Introduction
In its content, social pedagogy is closest to the pedagogy of persons with behavioral and emotional disorders, which we consider to be a sub-discipline of special pedagogy, and it has been trying to profile itself since the 1990s. The specifics of both scientific disciplines lie precisely in the subject of their investigation, while the target group is common. Social pedagogy focuses primarily on the environment and its agents, on investigating their action and impact on the emergence of risk groups of children and youth. On the other hand, special pedagogy deals with behavioral symptoms of socially risky or endangered subjects, their education, or reeducation or resocialization. As the issue of education of persons with behavioral and emotional disorders is complex and complex, the cooperation of these disciplines is necessary and beneficial for the fulfillment of goals. Thanks to the mutual connection of knowledge, the effectiveness of interventions and preventive actions increases.
Relationship and mutual benefit
In the last twenty years, many changes (legislative and methodological) have taken place, which have also affected the pedagogy of emotionally and socially disturbed pupils. Currently, the boundaries of the field are gradually blurring, in the field of which we observe the penetration of other disciplines, such as social pedagogy or social work. This special pedagogical discipline specifically includes diagnosis, prevention, intervention and education of children with risky and antisocial behavior. Its target group in a general, broader sense is the whole society, because it places prevention in the foreground. In the narrower sense of the word, it consists of individuals with behavioral disorders or behavioral problems. It is a relatively new field that has started to profile itself within Czechoslovakia, or in the Czech Republic, as a separate discipline of special pedagogy at the end of the 1960s. Initially, it was part of psychopaedia, or pedagogy of children with mental disabilities, only in 1969 was it separated as an autonomous discipline within special pedagogy. Specifically, in Slovakia, it developed within the field of therapeutic pedagogy (it dealt with the field of behavioral disorders), and only after the fall of communism did the discipline called Pedagogy of the Emotionally and Socially Disturbed begin to take shape. Sometimes, in the interests of uniform nomenclature with other special pedagogical disciplines, it used to be referred to as etopédia (especially by Czech authors). The term comes from the Greek word ETHOS – morality, habit (a term expressing in free translation: upbringing and education aimed at correcting behavior) (Růžička, M., Vožechová, J., 2016; Hoferková, S., 2014; Průcha, J., Walterová, E., Mareš, J., 2008; Komárik, E., 1998).
The older name of the pedagogical discipline dealing with the issues of educating the morally defective was corrective pedagogy. In connection with the morally defective, three levels were discussed: moral threat, moral disturbance, moral disability. The concept of defectology came to us from Soviet pedagogy, which focused on the investigation of the etiology, development and consequences of the defect on the defective individual. The concept of resocialization pedagogy came to us from Poland in the late 1970s, which is included in special pedagogy in this country, and its content also consists in managing educational processes and correcting disturbed behavior. Among other things, it is based on social pathology, special pedagogy, cultural anthropology, social pedagogy and other sciences (Škoviera, A., 2004; Hoferková, S., 2014; Vašek, Š., 2006; Komárik, E., 1998; Průcha, J., Veteška, J., 2014).
Social pedagogy, on the other hand, is defined as a borderline discipline of pedagogy, which deals with a wider range of problems associated with the educational impact on at-risk and socially disadvantaged groups of children and youth. These problems primarily include family and parenting disorders, substitute education, abused, abused and neglected children, youth delinquency and aggression, drug addiction, child prostitution and pornography, respect for children's rights, resocialization and re-education of convicted persons. Currently, it is perceived in society mainly as a result of growing social pathology and juvenile delinquency (Růžička, M., Vožechová, J., 2016; Hoferková, S., 2014; Průcha, J., Walterová, E., Mareš, J., 2008).
Preliminary research of a qualitative nature was carried out in the Czech Republic, which focused on the analysis of the current state of the scientific discipline - etopedics. Among other things, he investigated the relationship between social and special pedagogy through a semi-structured interview. The opinions of experts from the ranks of etopedics are worth noting: "etopedics overlaps with social pedagogy, etopedics has a wider scope..."; "etopedia has the weakest personnel background of all special pedagogical disciplines, its definition framework is not defined, social pedagogy is clearly the biggest competitor..."; "I think that social pedagogy is focused more on the group, and the goal of etopedia is rather individual work;" "social pedagogy has the same target group as special education..."; "I definitely perceive the growing trend of social pedagogy, it already has its own magazine, etopédia does not have one and it does not even have a discussion platform..." (Růžička, M., Vožechová, J., 2016).
These two disciplines are sometimes mistakenly considered identical or confused by the lay public. Some consider social pedagogy to be a kind of subfield of special pedagogy and specifically deals only with children with behavioral disorders. In another place, it is stated that social pedagogy is just another name for etopedia (Potměšilová, P. et al., 2013). Therefore, we consider it necessary to describe in more detail the main common and distinguishing features of both disciplines, which work independently, but can be helpful to each other with their knowledge and experience, therefore their cooperation is essential.
In more detail in the next table, we present the differences in four important areas: goal, subject of interest, target group, work methods.
Kraus (2001) also states in his paper that there is a specific relationship between social and special pedagogy. Specifically, one part of special pedagogy (pedagogy of children with behavioral disorders) corresponds closely with social pedagogy. Some special pedagogues are even convinced that "etopedia" was forcibly attached to special pedagogy, which caused a certain curtailment of this discipline, because the issues and questions of alternative family and institutional care, social prevention or counseling do not have the necessary social dimension. For this reason, special pedagogy looks for this social support and answers to its questions precisely in social pedagogy. Currently, this circumstance appears especially in connection with the tendencies of integrative and inclusive education. In the process of integration, which is an often discussed topic among experts and among the lay public, social pedagogy has its irreplaceable place precisely because it involves the integration of children with various disabilities of all age categories into various types of social environment.
Table no. 1: Relationship between social pedagogy and special pedagogy
The above table shows that the goal and subject of social pedagogy is much more general and broader than that of special pedagogy. They affect essentially the entire population compared to special pedagogy, which exclusively deals with a select group of individuals. They also differ in the methods used, but with regard to the target group, there is an overlap, a certain group is common to both social and special pedagogy. Authors Potměšilová et al. (2013) and Sobková et al. (2015) state in their publication that these are persons coming from a socially disadvantaged environment, but when we consider the intentions of the school law, which distinguishes three groups of pupils with special educational needs, as shown in the table, the common group of interest also includes children/pupils with behavioral disorders in addition to ADHD and ADD, specifically according to the wording of the law: a pupil with impaired functions in the field of emotional or social (§2, letter on school of Act No. 245/2008), which we defined in the previous subsections.
According to Act no. 245/2008 Coll. we consider a pupil from a socially disadvantaged environment to be a pupil coming from an environment that is characterized by such social, family, cultural and economic conditions that contribute only minimally or to no extent to the overall development of the child's personality, specifically to the development of the child's volitional, mental and emotional qualities. It is also an environment that is insufficiently stimulating and does not support the process of his socialization.
Although both disciplines overlap in the field of action on the same target group, they still try not to interfere with their own competences and both work with the given individual from a different point of view, using a different approach, procedure, methods, etc. (Sobková, P. et al., 2015).
Z. Bakošová (2005), based on Prochádzková (1996), considers pedagogy, terminology (compensation, environment, prevention...), interest in the same target group, solving common questions regarding the relationship between the integration process and the social environment to be the common basis of the researched science (special pedagogy) and scientific discipline (social pedagogy). However, as far as the target group is concerned, it also describes activities in which the social pedagogue also works with children with disabilities, which are the focus of special pedagogy in particular. It thus defines the areas of practice in which a social pedagogue could and should work, when he would come into contact not only with children at risk and at risk or socially disturbed, but also with children with disabilities:
- cooperates in building and operating institutions that help people with disabilities and their families;
- participates in counseling teachers or other professionals who work with people with disabilities;
- ensures the social position (status) of an integrated student in the conditions of a regular primary or secondary school;
- helps in creating an offer of interesting and leisure activities for children with disabilities;
- in more severely disabled children, he looks for opportunities for at least partial socialization, or integration into society;
- for individuals who are socially disturbed, maladaptive, participates in preventive and re-educational (resocialization) activities and in post-penitentiary care;
- influences public attitudes towards disabled and disadvantaged people through education and various means of communication (Bakošová, Z., 2005).
We can state that a special pedagogue also participates in all these mentioned areas of activity of a social pedagogue, as they all deal exclusively with persons with disabilities or social disruption.
Regarding the methods, it is also worth noting that the method of re-education is understood differently in both disciplines, depending on the type of disability or disorder. Literally translated, it means re-education (re-again, back; educatio – education), but taking into account another group, such as socially and emotionally disturbed individuals, we understand its content also as a summary of activities that are aimed at the development of less developed functions, at the adjustment of broken functions or organs, but also at eliminating the undesirable consequences of previous education. We are talking about the re-education (development and use) of movement, vision, hearing and, in the case of psychosocially disturbed people, about the modification of the creation of stereotypes (Vašek, Š., 2006). Re-education within the pedagogy of the emotionally and socially disturbed means an effort to develop undeveloped personality traits and change them in a socially desirable direction, using pedagogical methods and means (Hoferková, S., 2014). Škoviera (2011) expands this simple definition and understands re-education primarily as "supplementary" education (individuals who have been educationally neglected acquire missing skills and habits), "reparative" (return to functional behavior that the individual had already adopted, but for certain reasons abandoned), "supportive" (the content is the activation of emotional and social support through close people: parents, siblings), "corrective" (modification of stereotypes, re-teaching), "remedial" (mediating new experiences and ways of looking at the world), "resocialization" (supporting socially acceptable functioning of the child in the social environment), "reconstructive" (internalization of changes in values, attitudes, actions...).
When it comes to examining and modifying the social environment from which individuals with behavioral and emotional disorders come and which is a source of threat and disruption, we can speak of a socio-pedagogical approach. However, if we approach the problem from the point of view of symptoms and re-education, it is rather a special pedagogical approach (Průcha, J., 2006). From these approaches, as stated by Határ (2010), it is possible to derive two forms of educational interventions:
- Socio-pedagogical intervention: it is a procedure of social-educational measures where the social pedagogue first intervenes in the social environment (the so-called pedagogy of the environment) from which the child comes, where he tries to encourage positive influences and prevent negative influences, thus indirectly influencing the child's personality through his environment.
- Special pedagogic intervention: the special pedagogue proceeds in the opposite direction, or from the individual to the social environment. He focuses more on working with the child with the aim of successfully reintegrating him into his social environment (school, family, peers), thus influencing the environment indirectly through the child's personality.
Conclusion
We agree with Határ (2010) that the emergence, development and development of unwanted behavior in a child is conditioned by the influence of endogenous and exogenous factors, and therefore the most suitable and optimal cooperation for the individual's personality is the cooperation of both experts who approach him from his own point of view and each of them helps him in his overall functioning and development.
Author: PhDr. Petra Jedličková, PhD.
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