Pedagogical manuscript · Completed in 2024 · 241 pages

Guía pedagógica de ciencias sociales

The Guía pedagógica de ciencias sociales: comprensión social y reflexión crítica (Teaching Guide to the Social Sciences: Social Understanding and Critical Reflection) brings together materials developed while I was teaching on Sociology and Special Education degree programmes between 2020 and 2023.

The project began as a series of notes that helped me connect required readings with the structure of each course. Over time, these texts incorporated examples, activities, assessments and resources for further study. In 2024, I finished reorganising them into a unified manuscript intended primarily for teachers.

Process

From notes to a guide

When I began teaching, I needed to build learning pathways that brought together texts from different traditions. The notes emerged as a way to organise those readings and provide a shared sequence around which I could structure my classes.

As I shared them with students and used them in new courses, the materials began to change. I added examples connected to students’ experiences and activities through which they could observe, discuss and apply the concepts.

Writing the manuscript was not simply a matter of gathering those documents. I needed to address repetition, fill gaps in the content, establish a progression and turn materials designed for specific situations into resources that other people could reuse.

Organisation

A progressive structure

The guide is organised into four parts and eight chapters:

Foundations of the social sciences, with an introduction to scientific knowledge and its production.
Social psychology, with content on interaction, influence and contemporary perspectives.
Intersections among the social sciences, focused on their relationships with education and economics.
Contemporary debates in sociology, devoted to more complex theoretical problems.

Each chapter includes learning objectives, an introduction, conceptual development, resources for further study, activities, notes and references. The manuscript also includes a glossary that can be used to review content or prepare new teaching materials.

Contents page of Guía pedagógica de ciencias sociales — Contents and overall organisation of the manuscript.

Example of an activity included in the guide — Example of a teaching activity.

First page of the guide’s glossary — Glossary also designed as an independent resource.

Reformulation

Recognising a change of audience

The project was initially conceived as an introductory book for students. As I wrote it, however, I realised that its length and density did not always match the accessible reading experience I had imagined.

Rather than conceal that difficulty, I reframed the manuscript as a guide for teachers. Its activities, questions and resources could serve as a repertoire from which materials could be selected and adapted for different courses.

This shift changed the meaning of the project. The guide no longer seeks to offer a single, self-contained introduction to the social sciences. Instead, it makes available a structure of content and activities that emerged from a particular teaching practice.

The guide does not claim to represent the social sciences exhaustively. Its selection reflects the courses I taught, the syllabuses I worked with and the teaching challenges I encountered during that period.

Authorship

My contribution

I wrote and organised the entire manuscript. This involved turning notes and assessment materials into chapters, selecting and connecting content, developing examples and activities, incorporating resources for further study and constructing the glossary.

The text was developed within CIPSE-UCEN while I worked at the centre. Marco Cofré wrote the foreword and Fernando Varela helped prepare the manuscript.

Editorial status and access

Complete manuscript

The manuscript was completed in 2024 and is under contract with the Editorial de la Universidad Central de Chile. The publishing process remains pending.

Read the full manuscript →

Theory-and-practice guide · Tested with students during 2025 · 95 pages

Basic guidance forformulating researchprojects

This text was written to support social science students beginning to formulate a research project. Its purpose is to make explicit the logic connecting the choice of a topic, initial exploration, the construction of a research problem, methodological decisions and ethical safeguards.

The guide begins from a simple conviction: people learn to conduct research by conducting research, but that experience requires guidance, opportunities for revision and spaces in which to discuss the decisions made.

Sequence

Building a project chapter by chapter

The text is organised into six chapters:

the logic of social research;
selecting and narrowing a topic;
the exploratory phase;
formulating the research problem;
operationalisation and work planning;
ethical aspects of research.

Each chapter combines explanations, examples and activities designed to help students develop their own projects. The exploratory phase incorporates literature review, observation, document review and initial interviews so that curiosity can gradually become a researchable question.

The text also includes an introductory annex on systematic reviews and scoping reviews.

Contents page of the research project guide — Overview of the guide’s structure.

Opening of the chapter on the exploratory phase — Exploration as a transition from curiosity to a question.

Opening of the chapter on research ethics — Ethics integrated into the project design.

Application

Testing the guide while supervising thesis projects

During 2025, I used a draft with ten fourth-year Psychology students whom I was supporting as they formulated their thesis projects.

Class by class, we read the chapters and worked through the activities. During the sessions, I asked which content they had found clear or difficult, which activities had been useful and which aspects needed a different explanation. At the end of the course, we discussed how the text had contributed to their thesis work.

A pedagogical tension

Between a linear sequence and an iterative practice

The organisation into chapters presents a relatively orderly picture of the research process. This linearity serves a pedagogical purpose, but is not intended as a literal description of how research unfolds.

In practice, formulating a project involves returning to earlier decisions, reformulating questions, ruling out alternatives and recognising problems that were not visible at the outset. The guide offers an initial route through that process, not a recipe that eliminates its uncertainty.

Authorship

My contribution

I wrote the entire text and designed its activities. I also used it as a basis for supervising thesis projects, guided students through its chapters and collected feedback while using it in the classroom.

The manuscript was developed within CIPSE-UCEN and received support from David Covarrubias, head of the Psychology degree programme.

Scope and access

An entry point

The text is primarily intended for qualitative projects at an introductory or intermediate level of complexity. It does not replace specialised methodological handbooks or seek to cover every possible research design.

Its purpose is to offer an entry point and a working structure for those beginning to turn a general interest into a well-reasoned, feasible and ethically responsible project.

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Applied learning experience · Economic Sociology · 2024

Building a value chain through applied research

In 2024, as part of the Economic Sociology course, I asked students to assess an organisation and develop recommendations by drawing on the knowledge covered in the course.

Franco González and Matías Toledo developed the project in greater depth. Their work focused on the shrimp and prawn fishing value chain of the Asociación de Industriales y Armadores Pesqueros de Coquimbo (AIP).

Engagement

Connecting the classroom with an organisation

I established the initial contact with the person responsible for the Unidad de Fomento Productivo at the Municipalidad de Coquimbo. Through this connection, the students gained access to the AIP and were able to work with an existing organisation.

I proposed using the value-chain approach as a framework for defining the problem, identifying actors and examining the relationships among the different stages of the production process.

The assignment thus ceased to be simply an exercise in applying concepts. The students had to engage with people outside the classroom, produce information and construct a representation that others could understand.

In the field

Learning to conduct fieldwork

I joined the students for a day of fieldwork. This provided an opportunity to teach, in practice, how to take notes, formulate questions, listen to interviewees and record relevant information without losing sight of the project’s aims.

The process combined reviewing literature and secondary sources, preparing interview guides, managing informed consent and conducting interviews.

We then worked together on the data analysis. The students defined the stages of the chain, identified actors and supporting organisations, selected problems and prepared a SWOT analysis.

Data collection process presented by the students — Data-collection sequence presented by the students.

Representation

Building the diagram through iteration

The final visualisation did not emerge fully formed. The students prepared successive versions of the diagram, which we reviewed in working meetings. I pointed out problems of organisation, legibility or interpretation; they incorporated the corrections and presented a new version.

These iterations were interwoven with the data analysis. Modifying the diagram could reveal a relationship that required further elaboration, while a new interpretation could require the diagram to be reorganised.

Final value-chain diagram for shrimp and prawn fishing — Final diagram prepared by Franco González and Matías Toledo.

Public circulation

Taking the work beyond the classroom

The head of the Unidad de Fomento Productivo learned about the outcome and invited us to present it at the 2.º Encuentro Interdisciplinario de Sustentabilidad y Patrimonio de las Comunidades Costeras de Coquimbo (Second Interdisciplinary Meeting on Sustainability and Heritage in Coquimbo’s Coastal Communities), held on 5 July 2024.

For the event, I prepared an introduction to the new economy and solidarity-based production chains. Its purpose was to provide a conceptual framework before the students presented their assessment.

The public presentation allowed work that had begun as a course assignment to reach a different audience and enter into locally grounded conversations about sustainability, production and coastal communities.

Poster for the second Encuentro Interdisciplinario de Sustentabilidad y Patrimonio de las Comunidades Costeras de Coquimbo — Poster publicly circulated for the event.

Cover of the introduction on the new economy and solidarity-based production chains — Conceptual introduction prepared for the public presentation.

Authorship and credits

A guided project

The research, analysis and final diagram were carried out by Franco González González and Matías Toledo Torres.

My contribution consisted of designing the teaching assignment, establishing the initial connection, proposing the value-chain approach, supporting the fieldwork and data analysis, and guiding successive iterations of the diagram. I also prepared the conceptual introduction used during the public presentation.

Document

Public presentation

The public copy brings together the conceptual introduction and the presentation of the students’ work. The final slide, which contained email addresses, has been omitted.

View the presentation →