Degree in social education

Among the functions that concern social education are: the observation of contexts, behaviors and attitudes that detect individuals or groups that are in a situation of maladjustment or marginalization; contact these same subjects, collect information about their lives, problems, relationships, in order to know which strategy is the best in each case; planning the educational strategy that will encourage participation and that will obviously bring about an improvement in the quality of life of those involved; mediate between the subjects and the social, school or labor institutions, as appropriate, in order to facilitate access to them.

It should be noted that social education covers a wide range of fields in which it intervenes, standing out among them: adult education, specialized social education, sociocultural animation , non-formal education, environmental education, intervention in the elderly and the drug addiction intervention .

As we well know, access to education, in any case, will facilitate and contribute to being able to enjoy a better future, with better possibilities, both personally and professionally, those who have a preparation will be able to compete for better working conditions in their field of action.

Education undoubtedly improves the quality of life of all and by case it is that the societies of all times were concerned with developing it, improving it, studying it from different points of view in order to improve themselves.
We must also say that it has been one of the most important human creations that man has made to overcome his limitations.

Without education there is no development or progress possible, that is a concrete reality, it may sound like a done phrase but it is so.

Traditionally, it is associated with education with the formal learning process in educational institutes or schools, however, the education process is much more than this, it includes other aspects and teachings that will begin as soon as the person is born, from which they will occupy their parents and their closest environment.

We should also mention the education that referents bring us, popular education, the one that is learned on the street, let's say.
On the other hand, living with other people provides us with education, not to mention attending places that offer non-formal education; All these actors will train us and contribute to the personal and social formation of the person.

Another aspect that we cannot ignore when talking about education is that many years ago, and until approximately the 19th century that brought new paradigms on many levels and senses, education was a privilege enjoyed by a few, bah, the classes of the privileged societies that could pay teachers or travel their children so they can study in elite schools.

But after the Industrial Revolution this began to change progressively and fortunately education became a right of all, without distinction of race, class, gender, age, among others.

The social workers are professionals who support and protect people at risk of social exclusion. The main objective is to improve the integration of especially vulnerable groups by promoting their active participation in society. Educators work with citizens with very different profiles, from young people with few financial resources, to people with disabilities or the elderly with a poor support network.

However, the area of ​​social inequalities is not the only one that can be affected. For example, it is also possible to pursue environmental education. In this case, the professional promotes values ​​of sustainability and respect for nature in educational centers. In any case, the most frequent scope of action is support for exclusion. Would you like to dedicate yourself to social education? Do you have doubts about the training you need? Are you not clear about the job opportunities of this profession? In this post, we clarify some of the most frequently asked questions.

The most common way to become an educator is the university degree in Social Education. It is a study plan divided into 4 academic courses and 240 ECTS credits. Today, the Social Education career has a high demand for access. For this reason, it is especially important to pay attention to the cut mark and the offer of all universities.

The Social Education career covers very diverse aspects of the environment. Thus, the possibilities of finding work are varied , both in the public and private sectors. In fact, many small companies or associations already have the figure of a social educator. These are some of the most common outputs:

• Social assistant.
• Educator of children and adolescents.
• Community services technician.
• In charge of a protected housing.
• Youth informant.
• Technician in intervention programs and social insertion.
• Educator in penitentiary centers.
• Advisor to women victims of male violence.

According to the Labor Insertion Report of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport , a social educator who begins to practice charges about € 21,179 gross per year. With time and experience, the number tends to increase. The same study calculates that 4.8% of social educators charge around 36,000 euros a year.

Are you clear? Do you want to contribute to improving social insertion from your work? Well, check the Emagister offer in Social Education and start training to get it.

The document we present responds to a shared concern on the part of ASEDES and APESCAM, for contributing to the incipient but continuous construction of our profession. The first, as a representative state forum of the organizations of social educators, requests a definition adjusted to what in current times can be conceived as a professional of Social Education; APESCAM, for its part, collects the commission to link it to the tasks that, in that sense, we had already been carrying out for a few months in a Permanent Training Group.

We began a review of existing definitions, basically appreciating the existence of two hegemonic lines of conceptualization. On the one hand, we find those that are built with an emphasis on specialization according to the areas of work or the people to whom it is addressed: "adult education, socio-educational action, non-formal education." On the other hand, another way of definition is suggested for the purposes pursued by acting as a guiding criterion: social education as a didactics of the social, socialization, acquisition of social skills,

Our contribution seeks to define Social Education as a concept-synthesis (Jolonch, according to Riera) capable of bringing together, on the axis of a professionalizing perspective, what the 1991 decree achieved in the legal field. We have a legal framework for the development of the profession, that is, we have obtained certain regulations for the development of employment. But that is only one step in building a profession. The epistemological, theoretical and ethical framework (not only deontological), from which to recognize the underlying "professional identity", still remains without formalizing, under the concept of social educator, in that complex diversity of social and educational practices still too disjointed. It is important, therefore, to separate the idea of ​​profession from that of educational practice of the social educator.

Wanting to account for the second is like wanting to account for all the specialties of the medical profession: a task of Sisyphus. However, all its specialists are recognized as doctors, as professionals at the service of people's health, beyond their specific area of ​​competence. Precisely for this reason, we have focused on the first; in making a definition capable of articulating differences and giving a raison d'être for social education as a profession. Some questions have served as a guide to solve these problems:

Awareness of public responsibility in the face of problems of coexistence, the emergence of new forms of exclusion and social marginalization and the need to build a world in which we can all share goods more equitably are some of the factors that explain and justify the emergence and social relevance that social education has acquired in our country in recent decades. Already at the time of the Rule of Law and Welfare, the demand and supply of socio-educational tasks has multiplied, new social spaces have been opened to meet educational needs: access to social life. In this sense, we can say that education is no longer the exclusive heritage of the school.

We conceive social education as an educational provision, at the service of the fulfillment of the fundamental values ​​of a State of Law: equality of all citizens, maximum quotas of social justice and the full development of democratic coexistence.

For this reason, we consider education to be a right of citizenship because it is endorsed by international, national and regional legal frameworks. We highlight among them:

• The Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 ratified by our country in 1976, whose article 26 states:

1. “Everyone has the right to education. Education must be free, at least as regards elementary and fundamental instruction. Elementary instruction will be mandatory. Technical and professional instruction must be generalized; access to higher education will be the same for everyone, depending on the respective merits.

2. Education shall have as its object the full development of the human personality and the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms; it will promote understanding, tolerance and friendship between all nations and all ethnic or religious groups; and it will promote the development of United Nations peacekeeping activities. ”

• The Spanish Constitution of 1978, which states in its article 27:

1. “Everyone has the right to education. Freedom of teaching is recognized.

2. Education shall have as its object the full development of the human personality in respect for the democratic principles of coexistence and for fundamental rights and freedoms ”.

Consequently, as a democratic right we should all be able to access it. All persons and groups who wish to join the culture of their time should take advantage of this right to include themselves in it.

Process of search and improvement that some occupations, in a specific geographical context, under specific social, cultural, political and economic conditions, go through to qualify themselves quantitatively and qualitatively, equipping themselves with resources that would indicate the degree of stabilization (Riera, J .: 1998), these would be:

- The existence of a specific body of knowledge that comes from scientific research and theoretical elaboration in the field that embraces each profession (In our case, the discipline of Social Pedagogy).

- The existence of a community that shares the same specific training (The Diploma in Social Education).

- Development of public and specific functions with common and technical approaches for professional intervention, with financial remuneration recognized for the work carried out and the assumption of an ethical commitment by the profession towards its clients or users.

- The existence of internal regulations for the professional group that allows self-control of its members by the professional group (Professional Colleges).

From this conception, in the quantitative professionalization process (Sáez, J, 1998) it has been achieved:

• Have an academic recognition and qualification of the training.
• Start the process of formulating a code of ethics.
• Creation of professional schools and associations.

The qualitative professionalization process places the emphasis on praxis, on the possibility of improving the action that social educators put in place in our jobs, accounting for:

• How the profession is carried out and what it is done for (Schön, 1983).
• What vision do professionals have of their own practice?
• The use and generation of platforms from which to study and analyze, propose and build, interpret and evaluate the diversity that brings together the world of social education.

In line with the above, social education is understood as a relatively young profession under construction, where its professionalization is related to a series of social actors with whom it interacts: occupational group, social policies, university and labor market (Sáez , J).

Because we understand that Social Pedagogy is the discipline that takes Social Education as an object of study and provides it with models of knowledge, techniques and methodologies for educational work. Through this area of ​​knowledge we have a systematic habeas of specialized knowledge with which to acquire skills and abilities to act in a field of action.

They are those actions to support and sustain processes that aim to provoke an encounter with cultural contents, with other subjects or with a place (García Molina, J).

When we speak of mediating actions we are not referring specifically to conflict mediation nor do we understand it as teaching or transmission of cultural content. We consider that mediation is a previous work that has to be done so that the subject of education can find places, people and content. Mediation understood in this way has as its purpose the progressive emancipation of the subject.

Cultural contents: It must be a guided meeting, since the educator knows the times, resources, and can accompany the subject so that this meeting occurs.

Others:The educator must try to bring about the encounter so that relationships with others are consolidated.

The places: It implies the knowledge of the spaces and places that form the space where the subject of education lives.

The aim of the Degree in Social Education is to provide basic professional training, as well as intellectual and human maturity, through the acquisition of the knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary to develop intervention and socio-educational mediation actions in different settings , with the aim of promoting the integration of individuals and groups, and promoting the development of the community, thus joining active life with responsibility and professional competence. Furthermore, as graduates of this university, they will be able to manage and plan their professional activity, to manage quality and innovation processes, to use the tools of the knowledge society effectively and sustainably,