I believe that in the face of the accelerated changes in knowledge that currently prevail in our environment and thus also outside of them, and to the diversity of existing paradigms, it is required that we be competent professionals, that we respond to the problems of a reality such as our country, our state or our workplace; that we adopt a reflective and critical attitude with respect to the educational reality, from it the need to carry out research and specifically educational research, which in this case confers on us, students of a master's degree, to walk along these routes, such as perhaps a little difficult, perhaps a little doubtful but we will know how to guide it in the most correct way.
Educational research speaking from my primary level, is about a search and analysis of knowledge that serve and guide my educational practice, achieving a specific competence that requires developing search strategies and analysis of information derived from educational research and understanding educational processes elementary school and how this evidence could be used to plan and develop my educational practice. Amaya Martínez tells us: “the need to research in Education arises from the moment in which we intend to better understand the functioning of a given educational situation -be it a subject, a group of subjects, a program, a methodology, a resource, a change observed, an institution or an environmental context… "
At present, educational research allows us not only to generate a path with which we can analyze the needs that we as teachers have, both in our work within the workplace and in our professional progress, in order to improve educational quality; If not, it is also a tool to search and evaluate the new pedagogies, methodologies and didactics that are formed through the interaction of all the subjects (internal and external) that participate in the teaching-learning process.
Educational research can be approached from different disciplines and methods, since it can consider several paradigms with different theoretical orientations. The challenges we live as education professionals impose on education the challenge of participating decisively in the improvement of education. Our most concrete contributions can be made through our teacher training; the transformation of students into active agents; the promotion of educational research on various problems; and our contribution to the elaboration of State policies in the educational field.
The concept of educational research has been changing and adopting new meanings at the same time as new approaches and ways of understanding the educational fact have appeared. At present there are multiple meanings that the expression educational research can adopt if the diversity of objectives and purposes assigned to it are considered, in general it can be argued that the expression educational research deals with the questions and problems related to the progressive search for knowledge in the educational field.
Educational research has been consolidated in our country despite the difficult economic circumstances we have experienced and the scarce resource with which we work. In the field of education, educational research has become fundamental because it has given rise to an academic discipline with an epistemological foundation, with a methodology and specific research objectives but with different approaches, thus emerging different conceptions and meanings of what It is to investigate that goes from a positivist or empirical quantitative analytical current, to currents called interpretative and critical.
I consider the purpose of educational research to interpret and understand educational phenomena rather than to provide explanations of a causal nature. From the critical or socio-critical current, the commitment to ideology is highlighted and the neutrality of the researcher is rejected. Through research it aspires to transform society based on a democratic conception of knowledge and the processes that generate it through the participation of the people involved. Research tries to understand beliefs, values and assumptions that underlie educational practice. Hence the need to propose a dialectical relationship between theory and practice through critical reflection. Research is conceived as a permanent means of self-reflection.
Until now, there has not been a true culture of research in Mexico. Two of the fundamental reasons have been the lack of technological resources and the lack of knowledge regarding research methodologies that are relevant within the field of education.
Research in the field of education, and especially in a country as rich in diversity as ours, can only remain a theoretical scientism that meets the intellectual needs of individual researchers or specific institutions.
Educational research in Mexico has a social commitment. This fact highlights the need for educational researchers and their projects to respond not only to needs at the local level and in the community where the results of said research will have an impact. Many of the decisions made regarding the nature of the resources designated for education in the country are made based, among other things, on the results obtained through research. These resources must respond to the needs and demands of the population in a specific time and place.
The design of educational research in Mexico has to take into account the criteria already exposed in the educational modernization project in terms of relevance, integrity, flexibility and plurality. Learning aimed at students in a specific region must respond to the concrete reality of those students, taking into account all the factors that make up their personalities and interests.
Educational programs and their contents need to be adapted to the reality of the teacher, the student and the regional and local conditions of the educational centers. They must include general and popular scientific knowledge, relating them in order to help the student interpret their environment from the local, to the national, to a conception of their place as an individual in the world.
Efforts within educational research need to take into account the guidelines established by the need for educational modernization. The educational offer in the country must have the capacity to meet the demands
Educational research is mainly based on the need to propose, create and develop projects related to research, in order to analyze and evaluate the quality of education that is developed within training institutions in the learning process. In other words, teaching and research are conceived as practices of human knowledge, the terms of which are mutually reinforcing. The teaching-research link adopts diverse and varied degrees in each of the academic units.
Thus, an indispensable part of the teaching work carried out in faculties and schools, requires the conduct of research and it is considered that this constitutes a facet of their own work. However, the research carried out in these institutions should not only mean an attraction for the achievement of highly qualified academic staff, but also should be conceived as a stimulus to the creative capacity of teachers and as a means to introduce students to the knowledge and management of scientific methodology, which he attributes in an important way to the enrichment of his training and the development of skills such as the capacity for analysis, synthesis, deduction, induction, evaluation, etc.
This allows us to conceptualize research in general terms based on two variables: as a means to acquire knowledge and as a way to build knowledge; that is, the contributions that give rise to the development or evolution of an area or discipline.
Even considering that teaching is the most important activity and around which the work of any educational institution should revolve, this priority should not hide the fundamental contribution that research makes to teaching, either as a generator of new knowledge and fields of study, or as a source of experience for those who are new to handling the problems of science; which in turn reinforces the role of teaching in terms of constituting a form of validation and dissemination of knowledge produced by research.
Among the characteristics of educational research I could mention:
- They lead to the discovery of something new They are carried out with the support of a theoretical framework They allow the presence of intentional and systematic actions It is obtained through various nature: knowledge, theories, ideas, concepts, models, products, artifacts, machines, media, values and behaviors.
Among the objectives of educational research I could mention:
- Know the different points of view on the nature of research Train students to read and interpret Know the various methodological approaches applied to education by researchers Acquire knowledge and mastery of basic terminology in research.
Within educational research it is an essential requirement to carry out the preliminary thesis project, in order to specify the problem, Chavarría and Villalobos mention that: "The preliminary thesis project is the document that allows the researcher to specify the problem to be addressed…"
On the other hand, I would like to add that the invitation that Amaya Martínez offers us is a good one, when she mentions that educational research must be original, typical of the subject who carries it out, contextualized from their reality, in support of those who collaborate in their workplace, said research should aim to improve certain issues that are not quite right.
Autores como Stenhouse, o Elliot trabajan la investigación educativa como una reflexión diagnóstica centrada en la búsqueda de soluciones, no solo de explicaciones, a los problemas educativos. Planteados desde la propia realidad educativa. Retomando dichas aportaciones tan apropiadas a la investigación educativa que pretendo abordar, he realizado un listado de problemáticas que se están presentando actualmente en mi centro de trabajo, pero de todos ellos, he concluido con uno de ellos con la característica que dicho tema sea visto desde una manera teórica pero así también de manera practica, encausándola para identificar posibles soluciones, al finalizar mencionaré cual es el tema que decido abordar.
Amaya Martínez tells us that research helps us to increase our knowledge and to obtain conclusions about the reality, the phenomena and the facts that we observe; It helps us to analyze the relationship that is established between the elements that make up a certain educational situation and, often also, to make decisions about how to intervene in said situation to improve it.
According to Zabala: “The teacher who modifies some aspect of his teaching practice in response to a practical problem, after verifying its effectiveness in solving it. Through evaluation, the teacher's initial understanding of the problem is modified and changed… "
The problem that I return to for said research is observed in my school and the society that surrounds us, in children, in teachers and in many individuals in society, and it is centered on the bad habit that children have to recycle waste that we ourselves originate when consuming a certain product, and that lead to a bad conscience in caring for the environment, causing pollution that every day increases its proportion on our planet, being the human being the main cause of this breakdown, knowing that the Human, the most intelligent being would be so incapable of taking care of their own planet… We are now in the 21st century, and it has made things worse.
What humans could do to end environmental pollution is to avoid indiscriminate felling of trees in forests, as it is the only source of oxygen for the planet. Prevent the atmosphere of our planet from continuing to pollute with carbon dioxide from vehicles. And the non-use of aerosols that continue to damage the ozone layer. Avoid polluting the seas and rivers, which provide us with water to live, but something essential in the face of this problem and on which I will focus my serious research, promoting recycling habits for toxic waste so as not to contaminate the planet.
What the human being could do to end pollution would be many coordinated actions, but due to the consumer situation in which we increasingly find ourselves submerged, we must create some form of recycling for toxic waste so as not to contaminate the planet.
