• International Origins
  • The Beginning in the UK and Ireland
  • Formation of SPPA

The roots of social pedagogy reach deep into the past. They draw on ideas of what it is to be a human being living in society and how, through our social institutions, we can support each other in our life-long development. In fact, a way of thinking about social pedagogy is as ‘education in the broadest sense’, alongside formal education and other social policies. In the UK we have had, over the centuries, our own social pedagogy pioneers: thinkers, advocates and people of action who have looked for broadly educational answers to social problems – although until recently we have not named this approach as social pedagogy.

Social pedagogy was first defined in 19th century Germany when, for those with the vision to see, the industrial revolution threw into high relief the deprivation of people who came into the towns to find work in the factories. In much of Europe, social pedagogy has developed as a field for policy, practice and theory, and is a recognised graduate profession. Social pedagogy is a relationship-based approach to working with people, and is applicable across a range of human services professions. Social pedagogues can work in different settings and across a wide age range, from fostering services to child and adult residential care, community outreach and youth work.

In the late 1990s, the British Government began to show an active interest in social pedagogy following study trips to Denmark, France, Germany and the Netherlands. This interest was an active response to concerns and scandals surrounding children’s residential care. As a result of this, the Department of Health, and later the Department for Education commissioned a series of studies into social pedagogy at the Institute of Education – now a part of University College London – where there was considerable experience of research into European social and educational provision.