School orientation in the framework of school coexistence: a look from social representations

Abstract

The article exposes the construct related to the school orientation within the framework of the coexistence in the school, based on the social representations of the educational community, where the fundamental aspect is to clarify and evaluate counselor’s role in the dialogical scenarios that appear daily in the coexistence, and that are inputs that allow a construction from the relational framework of the school community. Therefore, the purpose of the research on which the article is based, was to investigate the school counselor’s potential in the coexistence framework, where he must face situations such as conflict resolution, conciliation, affection and others. For the study a qualitative approach was adopted, under a non-experimental design, from the theory of social representations, with a 38 – individual sample made up of students, teachers and teaching directors of the Departmental Educational Institution Alfonso López Pumarejo. As results, five types of social representations about school guidance within the framework of coexistence were found. These were: a) school guidance as a guide; b) school guidance as accompaniment; c) school orientation as preventive detection of coexistence aspects; d) school orientation as intervention of personal, family and social problems; and e) school guidance as support to strengthen weaknesses and potentials. In conclusion, it is necessary to mention that counselor’s role is not only directed to the intervention but also to the empowerment of skills, conflict resolution and school conciliation processes.