Representations and Imaginaries in Reading Training of Students from UES: a Case Study

Abstract

Social and humanistic research leads to human knowledge by analyzing their social structures, thoughts, expressions and everyday actions. The aim of this article is to show the progress of a case study in social and imaginary representations that have students about reading and reading training in Sonora State University (UES). The research, part of which this is a part) also investigates habitus reading and intends to explore, describe, explain, evaluate, and to influence the transformation, where necessary, of such imaginary. To accomplish this goal, we rely on the theoretical approaches of Castoriadis, Moscovici and Bourdieu. As methodology is concerned we use the focus group interview. The analysis units were two groups of students, one in Hermosillo and the other in the Benito Juárez Academic Unit. We checked that students were made up of young people from different educational programs, that they had already taken the subjects from the basic training related to reading and that they had taken the opportunity to apply the knowledge and skills acquired in these subjects in school performance. We believe, according to the present progress of our research, that much of the students’ imaginary and social representation about reading are social constructs forged from their interactions with other factors within specific context and time, and that they determine meanings and values ​​of the act of reading.