Education Science Celebrates 30 Years at a Transformative Moment

The Faculty of Pedagogical Sciences of the University of Malaga is undergoing a process of transformation as it continues to grow without losing its distinguishing features: its character as an open center, empathy and concern for both students and the rest of the educational community.

This is indicated by Rosario Gutierrez, who is facing her seventh year as Dean with special enthusiasm for all the changes and new projects, but also with great responsibility and a sense of obligation. “We have a crack-free center, solid, from the point of view of teaching, from the point of view of research and from the point of view of transportation. It refers to the three main functions of colleges and universities.

However, moving to a new building for the Faculty of Psychology this year inevitably led to a moment of change due to the necessary reorganization of the spaces. In the past two years, the Spaces Committee has worked with representation from all departments on the design around a transformation plan that “benefits everyone,” explains Gutierrez, who adds that the goal is to have a center that’s “nice but also more useful.”

Students of different degrees of education sciences now not only have more space because of the classrooms left free of psychology, but also new classes or seminars will be created by restoring offices for this educational use.

Similarly, Rosario Gutiérrez stated that she also wants to make repairs in places such as the boardroom or the graduation hall, which have access problems and need new furniture. To do this, they have already contacted the Vice President of Smart Campus and the management of the UMA, since they are a business that requires certain funding.

This physical transformation allows, according to Rosario Gutierrez, to start new projects such as the aforementioned new degree in Physical Activity and Sports Science that has just started with 60 students.

The highly sought-after degree recognized by the Dean is very important to the faculty as it “has a professional projection that relates not only to the educational field, but also to prevention, health, and management. So our students will be able to apply to various career opportunities.”

This degree, in which 180 of the 240 credit hours are awarded in English, is taught in both the teaching classroom and sports complex at UMA thanks to the collaboration of the Vice President for Students and Sports. The Dean explains that students work on the practical part of the curriculum in the sports facilities, but space has also been created there for the theoretical part of these practical subjects. Similarly, the topic of physical therapy is given in health sciences. “It’s a highly interdisciplinary degree,” Gutiérrez highlights.

With this degree, the College of Educational Sciences adds five degrees – early childhood education, elementary education, social education, pedagogy and physical activity sciences – and a double degree in elementary education and English studies. Studies that are in high demand and in which a waiting list accumulates every year despite the presence of more than 700 new places.

For the postgraduate courses, Education Sciences is integrating a new course in educational technology and knowledge management, which they hope will be available for the next academic year.

“It is an inter-university master’s degree along with UNÍA (International University of Andalusia) that I think will be very popular. The Vice President for Studies has given us the green light and we are working on it,” Gutierrez explains.

Covid has also proven the importance of technology in teaching, the Dean recalls, so presumably this master’s degree is very exciting for future education professionals.

There is also a high demand for postgraduate studies, also considering that there are very few places available each year. A majority of thirty is among a majority of thirty except for the last one implanted, Psychopedagogy, which has 60 places.

The Dean also emphasizes the importance of the College’s work as it is responsible for the ESO’s Master’s, Baccalaureate, Vocational Training and Language Teaching, of which there are 550 seats and which are distributed in 16 different titles.

From the undergraduate and postgraduate classes at this college, future heads of education leave each year, a profession that, the dean admits, has lost social consideration, but she doesn’t think this is due to the training they receive.

“I think the social treatment that the teaching profession receives is unfair. It is necessary to make it more clear, that the work done in schools has more general projections. I think that social disregard is due above all to ignorance. There is a series of stereotypes.

This necessary justification for studies and the teaching profession was demonstrated last Friday in the law erected at the Faculty of Educational Sciences to celebrate its 30th anniversary. A “close, open and participative” event, as defined by the Dean, whose goal was not only to remember these three decades, but also to look to the future.

Both views were addressed in two sessions entitled “Dialogues for a Shared Memory” in which teachers, members of the administration and services, students, a former student, and a current student participated.

During the act, rector, Jose Angel Narvez, stated that the Faculty of Educational Sciences is developing an “educational model of coexistence that permeates the University of Malaga”. “Thanks to you, Malaga State University has the privilege of training trainers,” he added.

“Training people and creating relationships with students is the goal of this private house,” said the dean, while appealing to the human side of studies and thanking the work of “everyone who collaborated in the development of the center: deans, educational institutions, university teachers, teachers of different primary and secondary levels, retired staff and all Our students at all, the main reason for the existence of this center and the entire University of Malaga».

The anniversary featured a commemorative video with photos of these 30 years that put the emotional point of the event.

Vice-Chancellor of Students and former Dean of Educational Sciences, Francisco Murillo; Representative of the Council for Universities, Miguel Briones. Vice President of the National Conference of Deans of Education, Alfonso Javier Garcia, and Ignacio Rivas, Director of the University Institute for Research in the Training of Education Professionals.

Artistic interventions were performed by Edo Retamiro, singer-songwriter and head of the secretariat of this college, who was accompanied by singer-songwriter and illustrated humorist Angel Edegors. The two former students, Yolanda Campos and Ahinwa Bao, also provided the soundtrack for the anniversary.