The present research is the result of the researcher's experience during three consecutive years teaching the subjects of Research Methodology and Qualification in the Master's Degree in Educational Management (MGE) of the UEES, detecting as one of the main limitations in the students the insufficient reading habits. The promotion of reading in the professional training of educational managers responds to the need to deepen the reading component and that it is reflected in the quality of the teaching and learning process of Ecuadorian education; as well as in the scientific and academic production, given the theoretical gaps that in this sense are evidenced from the diagnosis applied in the classes from 2019 to 2022.
The topic is topical because of its incidence in the development of thought and language, in the acquisition of knowledge, as well as in the enrichment of the academic and scientific universe of MGE students. For its development, a wide bibliography related to the topic was consulted, and at the same time, the demands posed by the substantive processes in universities, particularly research and teaching, which are related to reading and the need to encourage the reading habit in students, were taken as premises.
It is assumed what Pupo (2018) contributed when stating that reading is learning and enjoyment; it is not only learning to know, it is above all sharing. Reading transmits knowledge, recreates, communicates with the world and with others, with life, that is why it is so important. It teaches that one is in a larger context that modifies and affects.
Reading has traditionally been considered the key to social, cultural and economic progress.
For this reason, modern societies, aware of its importance, have sought to incorporate it into their educational systems from the first years of compulsory education. However, despite the value given to reading and the literacy rate achieved in the contemporary world, there is a decrease in the reading habit demonstrated in the PISA tests, a situation attested by publications, research, events, which in recent decades have been developing, in the contemporary world (Cassany, 2008 & Álvarez, D. 2018).
Reading is, therefore, an indispensable part of the learning process that allows the student, in general, to broaden his or her culture by consulting sources of information and reference, while exercising the correct use of the structures that make up the mother tongue. If reading is one of the ways to contribute to the development of the individual in accordance with the current society that we wish to build with a high cultural, academic and scientific level, it is of cardinal importance to promote a taste for reading from an early age, in line with the social objectives of promoting humanistic and cultural values for the construction of the Ecuadorian national identity, with emphasis on university contentment.
The results obtained demonstrate once again how much can be done to improve the quality of education of future generations and to consolidate and promote reading habits from the MGE for the integral and cultural formation of present and future educational managers in charge of transforming Ecuadorian education.
Dr. Lisbeth D. Pérez Ph.D.
Director of the Graduate School of Education UEES
