The social pedagogue can certainly be classified within the cluster of helping professions. Thanks to their basic knowledge, skills, and competencies, they are able to work with both groups from the general population and socially marginalised, disadvantaged, and vulnerable groups. We consider it necessary to include the profession of the social pedagogue here, and at the same time to emancipate it from other professions. For the development of the field and the improvement of the work of social pedagogues, it is essential to profile this profession against others and to show a clear direction for its further development.

The social pedagogue derives from the terms “social” and “pedagogue.” Social has several meanings. In the Dictionary of Foreign Words for School and Practice it is defined as: “1. societal, corresponding to the needs, interests, and requirements of society; 2. referring to material provision of members of society; organization of social relations, and so on” (Šalingová-Ivanová, 1988, s. 458). If we summarise the definition, we can understand the term “social” as directed toward working with people. The word “pedagogue” is of Greek origin and means educator, teacher.

The professional profile of the social pedagogue in our country is still not clearly defined, and we encounter only its model. “Through all efforts, the social pedagogy profession has not yet been included in a catalogue of trades or occupations. Most often in practice we encounter the traditional designation educator, which in some cases is not the most accurate” (Kraus, 2008, s. 57). Historically, the social pedagogue has focused, and still focuses, mainly on children, youth, and adults. This reality is also reflected in the activity of the social pedagogue, where their work is helping and preventive, educational, educational reform, intervention, and counselling (Dirgová, 2010).

It is possible to assess positively the adoption of the law on pedagogical and professional staff from 24 June 2009, in which § 24 added the social pedagogue among the further components of the system of educational counselling and prevention, understood as a pedagogical employee who performs pedagogical activity, i.e. a set of work activities performed through direct teaching/educational activity and other activities related to it as determined by the employer in the workplace rules. By law no. 319/2009, direct teaching/educational activity is understood as direct teaching activity through which the school curriculum or a continuous education programme is carried out, and direct educational activity through which the educational programme is carried out by a pedagogical employee.

According to the aforementioned law, the social pedagogue performs professional activities in prevention, intervention, and counselling mainly for children and pupils threatened by socio-pathological phenomena, from socially disadvantaged environments, drug-dependent or otherwise disadvantaged children and pupils, their legal guardians, and pedagogical staff of schools and school institutions. Work with children, especially those with neurological disorders, requires specific knowledge, expertise, and a qualified perspective on the issue (Hudáková, 2011, s. 149). The social pedagogue performs social education tasks, support for prosocial and ethical behaviour, social-pedagogical diagnostics of environment and relationships, social-pedagogical counselling, prevention of socio-pathological phenomena, and re-education of behaviour. They carry out expert work and public education work.

The profession model of the “social pedagogue” is complex and diverse. Their work is associated with the professions of teacher, psychologist, and psychotherapist. The main function of the social pedagogue can be characterised in two areas of activity: integrative activity and developmental activity. Within the integrative function, the activity of the social pedagogue is directed at clients in crisis situations, in psychological, social, or psycho-social threat, who need professional help and support. As for the developmental function, in this case it is about “ensuring the desired development of personality in the direction of a proper or desired lifestyle, a valuable and useful use of free time. This preventive aim concerns the entire human population, especially children and youth” (Kraus, Poláčková, 2001, s. 48). Professional development of the social pedagogue is a process of deepening, improving, and extending qualification and professional competencies in line with the newest scientific knowledge, social needs, and requirements for performing pedagogical and professional work.

Authors of professional publications point to the function of the social pedagogue in practical social-educational, educational, counselling, and preventive activity. Authors dealing with social pedagogy take different viewpoints and link “the social pedagogue’s intervention to various activities and issues, e.g. prevention of crime, Roma families, CAN syndrome, prevention of drug dependency, help to children from children’s homes at the start of life, school work with aggressive children, prevention coordinator in primary schools, prevention of socio-pathological phenomena in school, integration of persons with disabilities, etc.” (Bakošová, 2008, s. 76). We will therefore attempt to delimit the profession of the social pedagogue, characterised by P. Klíma (2004, s. 51) as “a specialised expert equipped theoretically, practically, and conceptually for intentional influence on people and social groups, especially where the lifestyle and life practice of these individuals or social groups is marked by a destructive or non-creative way of satisfying needs and forming one’s own identity.”

In general, it refers to a professional worker who manages and organises the educational process at a professional level and acts on other children, youth and adults toward desired optimal personality development goals. Bakošová (2008) presents this characterisation of the socially oriented pedagogue: “The social pedagogue is a professional who is theoretically and practically prepared through higher education—master’s studies in pedagogy, philosophical, pedagogical, or social focus (previously specialisations, focus social pedagogy)—for social-educational activity. They are a professional whose general competencies lie in helping children, youth, adults, parents (social andragogy, geragogy), and in supporting them in situations of compensating socialisation deficits and finding opportunities to improve life quality through upbringing, education, prevention, and counselling.”

The calling of the social pedagogue is, without doubt, very necessary and significant for a functioning society. It is also supported by the often-mentioned issue of changes in family climate, where parents do not sufficiently attend to the upbringing of their children. Unfortunately, however, the significance and mission of this profession do not correspond to its appreciation. The position and prestige of the social pedagogue profession in today’s society are not high.

We understand the term profession as the core of professional activity, whose basis is built on prior long-term theoretical preparation. A professional calling is based on qualification, knowledge, and competencies of professional authority. It also includes a code of ethics. The social role requires a complex of knowledge, abilities, and skills from the cultural sphere—norms, values, symbols. All this belongs to the pedagogical profession. In characterising the profession of the social pedagogue, we proceed from the following criteria:

  • “economic – observes supply and demand on the labour market and professional composition in society,
  • legal – implements laws, regulations, decrees for the realisation of the profession,
  • psychological – includes personality characteristics, prerequisites for successful professional performance,
  • sociological – issues including socio-economic, cultural and political conditions of functioning in the given profession” (Kraus, 2001, s. 33).

The profession of the social pedagogue aligns with these criteria, although in its definition we base on the general model adapted to the goals and functions of social pedagogy, because the position of the social pedagogue in the hierarchy of professions is still not legally regulated. They are assigned the role of teacher or educator, but such designation is, of course, not precise. The field of activity of the social pedagogue is broader and does not apply only to school. The work is indeed close to that of a teacher, psychologist, or sociologist, but neither replaces them nor is it precisely specified or delimited.

When characterising the activities of the social pedagogue, we rely on a wide range of tasks that require constant activity and creativity, also because they arise from non-repeatable situations, changing activities, and the need for the social pedagogue’s presence in “the action.” The social pedagogue’s work has a comprehensive character of educational and recreational guidance, creating offers for meaningful use of free time, counselling, diagnostics, analysis of situations, re-education, resocialisation, and field work. Age limits hardly exist, and thus it concerns age categories from children to seniors. Although the dominant interest of social pedagogy is work with children and youth, this does not mean social pedagogy has no role in services for other age categories. A specificity of social pedagogy, unlike other helping professions, is that it works with people of very different ages, whether children, youth, adults of middle or older age. According to Klíma (1993), social pedagogy is predominantly focused on work with children and adolescents, on work with family, and on marginal groups. Partially, therefore, social pedagogy also deals with adults and seniors. In view of demographic changes in our society, we can however assume that within social pedagogy, as in other disciplines, work with adult population will become increasingly frequent.

In complicated and serious problems that the social pedagogue deals with in various fields, high quality and professionalism are also required. Society therefore demands educational levels for this profession that must build upon each other: higher professional, bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral education. Training offers through specialisation courses and attestations are necessary for further professionalism. Author D. Woźniak differentiates basic properties of helping professions into two main categories:

1) Functional characteristics

, in which he places:

  • sensitivity to human problems,
  • impartiality and honesty,
  • care and kindness,
  • impartiality and reverence for the dignity of every person,
  • willingness to help,
  • ability to self-control one’s own actions and relations with the persons they care for,
  • prosocial readiness, sympathy for people,
  • concern for a person, as well as their problems,
  • empathetic attitude,
  • orientation toward client activation and their involvement in solving their own problems,
  • communicativeness shown in ease of making contacts, ability to conduct a conversation, persistence and patience in listening, ability to persuade others.

2) Instrumental characteristics

, in which belong:

  • organisational abilities based on knowledge of how to recognise, diagnose, and solve social problems,
  • conscientiousness, systematicness and inner discipline,
  • decision-making, consistency and inner discipline,
  • objectivity, authenticity (genuineness), and truthfulness,
  • personal responsibility for words and actions,
  • conscientiousness and thoroughness at work,
  • inventiveness, activity and creativity,
  • perceptiveness and social imagination,
  • personal culture, mental well-being, and sense of humour,
  • dexterity and discretion, identification with the performance profession. (Határ C. et al., In: Woźniak., 2007, s. 139).

Despite all the merits and fundamental contributions of the social pedagogue profession, this occupation, or rather this vocation, has still not been defined as an independent professional discipline, and the social pedagogue is often confused with other related professions. The social pedagogue could be compared to a pod of dolphins. “If members of a group see that one of their group is weak and cannot keep to the surface, they support and push it to the surface so that it can breathe. The social pedagogue is like a dolphin, and also helps you get up from the depths to the surface.” Therefore, conceptualising this profile, defining its exact scope, and placing it within the structure of helping professions becomes a challenge for the present with a vision for the future. From this it follows that if the profession of social pedagogue is not legally and institutionally anchored, the position and prestige of this profession will not correspond to the performance of this occupation.

Conclusion

The topic of the pedagogue oriented to social problems, whose competencies derive from the academic discipline of social pedagogy, has been addressed by many pedagogues in domestic and international professional literature. Each sees the function of the social pedagogue in practical social-educational, educational, counselling, or preventive activity. The social pedagogue, for example according to Kraus (2001), is an expert equipped theoretically—by knowledge, practically—by skills and conceptually for educational influence wherever it can contribute to forming a healthy way of life, especially where the environment of the individual or groups acts in a destructive manner in satisfying needs. The social pedagogue has educational competencies for self-education, self-education, counselling competencies, prevention competencies, economic competencies, and re-education competencies.

Author: PaedDr. Slavomír Laca, PhD.

LIST OF REFERENCES

BAKOŠOVÁ, Z.: Social pedagogy as life help. Bratislava: FF UK, 1994. ISBN 80-223-0851-X. BAKOŠOVÁ, Z.: Social pedagogy as life help. Bratislava: FF UK, 2008. ISBN 978-80-969944-0-3. BAKOŠOVÁ, Z. et al.: Social pedagogy. Bratislava: Mladé letá, 2005. ISBN 80-10-00485-5. DIRGOVÁ,E.: Education as the primary factor in increasing employment. In: Zborník z Týždňa vedy a techniky. – Ružomberok: PF KU, 2010. ISBN 978-80-8084-555-1 HUDÁKOVÁ, Z.: Child with behavioural disorder. In: Zborník z II. vedeckej konferencie Tradície a inovácie vo výchove a vzdelávaní modernej generácie učiteľov VII. Vydavateľstvo: Verbum, Katolícka univerzita v Ružomberku. Ružomberok, 2011. ISBN 978-80-8084-676-3. KRAUS, B.: Základy sociální pedagogiky. Praha: Portál, 2008. ISBN 978-80-7367-383-3. KRAUS B. – POLÁČKOVÁ, V. et al.: Person – environment – upbringing. On questions of social pedagogy. Brno: Paido, 2001. ISBN 80-7315-004-2. HATÁR, C. et al.: Basics of social pedagogy for helping professions. Nitra: Univerzita Konštantína Filozofa v Nitre 2007. ISBN 978-80-8094-174-1. KLÍMA, P.: To epistemological and methodological sources of social pedagogy. Praha: Éthum, 1993. ISSN 0012-0332. LACA, S., LACA P.: Social pedagogue and his competencies in postmodern society, In: Zborník príspevkov z medzinárodnej vedeckej konferencie – Tradície a inovácie vo výchove a vzdelávaní modernej generácie učiteľov VII, Ružomberok: Verbum, 2011. ISBN – 978 .80-8084-676-3. KLÍMA, P.: To epistemological and methodological sources of social pedagogy. Praha: Éthum, 1993. SCHAVEL, M.: Social counselling and supervision in social work. Bratislava: Gerthoffer. 2004. ISBN : 1335-05378. ŠALINGOVÁ M. – IVANOVÁ M.: Dictionary of Foreign Words for School and Practice. Bratislava: Slovenské pedagogické nakladateľstvo 1988.

Publications of the article author: PaedDr. Slavomír Laca, PhD

Foundations of Social Pedagogy - Social pedagogy is undergoing continuous development in connection with the development of society as a whole, which is marked by social changes related mainly to increasing technology, automation, and globalization of the world, but also by a growing number of socio-pathological phenomena in society.

Selected Chapters from Ethics for Social Healthcare Professions - Today we can state that there is a very large increase in scientific knowledge about the human being as a rational individual at the level of the whole human population, even across diverse topics. Increasingly visible are many and more complex ethical questions concerning human life.