Criteria of Applicability. A proposal from Latin America.
By Julio González Bello
(Paper presented at Latinamerican Forum of the Latin American Network of Guidance Professionals, Dominican Republic)
Origin
This Model was conceived as a response to multiple approaches from professionals in Latin America, who pointed out that most of the models applied to the field of Counseling/Guidance are characterized by their Eurocentric approach, initially developed for people from other latitudes and that do not correspond with our idiosyncrasies and feel of Latin American. It would be unfair to mention only some of them, but it was certainly a general concern among these professionals. I even remember that counselors from South Africa and Australia, as representatives of the Southern Hemisphere, also voiced this concern. It is also important to recognize that this is not the only attempt to build a Model for our region. In this context, it is recommended to read the work of González Bello (2012) suggested in the Bibliographic References.
Definition
The Latin American Professional Network, under the direction of the board of directors coordinated by Prof. Amilkar Brunal, responded assertively to the approach made by the Guidance professionals and formed a research team of the Latin American Journal of Human Development Counseling (Orient Acción), who were given the task of developing, applying and tabulating a total of seven (7) online surveys, sent to professionals from different Latin American countries in the period of 2014 and 2018. As a result of this work, the following definition of the suggested Model is proposed:
In its broadest conception, the Transitional Counseling for the Meaning of Life is:
"... a pedagogical biopsychosocial model of Educational Guidance with an existential approach and with an interdisciplinary epistemological base ... It assumes a transitional focus (emphasis on transitions between academic cycles), based on three existential dimensions:
To have. Psychological Axis (Counseling for the Intra-Personal Sense of Life)
To do. Pedagogical Axis (Sense of Academic-Labor Life)
To be. Sociological Axis (meaning of life in community), which it converges in the ethical construction of the social BEING (person). Focused towards the ethical and realization with solidarity of all the axiological needs of the human being raised according to the Human-scale development theory of the Chilean author Manfred Max-Neef. "(Red LatinoAmericana de Profesionales de la Orientación,, 2018, pp.23-24)
With this Counseling for Latin America model, "we work in the search for a balanced vision between the pedagogical, psychological and sociological perspectives, with an imperative basis in the existential dimension of Counseling and an appropriate contemporary sociopolitical application"(Red Latinoamericana de Profesionales de la Orientación, Ob. Cit. p.2)
As it is expressed in the definition of this model for the meaning of life, this can be considered a novel conception in our region, since it suggests going beyond a simple model based only on employability, and on the developmentalist conception of the Counseling considered by López Cardoso (2004).
On the other hand, for Jiménez, Chinchilla and Arguedas (2018) all Guidance processes must contemplate the meaning of life, an aspect that has been considered in the Guidance and Special Education Section at the University of Costa Rica since 1997. The authors mentioned they consider that this sense of life must be approached contemplating several aspects: the self-knowledge of the interests and limitations, the analysis of the opportunities, responsibility to establish goals and decisions making, development of strengths for the achievement of the goals, and the evaluation and enjoyment of the life journey.
Applicability Criteria
Some of these criteria present in the Model are: the solidity of the theoretical foundations, professional preparation, ethical principles, and practical work tools, criteria of innovation, conceptual clarity, international scenarios, effectiveness, efficiency, equity, and sustainability.
Regarding the criterion of the solidity of the theoretical foundations, the present model rests on the main ideas of Victor Frankl (Logotherapy) and Manfred Max-Neef (Human Scale Development).
From the perspective of Ríos Del Moral (2017),
The Guidance and Counselor, should promote the living of values; should promote, taking into account the chronological age and according to the logotherapeutic thesis and existential analysis, the configuration of life full of meaning, through the discovery of values. The man through the incessant relationship with himself and the outside world is understood as a discoverer of values that in turn he applies or modifies in their daily lives.
For Max-Neef, Elizalde and Hopenhayn (2010), Latin America has been in a crisis situation for a long time, but it is a very complex and diffuse crisis.
"After all, it is not a clear crisis. It is not only economic, nor is it only social, cultural or political. In some way, it is a convergence of all of them but, in their aggregation, results in a totality that is more than the sum of its parts. "(p.9)
Also paraphrasing the authors just mentioned, it can be said that this proposal of the Latin American Model is not the final solution for the field of Counseling, but it does point out a possible way forward.
However, at this point it would be important? to incorporate the ideas and reflections of prominent Latin American authors and thinkers, who make mention of the meaning of Latin American. Among these authors, the ideas of Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Humberto Maturana can be considered, just to mention two of them.
For the criterion of professional preparation it is fair to acknowledge that the proper training has not yet been initiated in the Model that guarantees us the proper application of it.That is why it is pertinent and urgent to make the appropriate approaches to the institutions that train of this type of professional in order to develop the required interdisciplinary curricular designs., that also include and development of online training courses through the Latin American Network of Guidance Professionals (Relapro).
In order to analyze the presence of ethical principles in the suggested Model, it will be helpful to review Table 1 of the material produced by the Latin American Network of Guidance Professionals (Ob.Cit., p.7), where some of these existing ethical principles are pointed out in the Model. These principles include: being a professional who listens, treating people as beings with rights and duties, being professional that every day collaborates so that those receiving the service choose their future, being a professional that promotes well-being in all areas: personal, family, social, spiritual, professional, health and economic.
For the practical work tools, in the suggested model a toolbox worthy of being considered for the daily activity of the Orientation professional is presented. These tools are presented in Tables 2.3, and 4 of the document prepared by Relapro, and are grouped as tools for the psychological, pedagogical and social-inter-institutional approach.
For the criterion of novelty, it is possible to cite what is established in the document considered, and which is outlined as:
In daring to call this model" new, "we seek to propose a new approach that, although it articulates previous elements, also proposes new epistemological approaches, based on decolonial terms and psychological, pedagogical and sociological approaches with a broad existential base (Hansen, 2005) and a political stance for necessary contemporary Educational Guidance."(p.16).
For the criterion of conceptual clarity, I consider that the Model is well conceived and that at least the most important concepts are well explained in the document presented. For the rest of the applicability criteria, it is recommended a better thoughtfulness that evaluative investigations be conducted to increase the certainty that these criteria are present in the suggested model.
Conclusions and recommendations
As main conclusions and recommendations it is established that in the proposed Model some appropriate applicability criteria can be found for any model, but we must make more effort to demonstrate that most of these applicability criteria are present on it. This demonstration should be done through well-conceived evaluative research as well as undergraduate and postgraduate degree work, or independent research. And finally, it is recommended that the Latin American Network of Guidance Professionals conduct training courses, online, related to this Model.
References
González Bello, J. (2012). Hacia el desarrollo de un Modelo de Orientación Latinoamericana: Criterios Fundamentales. Revista Mexicana de Orientación Educativa. Vol. IX. N. 22. Pp. 46-51.
Jiménez Segura, F., Chinchilla Jiménez, R., y Arguedas Negrini, I. (2018). Sentido de Vida y Procesos de Orientación. Un análisis desde el Enfoque centrado en el sentido. Memorias del II Congreso de Profesionales de la Orientación. San José Costa Rica. Pp. 328- 348. Disponible en: https://congreso2018.cpocr.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Memoria%20Congreso%20de%20Profesionales%20en%20Orientaci%C3%B3n%202018.pdf
López Cardoso, G. (2004). “Una aporía en el campo de la Orientación Educativa en el Modelo Desarrollista. Reflexiones respecto a la vocación”. Revista Mexicana de Orientación Educativa. Volumen II. Número 3, pp. 22-24.
Max-Neef, M., Elizalde, A., y Hopenhayn, M. (2010), Desarrollo a Escala Humana. Opciones para el Futuro. (2da. Edición). Editor: Biblioteca CF+S, Madrid. http://habitat.aq.upm.es
Red Latinoamericana de Profesionales de la Orientación (Relapro). (2018). La Orientación Trasicional para el Sentido de la Vida. Revista OrientAcción. Año 4. N.4.
Ríos Del Moral, A.Y. (2017). El sentido de vida en la Orientación. Una mirada desde la logoterapia. Disponible en: https://revistaorientaccion.blogspot.com/2017/02/el-sentido-de-vida-en-la-orientacion.html
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