public education and education should be, José Martí expressed:
“A clamor rises from everywhere, not well defined, perhaps, nor reduced to concrete proposals, but already high, important and unanimous. That scientific education go, like the sap in the trees, from the root to the top of public education ” (9)
The university as part of the transformations that are taking place at the moment gives a special place to the study-work link, which is established through work practice, which has as its principles:
- University - society integration through collaboration agreements with a stable network of entities where students are linked to fulfill professional tasks. It requires both University professors and professionals from labor entities.
As Álvarez de Zayas said:
"That is, the workplace is identified with life and the academic is an abstraction, a modeling, an approach to life, but essential for the preparation of the student." (10)
In the case of Sociocultural Studies, students can be placed in institutions such as:
- Community sociocultural work sphere. Sphere of culture. Tourism sphere. Bodies of the Central State Administration. Political and mass organizations. Professional training centers for culture and tourism. Middle and upper secondary schools. Higher Education Centers
The Labor Practice in Sociocultural Institutions of the territory constitutes a valuable contribution to the training of the students of the Degree in Sociocultural Studies, since it puts them in contact with a set of entities essential for the management of the social and cultural development of Consola.
This process allows students to complement their theoretical knowledge with practical activity, as well as go through the different stages of the sociocultural intervention process.
In this sense, once the students have acquired in previous courses skills related to the detection of sociocultural problems, research and design of intervention proposals for sociocultural transformation, this stage will facilitate their familiarization and training in the execution, evaluation and systematization. of proposals for sociocultural and community development projects, the application of which is promoted by the institution with a developer effect for the affected population or reality.
Labor Practice is the ideal exercise for students to put into practice the implementation of their sociocultural intervention proposals, allowing them to delve into their possible spheres of action in a career with a broad profile such as this and at the same time know where their true vocation is within the sociocultural where culture continues to be the sword and shield of the nation.
Conclusions:
The investigative work component constitutes a basic principle within the training process of the students of the Sociocultural Studies career, taking into account that students acquire skills related to the detection of sociocultural problems, contributing to their diagnosis and solution within the community and the institutions that are part of its demarcation.
The labor component and its implementation in practice lead to the training of a more prepared professional with a greater number of investigative tools in order to provide solutions to the dissimilar problems that arise within its scope, an aspect that we cannot ignore. in career development.
1. Neighbor Alegret, Fernando. Cuban universities on the threshold of a new century: realities and challenges. Master Conference given in Pedagogy 99, in Revista Educación Universitaria, scientific publication of the Area of Studies on Higher Education. University of Matanzas, No. 2 1999. P: 5
2. Ibid.
3. González González, Martín. Community Studies. Theory and method today, 1997, p.23
4. Gutiérrez Escobar, Miriam. Interdisciplinarity in the training of the Graduate in Sociocultural Studies. University Pedagogy Magazine. Vol. 9 No. 4 2004
5. Álvarez Zayas, Carlos M (1999). The school in life. Didactics. Editorial Pueblo and Education. Havana city.
6. Ibid.
7 Ibid.
8. Martí y Pérez, J. Manual Work in Schools. America. New York. February. 1886.
9.Martí and Pérez, J. Instead of metaphysical arts, physical arts. America. New York. September. 1883.
10. Álvarez Zayas, Carlos M. Ob.cit.
Bibliography
1- Álvarez de Zayas Carlos M. (1995). The school of excellence. Monograph. Professional Training Directorate, Ministry of Higher Education of Cuba. Havana.;
2- Álvarez De Zayas Carlos M. (1998). Pedagogy as science. Editorial Félix Varela. Havana.
3- Álvarez De Zayas Carlos M. (2001). Curricular design. Higher education. Havana.
4- Álvarez Zayas, Carlos M (1999). The school in life. Didactics. Editorial Pueblo and Education. Havana City
5- Álvarez Zayas, Carlos M (1998). Pedagogy as Science. Epistemology of education. Editorial Félix Varela. Havana city.
6- Álvarez Zayas, Carlos M.. Theoretical foundations of the direction of the teaching-educational process in Cuban Higher Education. (Doctoral thesis). ¬Havana, 1989.
7- Álvarez Zayas, Carlos M (1995) University Pedagogy: a Cuban experience. Pre event course. International Congress of Pedagogy 95. Havana
8- Álvarez Zayas, Carlos M (1996) Curricular design in Cuban Higher Education. Electronic journal University Pedagogy. DFP-MONTH. Cuba. Vol.1. No.2..
9- Álvarez de Zayas Carlos M and García Blanco Reinaldo (1997). The dialectical contradiction as invariant for the structuring of the teaching-educational process. In Cuban Higher Education Magazine. No.2. Vol. XVII. Havana.
10- Díaz Domínguez, T. (1998). Pedagogical foundations of Higher Education, GEDES. University of Pinar del Río, Cuba.
11- Martí, Pérez, J. Manual Work in Schools. America. New York. February. 1886.
12- Martí, Pérez, J. Instead of metaphysical arts, physical arts. America. New York. September. 1883.
