Aprendiendo a investigar en el grado de Relaciones Laborales y Recursos Humanos

Abstract

This paper is the product of an experience where the university classrooms were transformed into a research lab. In the course of quantitative research techniques (6 credits), the first half of the 2nd year of the Degree of Labour Relations and Human Resources at the University of Valencia, the students —guided by their teachers— have conducted a study about the precariousness of youth and women which working as dependent in retail trade. At the same time, they learned research, they learned knowledge about relevant subject in their professional career, and they learned how incorporate a gender perspective in a labour precariousness investigation.

Together, the teachers and the students, passed through all stages of quantitative research:  from the reviewing the theory, operationalization, the survey design, fieldwork, until the final report. This paper represented the dissemination of the results, in its dual role, as a learning experience and as a communication of new knowledge produced.

The aim of this study was to characterize the current job insecurity in the shopkeepers, for which we collected 420 valid interviews. We present only the results related to the following hypothesis:  Temporary contracts are more common in young in contrast to adults; women accept worse working conditions than men; and people with low level of education accept worse working conditions than people with high level of education. By this way, this work is to explain the influence of age and gender in working conditions; working conditions were formed by three indicators: contracts, work days and wages.

Regarding the results, it has been seen that women have more part-time contracts than men, young people have more temporary contracts than adult people. And people with high level of education don't have better working conditions than people with low levels of education.

These results, in light of theoretical readings, allow to raise issues how that the part-time isn't a chosen option by  women (Ortiz, 2014). This investigation also concluded that a higher qualification is not safe for a better employability in a sector such as retail trade.

The collaborative teaching with gender perspective allows  learning interesting results of research if we are based on a good coupling between methodological and substantive theory (on gender and precariousness), and between experience and quantitative data.