Rethinking the Curriculum: Business Communication in Spanish at the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus. Camille Villafañe, Ph.

Transcription

1 Rethinking the Curriculum: Business Communication in Spanish at the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus Conference Association for Business Communication, San Antonio, Texas October 25 28, 2006 Camille Villafañe, Ph.D I. Introduction During the last decades, profound social, economic, and technological changes have spurred curricular reform processes in institutions of higher education throughout the world. Accrediting agencies, both regional and professional, are also playing a major role in shaping the outcomes of these curricular changes. In this complex and rapidly changing context, the School of Business Administration at the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus (UPR-RP) is revising its bachelor program. As an integral part of this reassessment process, the Department of Business Communication in Spanish is carrying out several initiatives geared at strengthening its academic offerings to make them more attuned to the needs of the student body and societal demands. The present WORKING paper is a study of the ways an academic department, namely the Department of Business Communication in Spanish, is revising the scope and breath of its academic offerings in order to effectively fulfill its mission in response to the challenges posed by new curricular paradigms. It will provide a brief discussion of a decade long curricular reform debate at UPR-RP and particularly at the College of Business Administration, the Department s positions and the steps taken to adapt itself to a changing academic climate.

2 II. Historical Background The University of Puerto Rico was founded in 1903, that is, five years after the Island became a U.S. possession. For the next two decades, the Institution dedicated most of its efforts and resources to the training of a modern teaching body needed to transform the Island political culture and of agricultural technicians for the rapidly expanding agricultural sector. During the 1920s, University officials undertook an aggressive reform program geared at transforming the Institution into a full-fledged university of Pan-American scope. Developed as part of a cooperative agreement between Boston University s College of Commerce and the University of Puerto Rico, the College of Business Administration, was to serve as a training center for students from the United States, Puerto Rico, and Latin America interested in Inter-American business and trade. 1 Since its inauguration, in 1926, the School included a two semester sequence of commercial Spanish Commercial Spanish I (business Spanish writing) and Commercial Spanish II (business correspondence in Spanish). These courses were requisites for non-spanish speaking students, namely, students from the United States, but not so for native speakers, who could take them as electives. Initially, the academic unit responsible for offering these courses was Secretarial Science, which offered a bilingual program. 1 Carlos Rodríguez Fraticelli, Colonial Politics and Education: The Pan- Americanization of the University of Puerto Rico, , Historia y Sociedad, 2

3 In the early 1930s, as part of a curricular revision, both courses, now under the title Commercial Spanish III and IV (Business Spanish correspondence) became graduation requirements for the Diploma in Secretarial Science and the Bachelor in Business Administration. In 1932, they were included in the core curriculum of the newly created Bachelor in Science in Commercial Education, a collaborative program between the College of Business Administration and the College of Education. Four years later, in 1936, the Department of Commercial Spanish came into existence. Since its beginnings, Department s mission and scope within the academic and administrative structure of the College of Business Administration was clearly defined. It was born as an academic support unit whose primary objective was to assist in the development of communication skills, especially through the improvement of the writing skills needed for success in the business environment (Pura Rivera, Revisión, 1). From a curricular standpoint, its main function was to offer a required two-semester course in commercial Spanish writing. Following the U.S model, the teaching of business communication in the University of Puerto Rico was rooted in the study of rhetoric in the writing of letters and memos, with emphasis placed on the proper form and correct use of English (Du-Babcock 254). As time passed, the course was adapted to respond both to the changing times and the development of the other disciplines that impinge directly or indirectly in these offerings. 2 By the early 1970s, the course had been revised to promote the 2 Propuesta de Revisión Curricular: Modificación de ESCO Universidad de Puerto Rico, Recinto de Río Piedras, Facultad de Administración Comercial, Sometida por la Dra. Pura A. Rivera. Aprobada por el Senado Académico, 31de agosto de

4 development of critical analytical thought processes and to instill in students the importance of an ethical attitude, both as a means to communicate more efficiently and to as responsible professionals and citizens (Pura A. Rivera Propuesta Revisión, 1-2). Responding to these transformations, specifically to its interdisciplinary perspective, and the application of psychological, ethical, and logical principles to the different modalities of written communication, the course was renamed Commercial Spanish : Communication Psychology. 3 III. The birth of the Department of Business Communication in Spanish Already in the early 1980s, the Department s director presented to the College Faculty body a proposal to change the unit s name to Department of Business Communication in Spanish. Although the Faculty approved the proposal, the change was never officially approved by the higher authorities. The Department of Commercial Spanish, however, continued its drive to revise its curricular offerings. In September 1994, Department Faculty reasserted its decision to rename the unit Department of Business Communication in Spanish, while approving a revision of its coursework. The new proposal sought to attune the courses to the changing times and societal demands, specifically to the insistent demand for greater clarity, pertinence and integration coming from private and public corporations and the diverse professional sectors as well as students. As in other parts of the industrial world, research done in Puerto Rico demonstrated the growing importance of communication skills, both 3 Propuesta: Cambio de Nombre del Departamento. Universidad de Puerto Rico, Recinto de Río Piedras, Facultad de Administración Comercial, Sometida por la Dra. Pura A. Rivera. Aprobada por el Senado Académico, 31de agosto de

5 spoken and written language, in the business arena and the fact that institutions of higher education were not paying enough attention to this crucial issue. The proposed revisions sought to effectively attend these problems. The first part-- Business Communication I-- was geared at studying and developing of both oral and written communication in an entrepreneurial framework. It emphasized the importance of effective communication for the operations of enterprises and professional performance. Practical attention was to be given to the development of a critical and creative attitude, and to the integration of grammar styles, logical rules, and ethical principles, as well as of pertinent psychological, technical and cultural knowledge. In the second part-- Business Communication II students were to study concrete business situations and problems and learn and practice oral and written communication strategies to formulate and solve problems through either individual or team work methods, as well as to continue developing critical thinking and communication skills along the aforementioned lines. Along with these course revisions, the Department proposed once again changing its name to Department of Business Communication in Spanish. In August of 1995, the Academic Senate of the UPR-Río Piedras campus approved by unanimity these changes. This transformation of the Department from Commercial Spanish into Business Communication in Spanish took place in a very difficult and complex juncture in the history of the UPR-Río Piedras Campus. On November 1994, its Academic Senate initiated a process leading to a revision of the baccalaureate program and created a special committee to develop a draft. The new baccalaureate proposed by the 5

6 committee called, among other things, for a decrease of required courses in the student concentration area and the general education core, the increase of elective courses, while recommending that the total number of credits should ideally be kept between 120 and 130. (Comité Especial para la Reconceptualización del Bachillerato, Anteproyecto. Un Nuevo bachillerato para el 2000, 1998). The draft generated an intense, acrimonious and lengthy debate in the academic community that lasted over a decade. Finally, in 2005, after considering numerous different alternatives, the Academic Senate approved a final document that established the general lines for the new bachelor. The final version retained the recommended credits range for all schools and colleges, except in cases where professional accreditation requirements are involved. In such cases, the additional credits have to be justified (Senado Académico, Universidad de Puerto Rico, Río Piedras, Certificación Número 46, año académico, ). IV. Looking to the Future The debate surrounding the baccalaureate has several effects on the Department of Business Communication in Spanish. For one, its proposals for further academic offerings, such as the Certificate in Business Communication, have been put in the backburner. Also, throughout the debate and up to the present, a sector of the College of Business Administration faculty body, specifically those interested in reducing the required graduation credits to the recommended limit the 120 and 130 range-- has called into question the pertinence of the required business communication courses in Spanish. Some have proposed the elimination of the courses while others have 6

7 suggested reducing it from six to three credits. Such a decision would not only assist in reducing the graduation credits, but could also open space for the incorporation of courses deemed to be academically more important, a phenomenon which, according to Melinda Knight, is also common in U.S. universities ( Writing and other Communication Standards in Undergraduate Business Education: A Study of Current Program Requirements, Practices, and Trends 1999). To justify these proposals, its advocates sustain that the development of soft skills, including communication is a shared responsibility of all the academic units. Others argued that courses like the required Spanish and literature courses of the general education component or some courses offered in the School of Communication could substitute the Business Communication in Spanish courses. Adding to the situation is the accreditation issue. The College of Business Administration s decision to seek the accreditation of the AACSB has also added pressure to the revision of the baccalaureate program. On a more positive note, all these developments have led the Department of Business Communication in Spanish to more closely reexamine its pertinence and mission in this era of globalization and to develop new strategies and approaches to strengthen its role and position in the curriculum. As part of this process, the Department has continued reappraising the scope and breath of business communication as an academic enterprise. In such endeavor, it is identifying and studying alternative paradigms, academic programs and trends at the global level, specially the European and Latin American experiences. Besides, the Department has been searching for ways to 7

8 promote the professional development of its faculty body and to collaborate with other academic units in the campus and with institutions of higher education both at the national and international level. Finally, it is already using virtual technology in the teaching of courses, and exploring further ways of using technology for advancing the production of knowledge. Finally, and equally important, the current situation also demands launching an effective educational campaign, both at the college and campus level, on the business of business communication and its growing importance in the business community and in an increasingly globalized world. As noted in the specialized literature and other studies and surveys regarding the relative importance of business skills, communication is one, if not the most regarded skill, among business administration graduates (see, for example, Year 6 Business School Survey Attributes, The Wall Street Journal/Harris Interactive, 2006). The latter is one of the main objectives of this research project. Your comments and recommendations are more than welcomed. Thanks. 8

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