Social pedagogy's relevance for social welfare

Published in News on 6 Jun 2019

We've published an Iriss Insight on the topic of social pedagogy and it's relevance for Scottish social welfare.
 

Insight title cover

Written by Mark Smith (University of Dundee) and Sebastian Monteaux (Abertay University and NHS Tayside), it explores the history and emergence of social pedagogy, key ideas, practice developments and implications for practice. 

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
     
  • 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

Read the Insight.