Psiologia En Argentina

THEORETICAL MODELS AND DEVELOPMENT OF PSYCHOSOCIAL AND EDUCATIONAL GUIDANCE PROGRAMS IN ARGENTINA

Diana AISENSON; Gabriela AISENSON; Fabián MONEDERO; Silvia BATLLE and Leandro LEGASPI

Introduction

Historically, Latin American countries have assimilated the psychological theories produced in developed countries. Academic tendencies and Guidance research are not an exception to this rule.

Original developments in our setting, however, are being produced on the basis of the interrelation among theoretical frameworks, issues arising in everyday practice and ongoing Guidance research. Our purpose is to construct models showing our own problem areas and the specificity of our social and cultural circumstances, so that we may define objectives and design involvement programs.

Generating original propositions does not mean disregarding certain universal principles or doing without existing theories that are acknowledged worldwide. They will be used in a referential and conceptual context and never as a complete theoretical model restricting our investigation. In other words, they will be used as a source of information enabling us to compare our conclusions and look for similarities and differences. If we consider that guidance practice objectives should be founded on certain conceptions or theoretical foundations (Guichard, 1997), these should in turn be the result of research that provides them with meaning and puts them in context according to the population involved.

Theoretical Outlook of Guidance in Argentina

Argentina is pioneer in the field of Occupational Guidance in Latin America. Its first institutions for the development of this discipline date back to 1925. From the start, Guidance has been related to Psychology. Initial practices were set in the framework of psychometric and psychological evaluations, using psychometric tests and subsequently projective tests. The most significant changes in practices coincided with the creation of the Psychology course of study offered at national universities in the late 1950’s, in concurrence with an important psychoanalytical development movement in Argentina that started in the 1940’s. This was a period of theoretical production based on psychodynamic approaches to guidance issues. New techniques and approach methods were developed for group and individual work: interviews, groups, guidance laboratories, etc. Work was begun at schools with students in their last stages of schooling. The main tools used for evaluating intelligence, skills, interests, values, and personality were translated and customized to suit the Argentine population. But to date, guidance programs or related public policies have not yet been systematically implemented in schools. The main developments followed two different directions. One with a clinical approach to guidance and consulting performed primarily in private institutions and hospitals, and another with a preventive, psycho-educational approach, mostly used in universities. As regards our group in particular, we will refer to the latter.

The faculty members of the Vocational and Occupational Guidance Department of the University of Buenos Aires School of Psychology carry on research, graduate and postgraduate teaching activities and provide community services since 1986. Within our theoretical outlook, we have included the connection of subjectivity issues with the social context obtaining greater psychological specificity in different propositions. Our multidisciplinary approach includes inputs from social psychology, preventive and community psychology, psychoanalysis, theoretical guidance and counseling models and sociology, among other disciplines. We propose the application of guidance practices in institutional, particularly educational, contexts and community settings by means of psycho-educational and psychosocial involvement. Group practices are favored on the basis of the theoretical prospects proceeding from group dynamics and social laboratories. Group work is combined -when resources are sufficient- with interviews and personal counseling

Our studies have enabled us to develop a line of investigation that considers the meanings given by subjects to the projects and career path they are building, the personal and social resources that are mobilized in transitional situations, the significant insertion that is achieved in different spheres –not only academic and labor-, and subjective identity building processes in a setting characterized by the economic impoverishment and social crisis of the population.

Unlike other countries, under our educational system, passing high school is the only requirement for admission to institutions of higher learning. The kind of methodology followed at school or a student’s academic achievement are not determining or restrictive factors for the furtherance of education. All high school graduates are eligible and "free" to choose any post-secondary course of study. However, hidden behind such apparent standardization, implicitly understood by the completion of a same educational level and the possession of a legally valid certificate, there is an assortment of very different educational paths that tend to reproduce initial social inequalities.

The following are the some of the most significant results obtained from studies carried out by the Research Team in Guidance Psychology on high school graduates and university students.

The building of career path in a prospective manner, focusing on transitions, was studied in the first group. We believe that the end of high school provides crucial support for the construction of future educational and labor projects. For this reason we have designed a follow-up methodology divided into short periods to study transition and its process. Questionnaires and interviews were prepared for three different periods: last year of high school (start of transition); one year after graduation (transition in progress) and three years later. At this time our purpose was to observe the insertions they had achieved and the characteristics of such insertions, the spheres in which they participate and the construction of their identities in different settings (educational, labor, social, family). A typology was established on the basis of projects as set forth by these youths when they finished high school (to study, to study and work, and to work) and their courses of development at college and at work. Attention was focused on those who achieved the insertion they valued –whether on the basis of their future intentions as set forth at the start of transition or changes made along the way- and those who did not.

Interviews were conducted with undergraduates at different stages of their education to evaluate the second group. In every case their career path was reconstructed, focusing on transitions and future prospects.

 We have established that the type of future intentions that youths set forth at the start of transition, their representation of work and study, the acknowledgement of their personal resources, the development of strategies and the family and social support behind them are extremely important and affect their transition processes and the courses of life that they build.

 At the start of transition (end of high school) the personal projects of almost all the youths included in our study contemplated higher education or work as the axis around which their courses of development and identities would revolve. Although attempts at inclusion in work and / or study situations were made in every case, not all subjects were able to achieve the insertion they sought.

 The pursuit of higher education is a prominent, highly valued goal for young people that are currently studying, as well as for those who have dropped out or still have the intention of going to college. In all cases, advanced studies are represented as a means for personal achievement and to attain better labor insertion. Identity as a student is valued positively.

 Among the group of subjects that achieved some kind of insertion in the spheres of education, labor or both, coinciding with their initial intentions and expectations, we observed the convergence of several factors: social category (student, employee) and valued and acknowledged identity by the subject himself / herself and by others; personal enhancement based on new experiences and knowledge and the expansion of social networks.

 The subjects that failed to achieve the insertion set forth at the start of transition, or another valued form of insertion, view the activities they perform as a way of biding their time without satisfying their expectations. They are unable to integrate such activities into a personal project, seek new alternatives or review their strategies.

 We have found that most of these youths fall under the social category of “inactive”, because they do not go to school and they are unemployed. However, many carry on activities in other spheres of insertion important to them, such as church, family, community, neighborhood and other settings. Here they find places where they can structure their daily lives and shape their identities. It seems to us that in order for such identity to acquire value it requires the acknowledgement and appreciation of society, something that does not seem to be happening at the moment.

 We have identified a series of factors that encourage or hinder good insertion in a college setting: prior representation of university; school background; family support; personal projects; peer influence; priority given to education in relation to other activities; time management strategies and how subjects actively position themselves in dealing with transition.

 In some cases, the difficulty in meeting higher education requirements seems to stem from significant differences in the knowledge and the kind of socialization acquired in high school, with the resulting growth in educational segmentation.

 Young people, who are unable to sustain higher education requirements, and seek labor insertion, build a career path with greater breaches and frustrations. They are usually unable to obtain a qualified job that will provide them with learning opportunities, personal enhancement and growth. In addition, given our economic and social crisis and high unemployment rate, most labor insertions are precarious, discontinuous and offer a slim chance of improvement.

 Achieving the linkage of education and work is fundamentally important for Argentine youth that seeks its insertion in the sphere of higher education, more than half of which are not full-time students. The need to find a job that will enable them to sustain their educational project, as well as the characteristics usually found in the jobs that are available to them –precariousness, low wages, rotational shifts and unqualifiedness many times prevents them from continuing their education, producing interruptions, postponements and/or a redesigning of their initial career paths plan. Thus, the interrelation between education and work is becoming increasingly complex today. The reality of the job market compels young people to extend their expectations to jobs that are not related to the education they seek.

 By comparing the different groups –teenagers completing high school and university students that are beginning or ending their courses of study- we have been able to verify the importance of transitions as significant phases in the cycle of life. We have compared the significance of ending a stage where certain everyday activities will change, the feeling of a particular social identity (being a student, being unemployed) and the awareness of having or not having a socially prestigious identity.

Conclusions

In a social context as complex as the one currently existing in Argentina -characterized by high secondary and tertiary school drop out rates and juvenile unemployment rates- we believe it is necessary to build theoretical models that will enable us to address the issues of transition by taking into account the complexity of the different kinds of insertion being made.

International studies and theories have provided the framework for the analysis of our own issues. On the one hand, they have enabled us to understand our realities by identifying the problems we have in common, and on the other, by distinguishing those that differ. In addition, they have allowed us to go beyond our local limits by sharing and contributing knowledge that may generate theoretical frameworks upon which there is general agreement by the international academic and professional community.

As a conclusion to our results, we have extended our study of the career paths built by young people, considering not only their educational and work paths, but other significant spheres of insertion and identity building. We believe that institutions, mediating between youth and society, can in situations that are inconsistent and in conflict with reality provide support and help young people to overcome crises of meaning and values by guiding their actions and sustaining their identities (Berger and Luckman, 1997; Aisenson and others, 2002).

The Vocational and Occupational Guidance Programs acquire continuity and consistency when founded on guidelines and policies built with the participation of the different social players involved. Our studies provide an indispensable contribution towards this purpose because they highlight current problems that involve significant aspects in the lives of young people. We believe it is important to recognize the characteristics of the transitions faced by subjects and the strategies, projects, career paths and identities they build. We also believe that the educational, labor and citizen participation opportunities offered by society will be the foundation upon which young people may be able to proceed with their development and achieve full insertion. Our country is faced with the difficult challenge of integrating and including large social groups that have been marginalized from elemental opportunities for development as human beings. Guidance must also do its part by making its own specific contribution to this process of social change.

References

1. Aisenson, D. y Equipo de Investigaciones (2002): Después de la escuela. Transición, construcción de proyectos, trayectorias e identidad de los jóvenes, Buenos Aires: Eudeba.

2. Berger, P. y Luckman, T. (1997). Modernidad, pluralismo y crisis de sentido. Barcelona: Piadós.

3. Guichard, J. (1997). La double assise des pratiques en orientation: fondements conceptuels et finalités sociales. Revue de Pédagogie, 1 (12). France

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