Humanistic Education and Social Responsibility in Alumni from Jesuit Universities in Mexico. An Exploratory Study

• In Event: Roundtable Session (Tuesday IV)
  In Refereed Round-Table Session: Re(questioning) critical concerns through qualitative research

Proposal

0. Introduction
This text addresses the issue of humanistic education with an emphasis on social commitment and responsibility. It presents the results of the exploratory qualitative phase that was carried out through semi-structured interviews to 53 alumni of different majors and generations, from the Universidad Iberoamericana campuses in Mexico City, Puebla, León, Torreon, and Tijuana.

The research was carried out through open semi-structured interviews. The interviews were conducted and analyzed during 2016 and 2017, and the final report was ready in February 2018, but it has not been published yet. One gathered participants by means of an open invitation through social networks, mainly Linkedin and Facebook. The research team used the technique of "snowball" to ensure participation of alumni coming from all the Bachelor’s degrees offered by the different Jesuit universities in the country. Interviews included alumni of different generations and majors, coming from the campuses of Mexico City (36), Puebla (4), León (3), Torreón (5) and Tijuana (5).

The sample was composed of people who finished their studies from 1978 to 2015. The oldest generations, which cover the decades from 1978 to 1997, were represented by 14 informants who constitute 26%, while the youngest cover the decades from 1998 to 2015 and constitute 62.21%, being the Mode the most recent cohort, which covers the years from 2008 to 2015. Seven people (13.46%) did not answer this question.

As for the majors covered by the sample, practically the entire spectrum of Bachelor’s degrees offered at the different campuses in the country was covered.

The interview guide consisted of twenty-one open questions. The interviews were collected through recordings and, in few cases, responses through e-mail. Once the interviews were transcribed, the research team proceeded to review and interpret the information given, through the technique of emerging coding, to figure out the most important categories and semantic networks from the discourse of the interviewees. For this purpose, analysis matrices were elaborated, such as those proposed by Huberman and Miles for qualitative analysis.

3. Discussion of results

This paper only discusses the results of those questions that portray the most relevant features related to research purposes.

3.1 Social Responsibility Activities of Alumni

The first thing to point out is a portray of alumni current activities of social responsibility. The analysis was made on the categorization and interpretation of questions 5, 6 and 7 of the interview guide since the answers were linked to the same topic. In general terms, alumni participate significantly in activities related to social issues either directly or indirectly, since 45 out of 53 (85%) volunteer in civil society organizations and in activities of diverse nature which have to do with social benefits. The range of fields of participation is extensive, including education, science, health, culture, art, religious groups, and so forth. The activities carried out in favor of communities in need have to do with migrant populations, homeless, drugs and alcohol abuse, poor single mothers, intra-family violence problems, to mention few.


3.2 The influence of the university on students´ humanistic educations and social commitment
Regarding this issue, only one interviewee said that college did not influence him, while the remaining 52 stated that the education they received translated into a humanistic attitude (33 mentions). Informants pointed out that this kind of education emphasizes the need for becoming more emphatic. They also mention the importance of taking ethical considerations into account for their professional exercise (31). The third category in order of importance refers to the social commitment (19) that, in the opinion of the alumni, college fostered in them.

3.2.1 The good experiences in the core curriculum humanistic courses
The analysis highlights 58 responses, some of them of quite a narrative density. They are presented in a gradation ranging from very incipient memories, referred only to the name or general subjects with some very vague positive comment, passing, in second level, to the category that was named, as "enriching experience", which includes short stories about positive aspects of the course in question detailed by the informants. Attention was drawn to the capacity of the interviewees to remember details: it is remarkable that 15 out of 53 interviewees could reach this level of detailed memory of the good experiences they had in the subjects of humanistic education.

3.2.2 The bad educative experiences during college years

There were also memories of bad experiences, among which highlights 17 opinions of alumni about the lousy pedagogy and the bad teachers. When grouping the codes related to a bad experience, it is seen that they were linked to bad teachers in 33 of the cases, that is, in 68% of the mentions of a negative experience.
3.3 Contribution of humanistic education to the professional field

Thus, regarding the influence of humanistic education courses to their professional training, 94% of alumni (49) referred to as a positive influence, whose examples were mentioned on 68 occasions. Only three alumni affirmed that these courses had not had any impact on them, neither positive nor negative.
Alumni also recognized the contribution of the humanistic core curriculum courses as an opportunity to give them a deeper general culture, having helped them to broaden their life perspectives and have promoted their critical thinking.

4. Conclusions

The testimonies analyzed highlight the centrality of the teacher as a key to achieve the desired educational effects. It is a noticeable fact when alumni can remember their former teachers´ names, the subjects they taught, and even their classroom experiences, quite vividly despite the time elapsed since their college years. It indicates that teachers left a footprint on their student's mind hard to erase. All testimonials related to sound, transformative experiences, were based on human interactions that had a decisive influence in building self-identity.
On the other hand, combination of teachers who do not take their role seriously with students who do not assume the commitment to learn tends to result in a pedagogical failure that alumni regret years later.

Author

• Hilda Ana Maria Patino, Professor