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by Maria Fátima Barros Correia
Social Education has recently emerged as a profession in Portugal. This work intends to describe the role these professionals play in developing society and how it finds its theoretical framework in Social Pedagogy. Social Education is a social work imbued with a pedagogical character (educational dimension in society) and educational work carried out in the context of social action (socializing dimension of education). Social pedagogy is the “science of social education” because it is a field of knowledge that integrates, in an interdisciplinary way, different knowledge and produces methodological and theoretical models oriented to a reflection of social and cultural problems. Education constitutes a tool of social participation and socio-educational action and, consequently, of community development. Thus, Social Pedagogy seeks to respond to the potential of society as a factor of social development.
Education is not limited only to the school context, extending to all areas of people’s life in all dimensions, as essential scopes of the construction of citizenship. Social Education emerged in Portugal through the awareness that social work needed new educational policies, since the forms of traditional intervention / assistance were already reducing the need for social intervention. Through this new polyvalent profession, new methodologies of social intervention are verified in Portugal. However, Social Education is dynamic, as is social pedagogy. A social education that is meant to be transformative, capable of transforming the most unjust and oppressed social realities needs to be itself transformative, assuming new social reconfigurations, anchored in a permanent reflection on its existence.
by Cecile Remy
The poster will outline the methodology suggested to answer the following research question: “How the image of the rich child is influencing the work of social pedagogues?”. The poster will be a visual representation of the principle of ascending from the abstract to the concrete, used by Freire and Engestrom as a key principle to their definition of learning.
Understanding how the image of the rich child is being used by social pedagogues, how it interacts with other conceptualisations of the child (such as vulnerable, in need, etc…) is important in two aspects:
As the project is still at its beginning stages, it is difficult to evaluate outcomes, however, it is hoped the poster will generate discussion and comments about the method used and clarify questions around its implementation.
The poster will use the author’s own drawings and photographs and acknowledge others as necessary.
by Simon Johr and Veronica Eva Perez
From 2012 to 2015 social pedagogues from different parts of Europe worked in the United Kingdom as part of the Head, Heart, Hands programme (HHH). The programme aimed to demonstrate how introducing social pedagogy into foster care could have a positive impact on fostering services. At the end of the programme the thirteen social pedagogues reflected on their experience. The group decided to capture their learnings in writing for a wider audience, with the aim of identifying areas of improvement and reinforcing current practices for enhancing the quality of care in the UK, and ultimately to contribute to the understanding of how social pedagogy could be integrated within the social care field in the British context. The results of this effort are two academic papers each looking at different aspects of the programme and its background. These articles provide practical examples from participants, explore the shared learning by looking at the impact it had on foster carers and children in care. They touch upon organisational aspects and the management of fostering services. They further examine the different cultural backgrounds in childcare of social work and social pedagogy, reflect upon similarities and differences as well as the levels of professionalisation in both traditions. Finally, the articles outline the findings that could support the merging of the two ways of practicing which proved to be possible through the programme, including the dilemmas the social pedagogues encountered during their journey.
by Patricia Walls
Kibble works with young people from 5 to 25 years and offers an array of services. We are striving to embed social pedagogy systemically within the organisation as we believe this way of thinking enhances well-being, better outcomes and growth mindsets for all.
To better connect ethos, learning and practice we constantly ask ourselves ‘Why do we do what we do?’ and ‘How can we do it better?’ We offer a variety of platforms to access to inspire curiosity, including online courses, curation, academic modules, taught and experiential learning. We would like to share how social pedagogy can be the thread which connects our strength based learning and practice and how we value being connected to a wider network including ThemPra, SPDN, SPPA, Strathclyde university etc. to support us.
We also gain inspiration for raising curiosity and creativity in the learning environment through the 6-day social pedagogy course as this establishes the environment, opportunities to feel comfortable, allow growth and realise potential.
Our way of thinking and developing framework for planning and facilitating learning ‘Learn it, live it, share it’ resonates with the charter, Item 8 – We value creative and playful approaches to lifelong learning that are theoretically informed, risk sensible and draw on people’s potential.
All of this is not without challenges and we would discuss these and share the positive experiences of what has worked well.
This means that our work is a journey, not a destination….