Efficient and sustainable career construction: the professional portfolio as a resource at university guidance

Abstract

ABSTRACT

This research introduces a process of vocational guidance in the first years of the Degree of Education through the use of electronic portfolio. It has been designed a specific portfolio for teachers in initial training, from the referents of guidance for long life learning and the paradigm shift. The purpose is to describe and construe, through an evaluative case study, how students design their life projects and the way that accompanying dynamics emerge during the fieldwork. To this end, a guide is made and a training and tutorial process is developed over two academic years, what enables students to develop their professional portfolios. The qualitative analysis of data, by default and emerging categories, lets us discover and understand the narratives of students about their personal and professional knowledge. Also, what are the meanings they construct from their culture, expectations and the sense in which they are heading in the process of self-determination. The rapport between students and the teacher-counselor is decisive, concluding that the functions and organization of support are the basis of all emergent process. Along portfolio development, students take on the role of professionals in training, increase their self-esteem and perceive control over their careers.