A Pedagogical Strategy for Integrated Education of Spanish in the 4th to 6th Grades of the General Basic Education

Language teaching has become a priority in the Costa Rican educational system, considering it as a tool for communication and development of thought. Without language, there is no access to other curriculum disciplinary knowledge. A successful experience conducted some years ago, with students from 4th to 6th grade, was the basis for the design and implementation of a professional development activity addressed to promoting an integration strategy previously adjusted according to the Ministry’s requirements and the existing national regulations. This study is developed in the framework of a qualitative paradigm including research-action and systematization. A purposive sample was selected based on a suitability factor, through which individuals are informed about the strategy, and then the strategy is applied to a group of students from urban-marginal areas. The techniques used include literature review, analysis of curriculum and Ministry’s regulations, application of an in-depth interview, discussions from the course’s participant in a portfolio, and discussions from students to whom the strategy was applied. We analyzed the considerations of teachers and students, as well as the theoretical and regulatory information by triangulation. The study’s conclusion is the necessity of a communicative approach in language teaching and our recommendation is to implement the strategy developed in the Costa Rican classrooms as provided in this paper.

Proposal for Labor Market Integration of Teachers in Contexts of High Social Vulnerability

The purpose of this paper is to share a proposal for teacher’s labor market integration in contexts of high social5 vulnerability. This paper is the result of a research conducted in a priority attention primary school6 of the central canton of Heredia7. It explored the labor market integration process of teachers, considering the community, family and student reality of a population social risk. The research that supports this proposal is based on a qualitative approach, since the diagnosis process is not intended to provide answers that could be commonly applied to other education centers in similar contexts, but to make an exploratory approach of teachers’ reality and their integration process into education institutions of high social vulnerability. Therefore, although this paper intends to share this experience, it does not aim to unify integration practices, but to be an input in carrying out similar processes.  (5) The concept of high social vulnerability is understood based on Sojo’s approach (2003), which defines it as marginal urban communities in areas considered by the Costa Rican government as priority areas with the greatest social, economic backwardness in the country, and high rates of violence, leisure, unemployment and drug addiction. (6) Translator’s note: The Costa Rican education system is composed of primary education (1st-6th grade) and secondary education (7th-11th grade). (7)A public primary school in the circuit 02 of the Province of Heredia.

Educación sexual: Orientadores y orientadoras desde el modelo biográfico y profesional

Recibido 15 de marzo de 2012 •  Corregido 21 de octubre de 2012 • Aceptado 07 de noviembre de 2012 El presente documento plantea la necesidad de que la sociedad contemporánea posea mayores y mejores conocimientos sobre sexualidad, con miras a una vivencia efectiva de esta dentro de un marco de respeto a la biografía sexual del ser humano y fundamentados en la ética relacional. Para ello se apuesta por una educación sexual integral, democrática, tolerante y abierta, dentro de los procesos educativos a lo largo de todas las etapas evolutivas del ser humano. Uno de los sectores profesionales llamados a desarrollar este tipo de educación es el colectivo de orientadores y orientadoras. Para dicha acción, requieren conocer cuáles fueron los modelos o formas de abordaje con los que se educaron y que han marcado su hacer en dicha temática. Esto permitirá que la persona profesional en orientación se dé a la tarea de evaluar, fortalecer o aprender nuevas competencias en el campo personal, actitudinal, conceptual y en cuanto a la visión sobre la diversidad de las personas con quienes trabaja; así como en el campo procedimental, las estrategias y técnicas de intervención orientadora en sexualidad, que incidan en su labor profesional.