student´s view on university school life

Universidad Veracruzana
Facultad de Idiomas
Programa: Lengua Inglesa
“STUDENT´S VIEW ON UNIVERSITY
SCHOOL LIFE”
Tesis
Que para acreditar la Experiencia Recepcional del Programa
Educativo de Lengua Inglesa
PRESENTAN
Ana Delia Trejo Ruiz
Luz Isabel Armas Gómez
Director: Dr. Oscar Manuel Narváez Trejo
Xalapa, Veracruz
Marzo, 2013
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Tabla de contenido
1.
INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................3
2.
LITERATURE REVIEW .................................................................................................................6
2.1 SCHOOL ........................................................................................................................................7
2.2 STUDENT YOUTH.......................................................................................................................9
2.3 SCHOOL AS A SPACE FOR JUVENILE LIFE ....................................................................... 11
3. METHODOLOGY ............................................................................................................................ 13
3.1 CONTEXT .................................................................................................................................. 15
3.2 INSTRUMENTS ......................................................................................................................... 16
3.3 PARTICIPANTS......................................................................................................................... 18
3.4 PROCEDURE ............................................................................................................................. 19
5. CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................................. 28
Appendix ............................................................................................................................................... 30
INTERVIEW GUIDE: .......................................................................................................................... 30
REFERENCES .......................................................................................................................................... 31
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1. INTRODUCTION
Overtime we have witnessed educative reforms and changes that have taken place in the
Universidad Veracruzana. The Universidad Veracruzana decided to respond to the great
challenges of the globalized world, in an effort to enhance student development and learning
process, in order to complement the total performance of each student. The Universidad
Veracruzana proposed the implementation of MEIF (Modelo Educativo Integral Flexible),
which aims at responding to one of these challenges: foster students’ development in all areas.
On the one hand, MEIF seeks the integral formation of students through permanent learning
in the different areas of professional and personal work, promoting various competences that
lead us not only to achieve a better performance in different school activities and the
development of professional work, but it goes beyond his personal life, giving them an
identity as Universidad Veracruzana graduates.
On the other hand, MEIF can result as a positive aspect for some students, as regards better
preparation and the time that they spend in the degree is supposed to be shorter than previous
syllabus. However, a drawback of the model implemented is that students have lost the social
interaction from day to day at university facilities, due to the limited interaction and schedule
of each student.
Nowadays, it is important to mention that education or school involves many aspects not only
the academic issues. For example, the current and important topic is the vast cultural diversity
that exists in the Universidad Veracruzana. Cultural diversity refers to the different cultures
and identities of certain kind of people that get together and coexist in the university.
Students need to find an identity in the place where they spend most of the time. In this case,
the university, since they come from many places, everyone has a different way of thinking,
way of dressing, way of behaving, among other things. However, when they get together with
their classmates, they have to adapt to the academic and social development.
The school is seen as a meeting point where students develop a particular youth living,
different from students who do not go to university. The university produces varied dynamics
outside the classroom, such as in the school square, (implemented as a soccer pitch), the green
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areas or the cafeteria, where a favorable atmosphere for the establishment of social
interactions is generated. For example, having breakfast or drinking a cup of coffee in the
school facilities or outside between students, in order to realize the interpersonal relationship
among them, has become difficult because of the lack of time to get along with friends.
Consequently, this project is carried out with the purpose of portraying how students develop
their life inside the BA Degree in English (Licenciatura en Lengua Inglesa, LLI, hereafter)
during free time in between classes. The main purpose is to know students’ perception about
the school. This project is based mainly on the work of Maria Elsa Guerrero Salina, entitled
“La escuela como espacio de vida juvenil. Dimensiones de un espacio de formación,
participación y expresión de los jóvenes”. However, our work differentiates from hers in the
following aspects:
Firstly, our study just focuses on the LLI students. We want to explore the perceptions and
meanings ascribed to the school by this group of students. It does not make a comparison
between students that attend a high school linked to university and those that attend a
technical school as in Guerrero Salinas’ project.
Secondly, our study analyzes the sense of student identity and mentions the importance of the
cultural diversity that exits at the LLI.
To sum up, this project will use a qualitative methodology through interviews; we will collect
and analyze data to answer our research question.
This research comprises four Chapters. Chapter one describes the context of the study. In
chapter two we present a review of related literature, including all the theory used to support
this research. We need to take into account that there are not many sources related to this
current topic.
In chapter three the methodology used to conduct this study will be described. We will
present how the work was carried out. We will explain the instruments we used to collect data
and how it was analyzed. Since we followed a qualitative approach, we will describe in detail
what this is and why we decided to use it.
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The analysis and interpretation of the findings will be presented in chapter four. Finally, in
chapter 5 we will present the findings of the study as well as our interpretations and
reflections.
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2. LITERATURE REVIEW
In this chapter, we will discuss all the theory used to support this research. We need to take
into account that there are no many sources related to this current topic. Some of the sources
that we mention and describe were found on the internet.
This small scale research emerges from the interest in the topic raised while reading Guerrero
Salinas article (2000). In this article, the author presents a qualitative study about the different
meanings of higher secondary education for students about to leave school. She focuses on the
meaning of the school as a space for juvenile life. She analyzes the school as a place of
encounters with pairs, of communication and dialogue; a place of formation in the personal,
ethic and civic dimension and of access to certain cultural options. This study finds
differences in students that attend a high school linked to university (Colegio de Ciencias y
Humanidades) from those that attend a technical school (Centro de BachilleratoTecnológico
Industrial y de Servicios). The article emphasizes the importance of social relationships
between students in the school, as a bridge of transition towards adult life in a changing
world. As a result, we became interested in finding out what the answers to the research
question would be like at the School of Languages, Universidad Veracruzana. Therefore, we
decided to do a replica of that study.
In this section, firstly, we will discuss the meaning that some authors ascribe to what is known
as school. Then we will define the meaning of student youth and describe all the factors
involved in it, according to some authors. For example, in this part it is necessary to mention
the cultural diversity that exists in the student community, particularly the one in the
Language School. From a sociological perspective, we can mention the characteristics that
some students share and some other features that differ among them. For instance, they come
from different cultural and social environments, level of studies, social responsibilities, ways
of thinking and standard of living. In what follows we will define “school and youth living
space”, we will base these from different authors, including educators’ and sociologists’
points of view about the issue.
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2.1 SCHOOL
Since this study takes place within the confines of a school, a university one, it is necessary to
define the term school. This is important because people spend a great deal of their lives in
schools. It is important to present all the meanings ascribed to the word school, but in this
case, we mention the school as scenery of socialization. In the school, human meaningful
exchanges are produced to the learning of new knowledge and to the development of
cognitive ability and socio-affective relationships. At school, people (students) construct their
identity as individuals since the school as a community summons and generates adhesion.
Acording to Bruner,
"La educación no es sólo una tarea técnica de procesamiento de la información bien
organizado, ni siquiera sencillamente una cuestión de aplicar ‘teorías del
aprendizaje’ al aula ni de usar los resultados de ‘pruebas de rendimiento’ centradas
en el sujeto. Es una empresa compleja de adaptar una cultura a las necesidades de
sus miembros, y de adaptar sus miembros y sus formas de conocer a las necesidades
de la cultura." (Brunner, 1997:62).
We realize the school constitutes a fundamental part of each person development.
Furthermore, we conceive the school not only as a place where you learn new knowledge, but
also as a place where you can develop exchanges and relationships to learn things about/from
other people, in this case classmates, such as ways of thinking, culture, traditions and
responsibilities. For that reason, Bruner understands the school and the culture as a
community of exchanges and mutual benefit (1997:101).
Secondly, Durkheim refers to education as a social fact, an essential element of his sociology.
According to Durkheim, “la educación es cosa eminentemente social” (1976:10). He goes
further to state that “la educación es una socialización… de la generación nueva” (1976:11).
Durkheim mentions that the school is a way or mean for preparing young people to develop
the essential conditions of their own existence. Durkheim considers two innate features in
people; one is the individual identity, which refers to us and to the events of our personal life.
Moreover, the other one is the social identity: the ideas, habits and feelings that we have; the
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group or the different groups in which we form a part; such as religious ideas, moral
principles and national or professional traditions. The main aim of education is to constitute
such identity in each of us. The formation of the personal identity is a complex process of
personality’s construction since the first years of life, but this process passes in a sociocultural specific context, thanks to the mediation of the adults and the influence of rules and
defined social patterns.
Durkheim refers to the school as a place where, apart from preparing students to develop
cognitively and emotionally, it helps people to develop a sense of belonging. Durkheim also
defines school as a space to find students identity and transformation of new cultural practices
between students. He shares Bruner’s idea about the school and the culture as a community of
exchanges and mutual benefit. In these perspectives, when we talk about education it is
implied that it is about introducing the new generations of students in the social and cultural
patterns for their best possible development.
In the third place, Duschatzky talks about the functions assigned to the school. The school
generates a possibility of different expectations; however, Duschatzky also mentions the
socio-educative relation created in the school in which given set of interests that question
certain and controlled systems take place. Duschatzky defines school as one of the institutions
of major historical enduring that has tried to be constituted in the fundamental mainstay of
construction of juvenile identities.
According to Duschatzky,
“Más que la búsqueda de generalidades o la verificación de hipótesis sobre la
institución educativa, importa indagar los significados que para los jóvenes tiene su
paso por la escuela” (1999:12).
She tries to analyze the links between students and the school, not in the academic aspect, but
in the way that students construct their school experiences. All the things that students can
live in the school are reflected in the development of their life, in order to find an identity.
That is why we decided to do this small scale research in our context of a university school.
We believe that, as the degree and age of the students participating in Guerrero’s article differ
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from the context in which this one takes place, the attitudes and experiences might be similar.
Students will be students, no matter the level/degree in which they are.
2.2 STUDENT YOUTH
After the term school has been conceptualized, in this second part it is relevant to mention the
definition of youth from a sociological perspective. The youth has been constituted as an
important topic of sociology. Sociology analyzes the conditions of young people in different
contexts and the role that this group takes in the diverse spheres of society. In this period of
youth time or phase there are many events that can mark out each individual. Among many
other aspects, we can mention the transition from high-school education to higher education,
early leave or abandonment, the first employment, the professional insertion, the acquisition
of familiar status, freedom in the use of the free time, the establishment of relationships,
marriage and fecundity.
According to Cardenas Torres (1997:4), the students of top-level education in Mexico are a
limited group who are simultaneously favored in relation to the total of the young people of
the country. However, their relevance as students consists on the fact that, somehow, they are
those who will come to replace, as new generation, the current professional people or field;
into them relapses “part of the material and cultural continuity” (Cardenas Torres, 1997:4) of
the society.
Schutz (1932) affirms that:
“…the man presupposes the corporal existence of his similar ones, his
conscious life, the possibility of intercommunication and the
historical character of the social organization and the culture, as well
as it presupposes the world of the nature in which it was born …
".(Schutz, 1932: 20).
People have different roles in life, and society. These roles go from educational, political and
cultural. They will affect their decisions in their future lives. Guzman defines:
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“El periodo juvenil como una fase de vida en la que se atribuyen
ciertos roles a los individuos y que se ocupan y abandonan para
reemplazarlos posteriormente por otros. A la cultura juvenil le
atribuyen la función de facilitador en la transición a la vida adulta”.
(Guzman, 1991:18)
As a result, we can say that inside the term “youth”, we can find students, who are a
developed subgroup. The students are being prepared professionally to be inserted to the work
field. According to Guzmán: “la mayor parte de los estudiantes se ubica en el rango de edad
establecida como juventud (15 a 24 años)” (1991:20).
It is important to mention that a vast cultural diversity develops inside University schools.
Each individual inside the educational institution develops certain characteristics in the way
of being or feeling a student. Those factors, to mention some, are: every student comes from
different places of the country or state, they have a different cultures and traditions, the way
of thinking changes from one person to another, the likes and dislikes of music, clothes,
books, etc. As a result, students find an identity of their own. Thereafter, we can appreciate
the vast cultural diversity in the university. Something that we agree with Bourdieu (1973) is
when he differs from the homogeneous and uniform idea of the student condition and he says
that the social situation is an important element of differentiation.
Guzmán says that:
“La situación del estudiante induce a muchas cosas que son constitutivas del
periodo escolar: la convivencia entre jóvenes, no tener compromisos, estar
fuera de casa y fuera del trabajo en algunos casos; es un periodo transitorio
con carácter de provisionalidad,
en el que se generan aspiraciones y
proyectos; hay un presente y un futuro imbricados.”(Guzman, 1991)
That is, a time in your life in which you develop strong friendship bonds search of identity
and comradeships. All these factors will change and be relevant to your future, many people
could continue in your life and others could not, the situations, and knowledge is going to
have a big impact in your future.
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2.3 SCHOOL AS A SPACE FOR JUVENILE LIFE
The school plays an important role in the process of formation of people. However, we can
minimize the formation function, to direct students to the youth sociality. The language school
of Universidad Veracruzana constitutes the platform for students to develop the whole process
of formation not only in the academic aspect, but in the social aspect in the school inside and
outside the classroom.
According to Beck and Beck-Germsheim (2002) the modern individual has turned into a
social institution. It demands self-coordination, planning of the time and multiple
memberships in a society of options. According to Maffesoli (2002) the enjoyment of being
together and coexisting in a horizontal way, without hierarchies, and with affections that flow
easily, where we can find an identity.
Both previous points of view allowed us to recognize everything that the school can constitute
as a space for juvenile life on that different people converge with different and similar ways
of thinking, culture and visions of the world with the sense of going out forward in life.
According to Guerrero Salinas,
“Desde la perspectiva de la investigación educativa, el reto de brindar las
competencias básicas necesarias para integrar a los jóvenes a la sociedad y al mundo
productivo ha planteado la importancia de pensar en los alumnos como demandantes
de los servicios educativos, lo cual exige reconocer sus diferentes necesidades,
trayectorias de formación y aspiraciones a la hora de diseñar políticas para intervenir
en los procesos de crecimiento y diversificación del nivel.” (2000:2)
To sum up, we define school as a space for juvenile life in two ways:
On the one hand, school as space for juvenile life is to know the needs, career paths and ways
of thinking of young people inside an educational space to give them the tools to join to the
society and to the productive world. On the other hand, it refers to all the factors that
influence the life of young people inside an educational space in order to develop inside the
society in a changing world.
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All the author’s theories mentioned previously, have enough relevance for our research. They
offer the convenience of putting into practice all the methodological and theoretical tools that
students deal with at school. It is corresponding to the social and emotional aspect to be able
to offer everybody a better development inside the university.
Analyzing the social part of education helps to understand its foundations. As a result it
widens our panorama about education. The most effective education is the one that is given
inside an intense social life. As a result, analyzing a student individually might not make
sense. It is better to analyze him/her as a part of a social group.
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3. METHODOLOGY
This investigation was carried out using a qualitative method. This was chosen as it is
important to collect relevant and introspective information from English language learners.
The qualitative method mainly deals with subjective results and tries to understand the
responses and views of the individuals concerned.
We think that in order to understand any educational phenomenon fully, such as the one
investigated in this study, it is of paramount importance to consider how the educational actor
themselves make sense of the topic. In order to do so, qualitative research is the best possible
choice, as Richards puts it:
“The qualitative inquiry, involves the study of human actors in
natural settings, in the context of their everyday world” (Richards
2003:10).
The most appropriate form of research for our work starts by finding the most effective
method. This means that it would be useful for the investigation. The method must deal with
all possibilities found during an investigation, that is, the negotiation that occurs between the
possibilities of the researcher, the research requirements, and the subjects of investigation.
The qualitative method mainly deals with subjective results, as well as with understanding the
responses and views of the individuals concerned. Qualitative research is the research method
used especially in the social sciences; Denzil and Lincoln (1994: 24) define qualitative
research as multi-method in focus involving an interpretative and naturalistic approach to its
subject matter.
“Qualitative research is a situated activity that locates the observer in the
world.”
The central idea of qualitative research is to investigate subjectivity, comprising the viewpoint
of the subjects as well as their symbolic representations and meanings in their specific
contexts. Qualitative research provides privileged knowledge of the subjects as well as their
actual experiences.
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“The qualitative research is a field of inquiry that crosscuts
disciplines and subject matters. Qualitative researchers aim to gather
an in-depth understanding of human behavior and the reasons that
governs that behavior.” (Johns Hopkins 2011)
According to Adler (1987), “This discipline investigates the why and how of decision making,
not just what, where and when. Hence, smaller but focused samples and more often needed
rather than large random samples.”
The analysis of students at the School of Languages was performed by taking into account
different aspects. Those aspects were: cultural, the time spent with them, their ages, sex and
level of English. The diversity formed by students during their stay at University, and their
social interaction with other students was analyzed, contemplated and taken into account for
the analysis.
We worked with ten students, they are: Christian, who is a sixth semester student, he is from
Acayucan, and he is 23 years old, Alejandra is 24 years old and she is from Orizaba, she is a
seventh semester student, Carlos is from Xalapa and he is 23 years old, he studies the
seventh semester, María José is a first semester student, she is from Xalapa and she is 19
years old, we also worked with Geovanni who is a student of third semester and he is 21 years
old, he is from Orizaba, Ricardo is a 23 years old and he is studying his fifth semester, he is
also from Orizaba, Jaime is a 25-years old boy, he is from Xalapa and he is on his fourth
semester, Javier is also from Xalapa, he is 24 years old and he is on his last semester, Julieta
and Karla are on their sixth semester and they are 23 years old.
According to Denzin and Lincoln (1994:26) the qualitative researcher may take on multiple
and gendered images: scientist, naturalist, field-worker, journalist, social, critic, artist,
performer, jazz musician, filmmaker, quilt maker, essayist. The many methodological
practices of qualitative research may be viewed as soft science, journalism, ethnography,
bricolage, quilt making or montage. The researcher, in turn may be seen as a bricoleur, as a
maker of quilts, or, as in filmmaking, a person who assembles images into montages.
The interpretative bricoleurproduces a bricolage- that is, a pieced-together set of
representations that are fitted to the specifics of a complex situation.
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“Qualitative research is an interdisciplinary, transdiciplinary, and
sometimes counterdisciplinary field. It crosscuts the humanities and the
social and physical sciences. Qualitative research is many things at the
same time. It is multiparadigmatic approach. They are committed to the
naturalistic perspective and to the interpretative understanding of human
experience. At the same time, the field is inherently political and shaped
by multiple ethical and political positions.” Denzin and Lincoln, (2003:5)
“Qualitative research embraces two tensions at the same time. On the one
hand, it is draw to a broad, interpretative, postexperimental, postmodern,
feminist and critical sensibility. On the other hand, it is draw to more
narrowly defined positivist, postpositivist, humanistic, and naturalistic
conceptions of human experience and its analysis. Further, these tensions
can be combined in the same project, bringing both postmodern and
naturalistic or both critical and humanistic perspective to bear.”Denzin
and Lincoln, (2003:11).
3.1 CONTEXT
The Universidad Veracruzana has undergone significant changes throughout its history.
Changes that occur primarily in diversified fields addressed in the number of areas of training
and courses offered in the quantity and quality of their programs related to research, extension
work and cultural diffusion.
One of these changes has been on the school of languages, in which since 2008 MEIF
(Modelo Educativo Integral y Flexible) model was implemented. This educational program
deals with the training of professionals in the English language holistically, and attempts to
meet the social needs of current train professionals able to act and respond appropriately to
the different circumstances that face once embedded in the market labor. Specifically, it
creates a holistic orientation which meets the demand of systematization of knowledge in
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relation to the teaching of English, translation, culture and main English-speaking people,
Anglophone literature and research.
This rethinking postulated strengthens various academic training strategies, based on a
comprehensive approach, including: establishing academic tutoring that contributes to the
formation of the students, and enhancing knowledge generation in collaborative actions
between students and teachers.
The MEIF educational program implements a multimodal model. It accurately responds to the
socioeconomic status of the students and flexibility requirements posed by current academic
work. MEIF’s function is based on interaction and use of the sources of information available,
like books, resource centers, and libraries. Consequently, students require to adjust their times
and workspaces to use those sources of information.
The aim of this project is to portray a view of how university students interpret and make
sense of their academic life; that is, what it means for them to study a degree in English. This
is important to know since few studies have approached this issue. At the current state of
affairs, there is information available about students before entering the university (SCOPI),
we know how many people register each year, there are studies about how many students
abandon their studies, there are studies about terminal efficiency, and so on. However, little is
known about how students interpret what happens to them during their studies.
3.2 INSTRUMENTS
Qualitative interviews are expressive acts in which people rely not only to express their
experiences, these exchanges between researcher and researches also relive these experiences
and at the same time give them sense. Interviews are the result of a dialogical relationship in
which at least two people are involved, the interviewee and the interviewer. The interviewer
has a communication function, adopts the mask of teacher, guide or researcher. The second
person plays the role of narrator, recounting their experiences, reconstructing experiences
while providing something beyond the count of events.
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It is necessary to go deeply into some students’ comments or moments in order to obtain
answers that are more or less similar and see what students most mention.
The interview was chosen because it is easier for young people to reply naturally as if it were
a conversation. Young people usually get by answering a long series of questions. However,
the interviewer might be able to ask some questions based on the previous interview. This is
usually done to go further into the matters seen on the interview.
The time to verify the data obtained was used mostly to interpret the answers given by
interviewees, as well as comparing them to those expected. The purpose for doing interviews
is to maintain a friendly treatment, where the interviewee feels comfortable talking to speak
their mind. We wanted them to talk to the point of being able to expand without having any
fear of saying what they actually feel or think to make their stay in college as comfortable and
enjoyable as they could.
Another tool we used was the questionnaire, and as Routledge says:
“A questionnaire, is a common way of collecting qualitative data,
questionnaires can be time consuming to produce and particularly to
analyze (if a large sample is involved) and it is therefore vital that the
questions to be asked are carefully constructed so as to ensure, as far
as possible, that the coordinator receives the information intended
and that this is as reliable as possible. Although questionnaires and
surveys are often used to plan provision, they can also be effective
tools for monitoring impact.
When planning a questionnaire, it is important that it has a clear and
precise purpose, and that the questions are directed towards that
purpose” (Routledge, 2007)
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3.3 PARTICIPANTS
Interviews were made to students in the language school. They were students from first, third,
fifth or seventh semester. It was necessary to collect information of all these young people to
create a more precise project. The age of these people were between 18 to 25 years old. Ten
students were interviewed. The selection of people who helped this project was taken in a way
that they had a wide range of opinions, both agreeing and disagreeing.
“The means by which individuals participating in the same interaction
can reach a shared interpretation of its constituent activities and of
the rules to which they are designed to conform”
(Taylor and
Cameron 1987:103).
“Interviewing isn’t just a matter of finding the right people to talk to
and asking them the right questions. We also need to be aware that, in
the words of Atkinson and Silverman (1997), we live in an ‘interview
society’, where techniques of self-presentation are becoming second
nature. Interviews are part of our lives and the research interview is
just one among many” (Keith Richards:49)
The idea was to put together all the opinions, to interpret them and then get a result.
The first or third semester students helped us a lot, their answers were very complete and they
collaborated with us better than the advanced semester students. The first semester students
tried to help more, they asked more about the topic, and were interested in our research.
We chose these students because they were the only people that could work with us, and those
who were willing to cooperate with our project.
As Joan Joseph Castillo says the Convenience Sampling is:
“Convenience sampling is a non-probability sampling technique
where subjects are selected because of their convenient accessibility
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and proximity to the researcher. The subjects are selected just
because they are easiest to recruit for the study and the researcher did
not consider selecting subjects that are representative of the entire
population.
In all forms of research, it would be ideal to test the entire population,
but in most cases, the population is just too large that it is impossible
to include every individual. This is the reason why most researchers
rely on sampling techniques like convenience sampling, the most
common of all sampling techniques. Many researchers prefer this
sampling technique because it is fast, inexpensive, easy and the
subjects are readily available.
We chose them because we needed people from different semesters. We wanted to portray as
different opinions as possible so we interviewed students from different semesters and levels
of English. Every student has a different opinion about the school, and their level of English.
We expected that being from different semesters, students would have a different perspective
since their lives at school and their experiences have differed. We worked with different
groups. We wanted to know the views of the student community, who are first, third, fifth and
seventh semester students. As well, we wanted to know what the new students’ ideas
regarding changes at University were. Based on the responses of young people, would be in a
position to analyze and interpret their own vision of youth regarding their perceptions on the
academic and social formation.
3.4 PROCEDURE
This piece of research comprised two phases. First, we sent some e-mails to some students to
ask for their help, because we needed to arrange a day and an appropriate hour to work with
them. During this first phase we sent thirty e-mails but just 15 students answered. After that,
we just worked with ten people because the other people did not arrive to the interview
meeting. That is, only 10 students answered the questionnaire despite having sent it to 30
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students. This experience made us reflect on the usefulness of this method as the results were
very disappointing.
In the second phase, we asked some of our acquaintances to answer the questionnaire.
However, this experience also proved rather unsatisfactory as we realized that the
questionnaire was answered poorly and this was not effective to us. By poorly we mean that
students just did it swiftly, scrabbling short and incomplete answers.
As a result, we opted for the interview because it was the best way to find out what we were
searching. In order to carry out the interview process, we used an interview guide comprising
ten questions. All interviews were carried out in Spanish as we wanted students to be able to
express their ideas with no language restrictions. The interviews were done in our usual
gathering spaces: in the corridors, the school’s square, and classrooms and nearby cafés. This
was intended to make interviewees feel at ease and comfortable. We started talking as two
classmates would do, about the issues that we have in common. Along the conversations, we
were careful to drive it into the issues we were investigating, inserting the questions at
appropriate times.
Some people decided to have the interview in English. Nevertheless, students at the basic
levels did prefer it in Spanish. Some of them said that their English was not good enough to
use it, they were shy and we just wanted to create a good atmosphere with them and we
worked as they wanted.
We tried that interviews did not last more than 10 minutes because there were times when
students had other things to do or get bored with so many questions. Sometimes the interview
lasted longer because some of the students provided more complete answers and these
allowed us to ask other related questions.
We as interviewers think that it is better to work face to face with people, because we can see
their reactions and the way they express what they feel. Besides, by using interviews you can
ensure that participants provide the information you need. However, there are some people
who are not talkative or expressive enough. In our experience, there were some students who
limited to respond as necessary. In such occasions, we had to talk more with them to make
them express their ideas more in detail.
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4. FINDINGS
In this chapter we will present the findings of the study. Using the above mentioned methods
of data collection, we collected information about the meanings ascribed to the school by the
participating students as well as their perceptions about the school site of the investigation as
a space for juvenile life. That is, we collected sufficient data to answer the research question.
In what follows, we will mention the main findings of the study. We will present the findings
according to the way the questions of the interview were structured. They include quotes from
the interview data. Using the questions from the interview we classified data into three main
sections: meanings ascribed to the school, perceptions of school as a space for juvenile life
and the importance of cultural diversity.
4.1 MEANINGS ASCRIBED TO THE SCHOOL
Considering that all the participants of this study are students of different levels at the English
BA at the Universidad Veracruzana. Each individual has their own perceptions about the
school; most participants agree that school is a space where they find a sense of belonging,
but mainly a meeting point to develop social interactions with the people around them. The
university is seen as a space to extend juvenile life. It is important, and to a certain extent
peculiar, that some students regard the school as a place where they are prepared
academically. Christian, a sixth-semester student perceives the following:
“Para mí la escuela es sólo una institución donde te preparas
académicamente, aprendes nuevos conocimientos acerca de
diferentes materias de tu carrera, no me interesa ir a la escuela
para tener amigos ni nada por el estilo. Yo voy a aprender y
prepararme en mi área, ya que de eso dependerá mi futuro y mi
estilo de vida. Cuanto más preparado te encuentres tus ingresos
aumentaran y tu calidad de vida será en automático esplendida.”
According to this view, students come to university to gain new knowledge, which will later
on be put into practice. However, this narrow, instrumental view of university seems not to
21
take into account the social part of the school. Christian’s words seem to omit the idea that
education is a multidimensional phenomenon in which many factors intervene, Christian
forgets that the university is trying to form integral individuals in which the social and
academic part go together.
Finally, some other students refer to the term school as a space of transition from youth life to
adult life. According to these students, it is something crucial in their life because the future
depends on what they learn, about people who they know and things like that.
For example, Alejandra puts it succinctly:
“La
escuela, en este caso la Universidad… (UV) es una transición
una etapa clave hacia la vida adulta, debes de tener en cuenta que
muchos factores se van desarrollando en tu estancia en la
universidad en muchos aspectos tales como: académicos, sociales,
culturales entre otros. En lo personal, primordialmente en lo social
conoces gente de diferentes partes del país o del extranjero que en
alguna u otra forma marcaran tu vida en el futuro. Sin embargo
pienso que se debe tener cierto equilibrio en lo social y académico
para poder desarrollar una formación integral en cada individuo
que pertenezca a este lugar.”
In this case the students have a balance between academic and social aspects of their life, this
could be a good way for ascribe a meaning to the school; there is a complement for a better
individual development.
4.2 PERCEPTIONS OF SCHOOL AS A SPACE FOR JUVENILE LIFE
According to all the data collected from the interviews we outline the dimensions of this
meaning. Right after, we try to explain about each of them and exemplify the dimensions with
the student’s answers. We classified the information into three sections.
Section 1: Place of homogeneity and identification
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The students can find a sense of belonging because they identify with some of their peers as
they share the same values, activities, etc. The students participating agree on regarding the
university as a privileged space to develop social relationships, where students find groups of
young people who share the same codes or likes and dislikes. However, students mention that
at the same time there are different cultures, traditions among them, depending on where they
come from. For example, Carlos mentions that:
“En la universidad encuentro otra clase de compañías, puedes
hablar con tus amigos de infinidad de temas. Sabes que tienen otro
tipo de mentalidad, es grato aprender de otras culturas y
tradiciones dentro de nuestro mismo país. También poder
compartir nuestras formas de pensar, gusto y disgustos acerca de
literatura, arte, música, formas de vestir, religión, idiomas que es
algo que compartimos más”. Con mis amigos nos apoyamos en lo
que podemos, nos damos consejos aunque también cuando se trata
estudiar lo hacemos cuando se trata de echar la fiesta… Por
ejemplo yo salgo con mis amigos de la facultad de idiomas a
antros, conciertos y ese ambiente me gusta mucho la verdad es
algo que compartimos y a la vez disfrutamos mucho”.
On the other hand, Maria José differs from Carlos by stating that:
“A mí no me gusta compartir mis ideas y formas de vivir con mis
compañeros de clase, no me gusta relacionarme con ellos, ni para
cosas académicas porque luego cuando se reúnen según a hacer
tarea se la pasan bebiendo y son cosas que no me gustan. Yo no
comparto eso, a mí me gusta mucho estudiar y leer libros, estar
con mi familia pero amigos casi ni tengo y no me siento mal por
eso”.
Maria shares similar ideas as Christian above. To her, the university is a place to study and
learn not a place to develop social relations. That is, she also regards school instrumentally, as
the place where she is prepared to be ready to face future job demands.
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Section 2: An academic place (where you practice your language)
It is relevant to highlight that apart from the help in academic aspects, the situations of
identifications with the groups or clubs contribute to learning; that is, some students get
together to do homework and help each other. For example, in the School of Languages there
are conversation clubs which are designed to help students improve their level of English.
Giovanni explains this situation in detail:
“Me gustan los clubes de conversación de inglés en primer lugar
me ayudan a mejorar el nivel de lengua que tengo, aparte que
aprendo de la cultura de ese país en este caso nuestro tutor o
asesor era de Inglaterra nos platicaba mucho acerca de la comida,
música, deportes, cultura de ese lugar y obviamente te amplia la
visión acerca de ese lugar. En segundo lugar la relación que se
tiene con los compañeros del club es muy buena, algunas veces
salimos a divertirnos o nos apoyamos en tareas de las demás
materias es muy padre contar con estos clubes de conversación en
la facultad”.
These groups or clubs are really important to foster relationships since students not only learn
English or English culture but also provide opportunities to share experiences by going out
with friends to exhibitions, parties; they learn about each others’ culture and traditions. These
clubs also help to learn about foreign cultures as people who help students in these clubs
come from other countries.
Section 3: The school as a space to treat juvenile problems
Nowadays, the problems between young people have increased. Some students see the school
as a place where they can share their problems with their friends. These students often see the
school as a place where they find relief by sharing hard life experiences with their peers or by
simply concentrating on their studies.
Ricardo states,
24
“Algunas veces en mi casa existen problemas en mi familia,
problemas fuertes que realmente pueden afectarme. No lo contare
en este momento. Pero para mí el ir a la facultad es como una
salida, ahí llego y con mis compañeros hablamos de otras cosas o
hacemos otras cosas que realmente hacen que se me olviden mis
problemas familiares. Ellos me apoyan si me encuentroen un
problema difícil, la facultad me da tranquilidad estar acostado con
mis amigos por las jardineras o en el monumento es como una
terapia en donde todo me hace sentir relajado”.
We realize that the majority of students have real problems in their family and they want to go
to school to forget about their problems. It may sound as something illogical because their
problems do not magically disappear, but for students, staying at school makes them find
some peace of mind, and to forget about their troublesome situations for a while.
4.3 IMPORTANCE OF CULTURAL DIVERSITY
Data collected from the interviews shows the vast majority of the participants agree on the
perceptions about cultural diversity. In our research experience as well as in our academic
trajectory, we can appreciate a wide cultural diversity at school. People come from many
different places, the way of life, thinking, costumes and traditions are reflected in the
everyday activities of students attending this school. When asked about cultural diversity at
school, students replied that,
“Para mí es buena, ya que aprendes a respetar y valorar a las
personas y por supuesto, su cultura, aprendes de su forma de vivir y
de cómo se desarrollan en sus vidas”
“Que es lo que la hace ser una facultad de humanidades en toda la
extensión de la palabra, ya que debido a esas diferencias o a esa
diversidad podemos entrar en contacto con toda clase de personas
que de lo contrario no conoceríamos.”
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Both Jaime and Javier, told us that for them it is good to have cultural diversity at school, as
it is a good starting point to learn more about other people and their way of living.
Many people might say that at the Humanities campus, there will always be different people,
and that they will be accepted by all students. Nevertheless, this is not always the case as
people do not always accept new cultures, or likes to learn from other people’s experiences. In
this regards, during an interview a classmate said:
“A mí me da igual, para mí las personas son como son, solo les hablo a
aquellas personas que tengan los mismos gustos que yo”
Another issue that became known as a result of the investigation has to do with the way the
educational system implemented at the school shapes social relationships. It is evident from
students’ voices that they need their space and time to socialize with other students.
However, with the current educational model at the UV (University of Veracruz), this has
become more difficult to achieve. That is, for a student to keep a good friendship and build it
every day has become problematic since this model requires a constant movement of
students, from class to class, from shift to shift, etc. With this model, you meet many
classmates but make it really difficult to make friends, as there is no continuity in groups.
As students, sometimes we need a moment of distraction and relaxation. It is very tiring to
spend almost 8 hours a day, stuck in a classroom listening to teachers. As we all know, the
brain gets tired and needs a time to relax. This is the reason why we students take advantage
of any time in between lessons or after them to gather together with our mates in the common
areas that the campus has. Nonetheless, there are a few places where a student can rest for a
moment. We agree that not everybody is fortunate enough to live nearby so as to go home to
get some rest; thus, you need to stay within the premises. In what follows we will try to
provide a picture of how important some issues are for students. Then, we will provide the
questions asked and the responses we got from our peers.
What is the relationship with your classmates?
“De
compañeros de clase, solo hablar cosas relevantes para la
escuela y son diferentes de mis amigos…
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…No somos precisamente amigos, amigos tengo en mis otras
escuelas, aquí solo tengo compañeros de clase, ya que no se presta
tener amigos en realidad, aquí todos estamos siempre pensando en
nuestros intereses.”
“De flojera nunca tengo platica con nadie, y si trato de acercarme a
alguno de mis compañeros sus platicas me aburren o simplemente no
me agradan, prefiero estar solo, ir a la escuela a clases y regresarme
a mi casa”
In our opinion this is the result of the educational model, in which students change
from course to course and from semester to semester. Students consider that this
modality hinders the building of lasting relationships since they do not spend enough
time. On the other hand, there are students who believe that within the same
educational model true friendship is possible.
“Bueno, me gusta llevarme con todos, socializar y hacer amigos, de
hecho varias clases las tomo con amigas, tratamos de sincronizarnos
al momento de hacer nuestros horarios….
…yo en lo personal sí creo que la posibilidad de hacer grandes amigos
se pueda dar aun estando en MEIF”.
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5. CONCLUSION
Our study has analyzed the perception ascribed to school by the students. We believe that the
study may be relevant to education as it broadens the vision of the educational phenomenon.
It provides information that in turn may increase our understanding of how young people
interpret their studies; thus, it provides more grounds to the foundations of educational action
and development, which originates in the social reality and allows evaluating the
transcendence, which goes beyond the individual effects. Considering the ideas hereto
expressed, we may conclude that the educational model (MEIF) has helped students of
English to finish their degree in a shorter period of time, as compared to those of the previous
syllabus (Plan 90). However, it appears that with this model the relationships among students
have been slowly fading away because they do not have particular groups, which makes it
more difficult to interact.
That is why it might be a good option to implement at the School of Languages some cultural
groups, clubs or increase the conversations circles, in order to promote greater interaction
among students.
According to the information collected from the students, the vast majority refers to the
school as a space of youth living; where they not only can find a sense of identity and
belonging surrounded by knowledge, culture, traditions that they share but also different from
their own. We found out similarities with the perceptions reported here and those reported in
Guerrero Salinas’ study:
“Este espacio de vida juvenil adquiere distintas dimensiones: es un lugar
de identificación y diferenciación en donde los jóvenes conforman sus
grupos de referencia y, en alguna medida, sus identidades; de
comunicación y diálogo en sus propios códigos y sobre sus
preocupaciones más íntimas: es un ámbito de tratamiento de los
problemas juveniles que adquiere una dimensión terapéutica y relajante
frente a los conflictos que les agobian fuera; constituye también un
espacio de solidaridad y apoyo frente a las exigencias académicas.”
(2000:28)
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Another important point that we can take into account is that in the school context, the vision
about the whole world increases among students through all the knowledge, culture, traditions
ways of thinking, and students’ experience, considering that they come from different places
and socio-cultural backgrounds and these young people learn from their friends. Students
begin to appreciate values and knowledge that improve our society; they learn values that may
make school life more meaningful. This way, with this personal growth involved, it is
expected that students improve and become better persons who can contribute to the country’s
development.
The institution plays an important role in students’ formation process. The Language School
is a platform to channel youth socialization. We think the school’s openness and wide range
of cultural activities and learning experiences students have access to help them in the
construction of identity. It also allows, given the constant movement of the students to
different groups, the exchange of knowledge and experience.
Finally, students provided some good ideas not only to practice the target language but to
enhance social interaction among students such as the implementation of cultural groups or
increasing the offer of conversation clubs.
To sum up, this research seems to show that education involves many aspects; it is not only
based on academic aspects. The educational social aspect appears to be very important to the
student development, as it contributes to a complete education. However, it is necessary to
give the same importance to social as to academic.
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Appendix
INTERVIEW GUIDE:
1. – What do you think about the term “school”?
2. - What is the relationship with your classmates?
3. - What do you do in your free time at school?
4. – How long do you spend on your homework?
5. - What kind of workshops do you prefer at school, cultural or sport?
6. - What do you think about cultural diversity at school?
7. - What is your perception about languages?
8. - What do you talk about with your friends?
9. – Where do you feel more comfortable to chat with your friends at the faculty? Why?
10. - Would you like more places of coexistence within the faculty?
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