Abstract

ALVAREZ, José; RODRIGUEZ, Clemente; HERRERA, Lucía  and  LORENZO, Oswaldo. University students' opinion about professional deontology: A study made in the Bachelor of Education at the University of Granada (Spain). Interdisciplinaria [online]. 2012, vol.29, n.1, pp.23-42. ISSN 1668-7027.

The aim of this work has been to penetrate into the study of the deontology codes transmitted by the teacher of higher education, from the opinion and perception about these of the students participants in this research (Bachelor of Pedagogy), on the need to implement in their universitary education and expectations of future works determined contents relatives to the professional ethics. As several authors show (Bolívar, 2005; Chaves, 2002; Cobo, 2003a, 2003b; De Vicente, 2006; Stephen, 2004; Gervilla, 1991a; Gichure, 1995; Hirsch, 2003a; Jordán, 1998; Jover, 1998; Marcovitch, 2002; Pérez, 2005), it is important that the education received at the university by the future citizens is facing toward a set of ethical, moral and professional needed to ensure the achievement of a set of competencies that enable the formation of people who make up society as active and responsible members in the solving of the problems that concern them in their lives. This study allowed to detect what is the importance of professional ethics in Pedagogy Degree at the University of Granada (Spain) and how much is it taught in this degree. The specific objectives of the study were: (1) To determine the relationship between the importance of the professional ethics in the Bachelor of Pedagoy at the University of Granada and teaching that is implemented on it. (2) To establish if the attitudes carried out by students about professional, ethics and moral conduct and professional commitment (all of this relating to professional ethics) differ depending on their importance level, on the one hand, and the education level, on the other. (3) To identify if the sex and course have effect on the different components or categories established for professional ethics, also in a double sense: importance and teaching. To check the opinions of the participants, a descriptive study has been carried out with students of Pedagogy, which offers a series of results that can be useful to orientate the future professional and educational practice of the graduates. The study was conducted on three categories or components related to professional ethics: professional ethics conduct, moral conduct, and professional commitment. Within the above categories exists a double dimension: the emphasis on professional ethics in the labour activity of the future graduate and what is teaching / learned in the university education. In this sense, the main findings obtained suggest that the most valued dimension of professional ethics is the professional commitment, followed by professional ethics conduct and, to a lesser extent, the moral conduct. In relation to teaching learning in their initial training, the students think, in the same way, that professional commitment is the category further addressed in the classroom, followed by moral conduct and, finally, of professional ethic conduct, which is what a smaller presence has in the training or teaching of professional ethics of the degree. As a general reflection, it is possible to say that this study has made a valuable contribution contrast to similar works with which converge in their results. Also the finding that college students are still waiting for their teachers teachings based on certain ethical values supposedly with a traditional component, in the same way that others works on this direction (Álvarez, Rodríguez, & Lorenzo, 2007; Rodríguez, Herrera, Lorenzo, & Álvarez, 2008), confirming an orientation of ethical and professional commitment of teachers to students and of the latter to his expectation of future professional development. Initial expectations that the participants access to the higher education and the final realization of their studies show, in general, that students think about the employability and ethical conduct, morale and commitment to the profession beyond the studies completed, what shows positively the teachings received during the career has settled with a vocation for continuity.

Keywords : Educational and professional Deontology; Moral education; Higher education; Bachelor of Pedagogy; Future works.

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