Social pedagogy and its relevance for Scottish social welfare

Key points

⋅ Social pedagogy is an academic and professional discipline, which seeks to effect individual and social change through broadly educational means
⋅ It does not offer a discrete approach or set of tools for practice but is a way of thinking, under which a range of different approaches might be situated
⋅ Across Europe, some form of social pedagogy or social education provides the theoretical and disciplinary basis for direct work with people across the life course
⋅ There is growing interest in social pedagogy in the UK; while initial interest focused on residential child care, its principles are increasingly recognised as being relevant across health, social care and education settings
⋅ Social pedagogy has a particular resonance for Scottish social welfare, where it chimes with Kilbrandon’s conception of social education, but also offers a suggestive framework within which to locate current policies
⋅ Evaluations of social pedagogy projects suggest that social pedagogic ideas can boost practitioners’ confidence and give them a language through which to better describe what they do