Introduction

Abroad, social activities in schools have a long tradition. It is especially widespread in the USA, where the school social worker has existed for over 100 years. Positive experiences with social activities at school are also demonstrated by the countries of Western Europe.

In our school conditions, social activity has a pedagogical dimension, that's why we talk about social-pedagogical activity and the profession of a social pedagogue.

In the contribution, we clarify the professional activity of the social pedagogue in the school with an emphasis on children from socially disadvantaged social environments and the prevention of socio-pathological phenomena.

As a discipline such as school social work is not officially implemented in Slovakia, our goal is to point out the reasons why to create a space for the profession of a school social worker, which would for the child, or the parents were the first point of contact in solving their problems at school. To justify the need for the development of school social work, especially at its practical level, mainly by pointing to the current situation in the Slovak Republic.

In recent years, elementary schools have been trying to put this worker's profession into practice. This effort of theirs was met with a positive response, which influenced our interest in this one issue.

The profession of social pedagogue is classified as a helping profession, their development was recommended by the OECD in transforming countries as early as 1994 due to the sharp increase in socially undesirable and socio-pathological phenomena. (Hroncová, 2009)

In Slovakia, the social pedagogue is one of the components of the educational counseling and prevention system, and his work in schools has been legally enabled since 2008. Pursuant to Act no. 245/2008 Coll. on education and training, its activity is focused on monitoring and evaluating children's behavior and diagnosis through the methods and techniques of social pedagogy, on social counseling and sociotherapy.

Other professional activities of the social pedagogue are specified in Act no. 317/2009 Coll. about teaching staff and professional staff. Among the competencies of a social pedagogue, experts include the competence of prevention, counseling, re-education, management and educational competence. (Bakošová, 2005)

From our point of view, the most important activity of a social pedagogue in school is the prevention of socio-pathological phenomena, which we want to explain briefly in the article.

Social-pathological phenomena in the school environment

Socio-pathological phenomena in school have existed for a long time. They are suppressed sometimes less, sometimes more. Under the influence of the development of society, some of these phenomena come to the fore more prominently, others less prominently. We can assume that there is no school today where drugs, bullying, truancy, violence and others do not occur in any form. This increase in existence could be attributed to the lack of attention of parents regarding the education of their children, the small amount of leisure activities that children attend, but also the decline in the authority of teachers in schools.

In the school, the social pedagogue cooperates with the teaching staff, the prevention coordinator, the educational advisor, and the school psychologist. Due to the fact that specialized activities - educational counseling, career counseling, coordination of prevention can, according to § 33 of Act no. 317/2009 Coll. can also be carried out by a professional employee, we consider it appropriate that the social pedagogue coordinates and ensures preventive activities in the school, because he performs professional activities in prevention, intervention and counseling (§ 24, Act No. 317/2009 Coll.).

Since there are currently only a small number of social pedagogues working in schools, the aforementioned specialized activities are carried out by teaching staff, or a school psychologist, who partly replaces the social pedagogue. Although the work of a social pedagogue and a school psychologist may overlap in practice, in Act no. 317/2009 Coll. the differences in their activity are explicitly indicated. The main differences in their work are based on the nature of the psychological and socio-pedagogical approaches that are used in the prevention of socio-pathological phenomena.

We think that it is essential that prevention is carried out by someone who is professionally prepared in prevention issues and uses effective strategies to achieve preventive work as a result of methodological guidance. This opens up an ideal space for the function of a coordinator of such prevention implemented by a school social worker in schools, which is then highly effective in the sense that it is a worker who is professionally educated in the field of knowledge about social-pathological phenomena.

Socio-pedagogical prevention represents a conceptual, scientifically based, deliberate, purposeful, systematic, planned and coordinated action on the potential or real causes and conditions of socio-educational problems, behavioral disorders, socio-pathological phenomena with the aim of eliminating them, or partially eliminating them, or limiting their negative symptoms and, in parallel, supporting the creation of favorable social conditions for an intact and bio-psycho-social and spiritual development of the individual. (Határ, 2010)

Preventive activity is considered to be the focal point of the activity of a social pedagogue. In its activities, it focuses on all students in primary prevention and on specific groups of students in secondary prevention, intervention and counseling.

In the school environment, the social pedagogue focuses his activities primarily on primary prevention, during which he implements one-time activities, short-term and long-term programs aimed at preventing the emergence of socio-pathological phenomena. It implements bullying prevention programs - currently cyberbullying, prevention of exclusion of pupils (based on social status, appearance or other criteria), prevention of manifestations of violence in the school environment and criminality of pupils, prevention of substance and non-substance addictions, etc.

Socially disadvantaged environment

During our practice, we discovered that the issue of integration of individual pupils comes to the fore, whether they are disabled or pupils with special educational needs, while the cooperation of a special pedagogue, or therapeutic teacher with a social worker in the school. This is helpful in integration, not only in providing personal assistance, but also in integrating the student into the team and providing advice. Counseling facilities and the school social worker will continue to rely on five basic points in the prevention system in the future. (Látalová, Kopťárová 2008, p. 57 - 61):

  • orientation to a healthy lifestyle for first and second grade elementary school students,
  • strengthening of relationships within the school - it is primarily about relationships leading to a positive atmosphere and positive ties between students, socialization in the field of behavior,
  • cooperation within the wider social environment,
  • to make cooperation between elementary schools and the police more efficient,
  • fundraising.

According to the School Act no. 245/2008 Coll. on education §2, par. p defines a socially disadvantaged environment as an environment that we talk about when social, family, economic and cultural conditions do not sufficiently stimulate the development of mental, volitional and emotional qualities of a person. It is an environment that does not provide enough adequate stimuli for personality development.

The School Act, specifically § 107, defines the upbringing and education of children from socially disadvantaged backgrounds and pupils from socially disadvantaged backgrounds, which is carried out in schools according to this Act using specific methods and forms.

To ensure the upbringing and education of children from socially disadvantaged backgrounds and pupils from socially disadvantaged backgrounds, schools create individual conditions.

Under individual conditions is understood a) education according to an individual education program, b) adjustment of the organization of upbringing and education, c) adjustment of the environment in which education and training takes place, d) use of specific methods and forms of education and training.

According to Rosinski and Klein, it is very difficult to define and specify the concept of a socially disadvantaged environment. It is an environment that, due to social and linguistic conditions, does not sufficiently stimulate the development of an individual's mental, volitional and emotional qualities, does not support his effective socialization and does not provide enough adequate stimuli for personality development. We are talking about a socially disadvantaged environment that causes socio-cultural deprivation, deforms the intellectual, moral and emotional development of an individual, and from the aspects of education, for these reasons, we consider him a person with special educational needs.

The basic criteria for a socially disadvantaged environment are:

  • dysfunctional family,
  • poverty and material need,
  • insufficient education of parents, or legal representatives (if at least one of them did not receive an education provided by a primary school),
  • unsatisfactory housing and hygiene conditions,
  • the teaching language of the school is different from the language spoken by the person in the home environment,
  • segregated Roma communities (settlements),
  • social exclusion.

Based on our practice, we believe that a school social worker is an expert who works directly in the school environment, knows the school environment (its climate) well enough, knows the problems faced not only by students and their parents, but also by teaching staff and other school employees. It is not a teacher who would grade students, evaluate them, etc. He doesn't give them homework or other responsibilities. He is at school to take care of those students who have problems. The social worker considers the problems to be normal, i.e. a common thing. He is mainly at school to help children, youth and their families with problems. Through his work activities and tasks, he can influence the perception of the school by its students. Together with others (teachers, students, parents, etc.), he tries to create a friendly atmosphere in the school and thereby reduce the occurrence of such phenomena as truancy, aggression, bullying, etc.

In practice, it has proven to us that a school social worker is also an option for high-quality social prevention aimed at developing the right relationship to one's own education, to the school, but also to oneself and one's surroundings.

Conclusion

We have to realize that the school is only supposed to complete the entire educational process that the child goes through. If something goes wrong at some level of education, it is not within the power of the school itself and the school environment to supplement this article or adequately replace it. In most cases, when a child has a problem, the teacher is the last to notice the problem, not because they are not interested, but because they are overwhelmed with work that cannot be delayed. Especially in today's era of education reforms, we feel that the student is in last place when it comes to reform. First the teacher has to deal with the paper bureaucracy that is waiting for him and then maybe, while the teacher is still in charge, there is a student who has a problem. But to put it bluntly, is the teacher the right, well-founded expert who knows how to solve the student's possible problem? All credit to the teachers, but we don't think they are experts in school social work.

In the school environment, it is important to consistently solve even less serious problems in the behavior of students, because overlooking or underestimating them can lead to more serious forms of behavior in students. Let's consider it appropriate that the social pedagogue in schools holds the position of coordinator of the prevention of socio-pathological phenomena.

Author: PhDr. Anita Dávidová Vidrová Literature

Bakošová, Z. Social pedagogy as life support. Bratislava: FF UK, 2008. ISBN 978-80-969944-0-3 Határ, C. Social educator in the system of social-educational counseling, prevention and prophylaxis. Nitra: PdF UKF, 2010. ISBN 978-80-8094-664-7 Hroncová, J. Possibilities of application and professional competences of social pedagogues in Slovakia. In: SOCIALIA 2009. Professional competences of social pedagogues and social workers in theory and practice in the Slovak Republic and in other countries of the European Union. Banská Bystrica: UMB, 2009. ISBN 978-80-8083-895-9 Látalová, L. Kopťárová, Ľ. Cooperation of the school social worker with counseling facilities in the field of prevention of socio-pathological phenomena. In: School social work [CD-ROM]. Trnava, FZaSP TU 2008. ISBN: 978-80-8082-246-0 Rosinský, R. Klein, V. Current social-psychological problems in school. 1st ed. Nitra: CCV PF UKF, 2008. ISBN 978-80-8094-272-4 Act of the NR SR no. 245/2008 Coll. on upbringing and education and on amending and supplementing some laws. Act of the NR SR no. 317/2009 Coll. on teaching staff and professional staff and on amendments to certain laws.