Tensions in the Educational Practices of Engineering Teachers: An Approach from the Mediation of Pedagogical Knowledge

Abstract

The teacher as an actor of social change, immersed in the continuous changes that education has, influenced by countless practices and social relationships, generates pedagogical knowledge that is necessary to know, understand and study because it shows how the teacher is competent to take action within his specific scenario and in a resolving function in situations of tension in his practice. Therefore, his actions are not deliberate, they are thought out and mediated by a criterion and judgment, by a knowledge, always in benefit of resolving and overcoming adverse situations in the classroom, in favor of the formative process from his educational practice.

This article aims to understand how the pedagogical knowledge of engineering teachers can mediate tensions in their educational practice, the methodology used was based on the analysis of the information collected through interview and survey techniques to 12 teachers of engineering programs in the Colombian Caribbean. Among the results, the self-recognition of engineering program teachers as education professionals who understand their role and dignify their knowledge, which does not contradict the specificity of their knowledge, is examined. Likewise, as conclusions, it is possible to glimpse that higher education institutions can have a new vision to rethink their quality processes from the new perspective of the analysis that involves knowing, reviewing and reflecting on the tensions that are seen in educational practice and there will undoubtedly be an opportunity for improvement in the teaching-learning process, and finally the recognition for pedagogical knowledge and/or a feeling of knowledge (of the teacher) to recognize themselves as such.