Hacia culturas más colaborativas en la universidad: su relación con el área disciplinar

Micaela Victoria Potes; Analía Veronica Losada

doi:10.54674/ess.v37i2.1065

Toward more Collaborative Cultures in Higher Education: Their Relationship with the Disciplinary areas

Micaela Victoria Potes University of Flores, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Analía Veronica Losada University of Flores, Buenos Aires, Argentina https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0488-4651

DOI: https://doi.org/10.54674/ess.v37i2.1065

Keywords: Higher Education; University Teachers; Organizational Culture; Teacher Cooperation; Professional Isolation

Abstract

The patterns of relationships that university professors establish among themselves have an impact on the quality of the education they provide. These interactions are related to the intellectual tasks they perform and to the field of knowledge to which they belong. This qualitative study, based on a phenomenological design, addresses the relational dimension of teaching work culture from the theoretical perspective of Hargreaves. The objective was to compare the discourses constructed by professors from the Faculties of Health Sciences and Engineering at a private Argentine university regarding work culture. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 23 male and female professors. The results suggest that there are differences in the ways university professors associate according to their disciplinary field. Relationships among professors in the Faculty of Health Sciences are based on collaboration and consensus, whereas among professors in the Faculty of Engineering, individualism predominates, with certain signs of balkanization. Although the literature indicates that an individualistic culture predominates in university teaching, the differences found challenge this assumption. The contribution of this research lies in providing regional empirical evidence linking work culture to disciplinary affiliation and to other contextual factors, such as the age of the faculty and the teaching profile. It is concluded that teaching work culture requires a complex, holistic, systemic, and multifactorial approach.

Author Biographies

Micaela Victoria Potes, University of Flores, Buenos Aires, Argentina

She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology, a Master’s degree in Psychology, and a Bachelor’s degree in Education with a specialization in Teacher Training. She is a specialist in university teaching and a doctoral candidate in Psychology at UFLO University. She works as a university professor and researcher in the field of higher education. She is a member of the Academic Teaching Development Committee of LatinSoTL (Scholarship of Teaching and Learning).

Analía Veronica Losada, University of Flores, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Educational psychologist with a bachelor’s and doctoral degree in psychology. Specialist and master’s degree holder in research methodology, and postdoctoral fellow in psychology. She currently serves as Vice Rector for Teaching and Research at UFLO, where she also directs the postdoctoral program in Psychology with a focus on review methodology. A professor and researcher at various national and private universities, she has supervised undergraduate and graduate theses and published more than 250 scientific papers. She serves on national and international scientific and editorial committees.

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Published

2026-05-30

How to Cite

Potes, M. V., & Losada, A. V. (2026). Toward more Collaborative Cultures in Higher Education: Their Relationship with the Disciplinary areas. Higher Education and Society Journal (ESS), 37(2), 386-404. https://doi.org/10.54674/ess.v37i2.1065

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Issue

Vol 37 No 2 (2025): Artificial Generative Intelligence (GenAI) in teaching and research: best practices, challenges, and prospects

Section

General section articles

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