The role of lifelong learning and educational social counseling

The role of lifelong learning and educational social counseling. Counseling, as a known system of deliberate and institutionalized help, is still an unknown, unavailable and unsought service for many. In our opinion, elements of the global thinking of people today can also be identified in their motivation to seek help through other and new ways of counseling.

People prefer information that they actively process according to their own current needs, so interactive education is becoming a sought-after form of advisory assistance. Informal counseling carried out in groups and collectively, primarily within the framework of informal education and informal learning of people, and less within the framework of education in formal educational institutions, is coming to the fore.

The popularity of self-education and learning through interactive audio-visual programs and the Internet is also increasing.

For illustration, we present, without comment, the results of a small probe that we implemented in connection with thinking about the practical importance of the topic of educational social counseling.

Opinions of adults on the need for educational social counseling when social problems occur 1 Results of the survey of the opinions of external study students of the University

In the case of their own social problem, they would accept counseling in the form of:

1. Professional help through your participation in a discussion and interactive educational event on the topic of the problem ( Ž+M ) 51%
2. They would actively solve their problem themselves (F+M) 71%
3. They would look for information (F+M)

• on the Internet 77.84%
• in conversations with close people 72.28%
• in books 38.88%
• on the radio 4.17%
• on television 2.78%

4. They would look for an individual counseling consultation - a professional counselor - Women 93.28% - Men 62.50%
5. By participating in an educational event in small groups (F+M) 80.60%
6. They consider education in the form of discussions, experiences and activities to be an effective means of self-help in solving problems in their lives (F+M) 91.79%
7. They would prefer an event in the framework of informal education - courses, trainings, talks, lectures outside schools (F+M) 84.94%

Lifelong learning and consulting

In connection with counseling for adults, the concept of lifelong education and learning of people is evident in that it supports education as a type, form and method of actual situational and complex integrated (holistic) help to people. In terms of content and methodology, as well as personnel, well-secured and appropriately conducted counseling educational activities can play an important role in group and mass counseling for adults. They thus become an important means of preventing and solving social problems of adults. At the same time, they are one of the ways of activating the individual psychological potential of people and mobilizing them to help themselves in dealing with the occurrence of various social problems. The means for this is the counseling process and self-directed learning of adults.

The criterion for setting the goals of educational social counseling results from the specific focus of this counseling, in which the client is to be counseled through educational social, i.e. educational counseling activities: and programs:

1. To provide advisory assistance in the prevention and management of a social problem and to offer the possibility of advisory guidance for self-help in the prevention and management of a social problem. Leading the client to self-help is oriented towards individual psychological change, which in principle usually also leads to the need to change the situation, circumstances, conditions and way of life.
2. To motivate counseling clients to develop their psychological and social potential. That is, to support the transformation of adults' dispositions on their ability to think, feel, evaluate and act in a social environment at the level of personality maturity, i.e. a mentally mature personality who is - psychologically and socially adapted and integrated; which is relatively autonomous and responsible in thinking, feeling and acting; who behaves and acts pro-socially and lives as a creative human personality.

Educational social counseling2

Our idea of connecting education with lifelong counseling is based on the consideration of the "mystical marriage" of the internal psychological environment of a person's being with the external environment of a person. The activities of education in cooperation with the strategy of lifelong counseling provide a chance and a way to understand a person and his life within the unity and cooperation of human psychology - his psyche, that is, thinking and experiencing as well as behavior, actions - on the one hand, with the nature of the natural, social, cultural environment in which he lives, on the other. Social problems arise as a result of a disturbed balance in the systemic relationship of a person and his way of life in a specific environment.

The intention of working on the concept of educational social counseling is to create an innovative type, content and method of lifelong counseling based on the application of educational and educational processes in counseling activities. With the fact that we understand a person as a permanently developing system that lives and manifests itself as a whole and a unity of Body - Psyche (experience and action) - Spiritual (higher meaning of life) - Social (communication and relationships).

Educational social counseling is a frontier area of ​​counseling theory and practice, which has not yet emerged in the counseling system. The term educational social counseling expresses the content of socially supportive educational counseling activities that are addressed to persons in social danger. And that as a result of a social event or unbearably deteriorated social living conditions.

Social problems arise, manifest and persist according to the principle of dialectical unity expressed as follows: the problem of the individual is also the problem of all, that is, the community as a whole. And the problem of the community is also the problem of the individual, that is, a specific member of various groups in which people fulfill their social roles and tasks. Knowledge of human psychology and the psychology of social groups is of crucial importance for counseling.

1. Educational social counseling can be defined as a type of professional and helping counseling. It focuses on identifying the causes of the emergence of social problems, defining the nature of clients' social problems from the point of view of educational determination of their occurrence - e.g. due to a low level of education, inappropriate professional qualifications in connection with employability in a certain environment of the labor market, psychological immaturity of adults in connection with their low level of socio-psychological ability to live in socially demanding living conditions.
2. We consider the social function of education to be a constitutional aspect of educational social counseling. It is a method of socialization, personalization and enculturation of a person within social groups (family, school, employment, interest and leisure groups and other groups). From the point of view of social clients - participants in counseling programs and activities of the counseling process, we consider educational social counseling as an important means and an important form of social assistance and a type of social service.3
3. Educational social counseling is implemented in a social environment. It is determined and operates within the limits and in accordance with the letter of the social policy and educational policy anchored in the relevant laws (the Social Assistance Act, the Social Services Act, the Employment Services Act, the Continuing Education Act and others).
4. From the point of view of the knowledge and methodological base, the knowledge of several sciences is capitalized in educational social counseling, especially social work, social andragogy and social pedagogy, social psychology, counseling psychology and andragogical psychology in their interdisciplinary intersection. This can promote effectiveness (synergistic effect) in the creation of programs of educational social counseling events.
5. We consider educational social counseling to be educational and social counseling guidance of people in the following spirit:

• So that they decide to learn and educate themselves, in order to achieve their psychological and life change and to solve or improve their social situation.
• So that they remain in the education process and actively participate in it in their own interest to increase, deepen and expand their professional competence, but especially their social and psychological ability to live in general.
• To learn to learn effectively and systematically and to expand and deepen their capabilities both in connection with their application in the labor market and in connection with a constructive creative approach to social life tasks to be fulfilled during their life journey.

Educational social counseling reveals another perspective on the meaning and focus of education and also on the importance of using traditional educational methods and counseling itself. In a situation of economic "decline" of society and individuals, educational social counseling can be not only financially less demanding social assistance, but also a long-term investment in the development of human resources. Only through learning can a person change the taken-for-granted, dysfunctional and unhealthy attitudes towards himself, towards other people and towards reality. An example is the social and psychological syndrome of learned helplessness, which becomes the "problem of a person with a social problem". The purpose of educational social counseling activities is the professional support of people's learning in order to achieve a change in their outlook, evaluation and attitudes towards their personal social situation.

The role of lifelong learning4 / 5

In the concept of educational social work and educational social counseling within its framework, the intersection of theoretical aspects of social work and its frontier educational sciences: social pedagogy and social andragogy is visible, and the overlap of education into the practice of social work is also evident. The mentioned concept also reflects the opinion found in the formulation of the strategy of lifelong learning and lifelong education of people, namely that it is primarily the givens and activities of people that drive the development of the entire society.

We start from the assumption, verified by life, that a person in appropriate conditions has the ability throughout his life to improve himself psychologically and to qualitatively change his behavior and actions at a higher level. Psychologically, it is a process of achieving the wholeness of a person. And she has a tendency towards self-management and self-awareness. However, this can only happen through spontaneous non-intentional experiential learning as well as through intentional directed learning through education. It is necessary to encourage people to respect learning as a natural process of a living organism in general and a person in particular. Considering the mission of social workers, who are supposed to provide social assistance in the form of educational social counseling, it is extremely useful to understand human learning as internalization - psychological internalization. This means forming the structures of the human psyche by processing stimuli from the outside and acquiring individually necessary information. The whole human being learns, so learning is a living and creative process.

We understand interiorization as a complex creative process in which the conscious and unconscious part of the human psyche develops and manifests. Interiorization is a learning process that does not only happen cognitively, i.e. cognitive processes, but also the share of a person's temperament, his abilities, characteristics, his motivation and value orientation. Internalization creates and shapes a human person and his personal, social and cultural identity, which is comprehensively characterized by the terms personality and individuality. In our understanding, a personality is a socialized person, that is, a socialized person, and individuality is a psychologically, spiritually and socially developed human personality. We also labeled individuality with the term psychologically mature personality.

We state this because, in our opinion, the meaning of educational social counseling consists in social assistance with the aim of supporting the development of social work clients' socio-psychological ability to live, which for us is still a hypothetical variable in the definition of the concept of educational social counseling.

We assume that the condition of a person's life in a social environment is his ability to adapt socially6, that is to demonstrate, apply and develop his:

1. The ability to socialize, that is, to learn by acquiring social experience.

• The individual learns by socializing "contactively" in the microenvironment, i.e. in small groups through interpersonal communication and relationships between I and You and interpersonal communication between I and We, I and You, I and They (where We, You, They are the names of the small groups in which the individual moves).
• The individual also learns by socializing "at a distance" in the macro environment, i.e. in large groups through both interpersonal and interpersonal communication and relationships between I and We, I and You, I and Them (where We, You, They are the names of the large groups in which the individual moves).

2. The ability to identify oneself, that is, to learn by identifying with someone and something in the environment.

• An individual identifies himself socially, that means he adopts, accepts, respects and observes social patterns, norms, values, customs, traditions in communication and in relationships between people in the groups in which he lives. All this is expected and demanded from him and he observes all this more or less consciously and voluntarily, in order to preserve the balance and harmony of the individual and group life of a person.
• An individual identifies himself psychologically, that is, psychologically, that is, through his thinking, emotional and emotional experiences, interests, attitudes, values ​​and actions, he accepts as his own social roles and social tasks of various kinds (within the family, professional application, interest application). All this is expected and demanded from him in order to preserve the balance and harmony of the physical, psychological, social and spiritual aspects of human life.
• An individual identifies himself culturally, that means he accepts, respects and observes the cultural patterns, norms, values, customs and traditions of the small groups in which he lives and respects the culture of wider communities of people outside his social groups. All of this is expected and demanded from him in order to maintain the balance and harmony of human life on Earth.
• An individual identifies himself spiritually, that means he accepts and protects and develops the spiritual sphere of his life by recognizing, respecting and observing the spiritual models, norms, values, customs and traditions of the community of people. In this way, he also achieves and cultivates his psychological and social maturity. All this for the sake of preserving and spreading spiritual traditions as transfers of an important message and a way for the meaningful fulfillment of a person's personal history and the meaning of people's lives in general.

Context of educational social work7

The concept of educational social work, which forms the framework of our thinking about educational social counseling, has been theoretically presented in our other works (e.g. in the monograph Educational social work, 2014). This time, we only briefly state that we justify the theoretical and practical autonomy of educational social work by the social function of education, that is, social upbringing, social education and educational social counseling. We understand educational social work as a new phenomenon and a subsystem of science - social work and a subsystem of social work practice. Educational social work is characterized by the fact that in solving social problems of social clients, but also in the phase of identifying and preventing social problems, it works through targeted educational and counseling activities within and through programs or activities of lifelong social education, education and counseling. The basis for the implementation of the concept of educational social work is the implementation of educational programs aimed at potential and real clients of social assistance and social services. The content and tools of help used by educational social work are related to the fact that human life has a social dimension and requires people to constantly adapt through learning, which should be stimulated by educational activities. The influence of upbringing, education and counseling cannot be bypassed, because the solution to a social problem is ultimately always an intervention in the process of psychological and social adaptation of a person in the environment in which he lives. The use of educational resources is usually a targeted attempt to correct the client's personal approach to a life situation, event, or social problem.

Educational social counseling, like other types of counseling, participates in the identification of social problems and the provision of counseling assistance to individuals, groups and communities. A social problem, reflected both theoretically and practically - as a problem of specific people, is viewed in this type of counseling through the lens of education, i.e. educational and educational determination of the emergence, persistence and method of solving a social problem. Of course, the counseling approach must respect the complex of determinants, because a social problem is the result of many causes. In educational social counseling, in addition to the determinants mentioned above, the serious impact of psychological and spiritual causes on the occurrence and individual nature of the social problem of persons and groups is also taken into account. The means used in educational social counseling are activities of educational influence and education.

Author: Prof. PhDr. Mária Machalová, CSc. Literature:

MACHALOVÁ, M. 2010. Biodromous psychology for helping professions (social workers, social pedagogues and andragogues). Brno: IMS. ISBN 978-80-87182-10-9. MACHALOVÁ, M. 2010. Social andragogical counseling and social problems. In: Andragogy. Quarterly for the development and education of adults.. Vol. 14, No. 3, pp. 11-12. MACHALOVÁ, M. 2011. Adult education and social andragogic counseling. In: Andragogic revue. Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. 40-47. MACHALOVÁ, M. 2012. Educational work. In: Social and spiritual review. Vol. 3., No. 2, pp. 2-15. MACHALOVÁ, M. 2012. Educational social counseling for adults. In Lifelong learning and social policy: Links and overlaps. Prague: AIVD, 2012, pp. 153-167. MACHALOVÁ, M. 2014. Educational social work. Prešov: University of Prešov. ISBN 978-80-555-1118-4.

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