More than a conference – join us for our ‘Social Pedagogy Gathering 2025’, a professional practice retreat where you’ll experience the transformative power of social pedagogy in action.
This year we asked our members to choose a theme for our annual conference, and the answers guided how we think about the Gathering in 2025.
We have combined the three most popular themes to offer participants a gathering to experience the depth and breadth of social pedagogy across human services.
Many of you said you wanted to meet face to face and were ready to travel, so we’ve chosen the wonderful space at the Mulberry Bush to come together over two days.
Another trend we want to respond to during the gathering is widening professional roles. While traditionally, in the UK, social pedagogy practitioners work in social work teams, residential child care settings, or as foster carers, we know this can be so much wider. Recently, SPPA has explored the links between social pedagogy and physical education, youth work, and health care. We want to hear from a wide range of professionals and settings, working together to
‘Introducing Social Pedagogy Across the Lifecourse’.
Discover how social pedagogy can transform practices across sectors in this engaging and hands-on retreat. The key document we use to identify where social pedagogy is practised is our CHARTER, and so we will expect all presentations to make significant links with several of the principles.
Workshops, presentations, discussions and artwork will come from a diverse range of settings within the UK and Ireland, in education, health, and care as well as other forms of civic engagement and community work across the lifecourse. We will not be considering purely theoretical and academic presentations as we want the event to be experiential in nature, and engage our hearts, heads and hands.
Key Topics:
- Where is Social Pedagogy? Examples of social pedagogy across the lifecourse – We’ll look to uncover how social pedagogy principles naturally arise in unexpected places. This perspective allows us to see the depth and breadth of social pedagogy, expanding our understanding of where and how we can embrace practices.
- Keeping Children Safe, Helping Families Thrive – Building on these insights, we’ll consider how social pedagogy can be a part of the child-centred approach across government, where children come first and services are designed around the support they need. While drawing on the English Care Review of Children Social Care to explore its themes, we’ll also consider similar policies and reviews from across the devolved nations. This inclusive approach ensures relevance for all attendees, helping us examine how social pedagogy can foster environments where people thrive, with a sense of belonging and security at the centre.
- What is working?– We’ll focus on the core question: What is working? as we explore ways to bring social pedagogy into diverse environments, creating stable, nurturing, and love-centred settings for all, be it at the workplace (introducing social pedagogy into organisations) or directly working with people across all contexts. To be considered for this category, submissions will need to incorporate an element of evaluation and/or accountability that can be used to justify the use of social pedagogy and showcase the impact of social pedagogy work.
Through interactive workshops, examples, and open conversations, the gathering offers an in-depth look at integrating social pedagogy principles across various settings to create lasting, positive change. Join us as we figure out what is truly working—together.