Applications of Social Pedagogy

Applications of Social PedagogyIn continental Europe the idea of favorable direction has evolved as a form of hearty work send (Midgley, 1997). But the idea of social pedagogy has a quite foreign meaning to those from the UK. As a ensue its contents feces be initi in ally hard to understand. Starting at the broadest level, pedagogy refers to the call for of pedagogics, methods of doctrine and related fields. At the highest level, Moss and Petrie (2002) describe pedagogy as being basically composed of four aspects. The first is the development of possibility, the second embarrasss policy, the third the education and pedagogy of agency players and finally what children actually do on a fooling basis.Two of the most heavy levels atomic number 18 those of training and opening. Pedagogy theory at an academic level takes in a configuration of dissimilar disciplines such as criminology, social history, sociology and psychology (Moss Petrie, 2002). At the level of train ing, those travail training in pedagogy take courses in a variety of different courses including drama, art, music and a range of other practical subjects (Moss Petrie, 2002).At the lower level of everyday training and execute, pedagogy can be take ton to operate in different ways across European countries. For pillowcase in Belgium on that point is a five year course which is last focussed on academic work and further study. In Denmark there is a single profession who are trained to work with all children up to the age of 18. In France, however, pedagogs are trained for children of different age-groups, for causa one group is from 18 months to 6 years old. Despite these differences, European countries still mostly have the idea that there is some overarching theory and framework behind their formula, something that is missing in the UK. This is because pedagogy is backed up by the body of knowledge kn declare as pedagogics and practitioners are aware that they are drawin g from a common pool of ideas (Moss Petrie, 2002). crossways all these different European countries, however, some commonalities can be gaunt out. One of the most important is the holistic approach that is of import to European pedagogical practice (Hill, 1991 Tuggener, 1993). It is a studyive approach that aims to bring into practice aspects of the whole child. What this pith is that the childs emotional state, their history, their thoughts and feelings all of these are taken into bank bill by the social pedagogue. The second aspect of social pedagogy which is extremely important is that the interaction with the child is seen as relational (Moss Petrie, 2002). The social pedagogue is not just carrying out actions on the child, but is engaging in a dialectic process with them. There is a cross-over here from the skipper to the personal.These factors provide quite a contrast to the situation in the UK. here the profession of social work is very fragmented, with an underlyi ng assumption that functional with children can be little more than child-minding. As a result the working conditions and pay are relatively low (Cameron, 2004). Similarly levels of training are much lower than in the European context.It is useful to attempt the idea of reflective practice in greater detail to see how it can be applied to everyday practice. Pedagogy sees every casualty that occurs as having the potential for learning (Moss Petrie, 2002). A pedagogue will, therefore, analyse a token incident to search for ways in which learning can be extracted. If the outcome was not ideal, then other ways of transaction with the situation will be explored. In the same way, children are promote to have the same attitude towards incidents that occur as the pedagogue does. They should be encouraged to think how they might have acted differently and what the incident means to them. The pedagogue, therefore, needs to provide a comfortable space in which this typeface of reflective questioning can occur.Two major aspects that have emerged from the study of continental European social pedagogical practice are a holistic approach to children and youths along with engaging in reflective practice. A holistic approach taps right away into umteen of the key roles of the social worker as identified by TOPPS (2004) in the national occupational standards. For example chance upon fictitious character 1 of preparing for work with individuals and families will involve finding out about a persons background, a vital footmark in understanding them holistically. A second example is Key design 3 which is supporting individuals and representing their needs. Without a holistic understanding of individuals wider psychosocial circumstances, it is not attainable to carry this out effectively.The second major aspect important in European social pedagogy is the use of reflective practice. Again, this ties in with many of the key roles. For example Key Role 6 is to demonstrat e passe-partout competence, as part of this critical reflection on the social workers own practice is an important component (TOPPS, 2004). Further, as part of Key Role 6 it is recommended that the social worker reflects on outcomes. As a central part of social pedagogical practice this will be directly relevant to this Key Role. Also, Key Role 1 requires the social worker to reflect on their own background and how that will affect the family (TOPPS, 2004). Clearly the use of reflective practice will be important in this context. Further, Key Role 4 requires that the social worker tax their own practice effectively. As part of this they are required to reflect on their own decisions and whether these resulted in the desired outcomes. Again, reflective practice in a social pedagogical form will address this Key Role.In conclusion, it is clear that many aspects of continental European social pedagogy can be used in the British context. In particular both reflective practice and a h olistic approach are congruent with the national occupational standards for social workers.ReferencesCameron, C. (2004a) Building an integrated men for a long-term vision of universal early education and care, policy Paper 3, Leading the Vision series. London Daycare Trust/capital of Minnesota Hamlyn Foundation.Hill, M. (1991). Social work and the European Community the social policy and practice contexts. London Jessica Kingsley Publishers.Midgley, J. (1997). Social welfare in global context. Thousand Oaks intelligent Publications.Moss, P., Petrie, P. (2002). From childrens services to childrens spaces public policy, children and childhood. London Routledge Falmer.TOPPS (2004). National Occupational standards for social work. Leeds Topss England.Tuggener, H. (1993) The role of the social pedagogue An outline of a European model. Child and youth Care Forum, 22(2), 153-157.