As a holistic, relationship-based way of working with children, young people and adults in educational and care settings from early years, school support, foster care, youth justice, residential child care, family support, support for people with disabilities and elderly care, social pedagogy is well established in many European countries. Given the inadequate educational and well-being outcomes for many of the most disadvantaged groups in British society (particularly looked-after children, families experiencing multiple problems) the social care sector is called upon to achieve fundamental changes. The high-profile Munro review of child protection argued for a child-centred system as is commonly found in countries where social pedagogy underpins care and welfare provisions. The influential Association of Directors of Children's Services therefore recommended that local authorities should adopt social pedagogy to ensure 'a consistent and holistic approach to underpin the commissioning and provision of support for children and young people across the age range, and their families'. Whilst social pedagogy is clearly recognised as a way of addressing the need for systemic change - the Government is currently funding a social pedagogy pilot under its Innovation Programme - and pilot projects have consistently demonstrated its potential to improve outcomes, taking social pedagogy to scale is hampered by the cost of training a substantial part of the workforce and a lack of free comprehensive learning resources that can offer compelling insights into social pedagogical practice in other countries and support innovation.We aim to address these issues effectively by creating a Massive Open Online Course in European social pedagogy, consisting of 9 sessions that offer unique insights into social pedagogy in the partner countries. Our international multi-sector partnership between 9 organisations leading social pedagogy developments in higher education, vocational training and organisational capacity-building is designed to share innovative and best practice across linguistic barriers that have frequently prevented cross-fertilisation in social care across Europe. To support this aim and influence policy-making, we also propose to produce an academic research report that draws on the learning about social pedagogy between the 7 participating countries, outlines innovative ideas with the potential to impact on social care practice and makes policy recommendations about how these can be cross-culturally translated in order to develop a coherent conceptual and practice framework in social pedagogy across Europe. The partners chosen to achieve our aim of stimulating cross-European discourse and learning about social pedagogy and related innovative practice are:• ThemPra Social Pedagogy, a pioneering social enterprise providing organisational capacity-building through vocational courses in social pedagogy, strategic consultancy and team development• University of Central Lancashire, one of the largest Schools of Social Work in the UK and recently developed a BA in Social Pedagogy, Advocacy and Participation• Professionshøjskolen UCC, leading provider of full-time distance learning degree programmes in social pedagogy• Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, who are at the forefront of social pedagogy qualifications and lead the social pedagogy discourse in Spain and Latin America• Masarykova Univerzita, one of the largest universities for social pedagogy studies and actively involved in sector developments in Central and Eastern Europe• Universiteit Gent, with substantial teaching and research expertise in social pedagogy, contributing to its discourse both in Flanders and internationally• Kocaeli Universitesi, one of the largest universities with regards to social work qualifications and active in sector developments in Turkey• KJSH - Stiftung für Kinder-, Jugend und Soziale Hilfen, a large not-for-profit organisation providing social pedagogical services in youth care and VET activities in Germany• CommonView, a VET organisation providing coaching and consultancy in social pedagogy both in Denmark and the UK, with expertise in cross-cultural learning transfer of innovative social pedagogical practiceTo ensure high quality results and sufficient space for dialogue and learning between us, we will undertake 8 transnational project meetings, allowing for regular reviews and refinement of intellectual outputs based on feedback from critical friends and MOOC pilot learners. Bespoke multiplier events are designed to a) attract 24,000 MOOC learners (social care professionals and students) who can positively impact on the lives of at least 120,000 service users by improving their practice through social pedagogy, and b) launch the academic research report with 55 European policy-makers to create the systemic conditions that will further deepen the MOOC’s impact at local, regional, national and international level.
As a holistic, relationship-centred way of working with children, young people and adults in educational and care settings from early years, school support, foster care, youth justice, residential child care, family support, support for people with disabilities and elderly care, social pedagogy is well established in many European countries. In the UK, pilot projects have consistently demonstrated its potential to improve outcomes and contributed to growing interest in social pedagogy. However, taking social pedagogy to scale has been hampered by the cost of training a substantial part of the workforce and a lack of free comprehensive learning resources that can offer compelling insights into social pedagogical practice in other countries and support innovation. Learning about social pedagogical traditions in other countries is not only of value to a British audience, and we have found interest even in countries with a vibrant tradition of social pedagogy. The project therefore aimed to (1) develop a high quality social pedagogical learning resource in English (and Spanish), accessible to all, (2) highlight commonalities and central features in social pedagogy, (3) promote exchange of ideas and creation of learning networks around the world, and (4) illustrate how social pedagogy is understood and applied in the different countries and how this connects to different societies. To achieve these aims, we formed an international multi-sector partnership between 8 organisations leading social pedagogy developments in higher education, vocational training and organisational capacity-building. These included: ThemPra Social Pedagogy, a pioneering social enterprise providing organisational capacity-building through vocational courses in social pedagogy, strategic consultancy and team development; University of Central Lancashire, one of the largest Schools of Social Work in the UK which offers social pedagogy degree programmes; Københavns Professionshøjskole (UCC), a leading provider of full-time distance learning degree programmes in social pedagogy; Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, who are at the forefront of social pedagogy qualifications and lead the social pedagogy discourse in Spain and Latin America; Masarykova Univerzita, one of the largest universities for social pedagogy studies and actively involved in sector developments in Central and Eastern Europe; Universiteit Gent, with substantial teaching and research expertise in social pedagogy, contributing to its discourse both in Flanders and internationally; KJSH - Stiftung für Kinder-, Jugend und Soziale Hilfen, a large not-for-profit organisation providing social pedagogical services in youth care and VET activities in Germany; and CommonView, a VET organisation providing coaching and consultancy in social pedagogy both in Denmark and the UK, with expertise in cross-cultural learning transfer of innovative social pedagogical practice. To create space for dialogue and learning between us and thus develop, refine and review the project outputs, we undertook 8 transnational project meetings. Our partnership succeeded in creating the first Massive Open Online Course in Social Pedagogy across Europe. Available on Coursera, the world’s biggest online learning platform providing universal access to the world’s best education, the 8 MOOC sessions offer unique insights into social pedagogy in the partner countries. Learners have completely free access to all learning resources, with the option to gain certification from our partners at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. To support learning transfer and influence policy-making, we also jointly authored an insight report on how a social pedagogical perspective can enable education and social care professionals to meaningfully respond to social justice issues. Alongside the MOOC, the insight report has succeeded in sharing innovative practice across linguistic barriers that have frequently prevented cross-fertilisation in social care across Europe. These open access resources were disseminated through 2 bespoke multiplier events with nearly 200 delegates, conference presentations, webinars and dissemination activities through extensive networks. So far, roughly 2,500 learners have engaged with the MOOC, with more joining each week. Feedback from MOOC graduates has been very positive, and many organisations have started to use the MOOC as a learning resource for their whole teams. Several universities are also using various sessions as part of their curriculum. The MOOC has thus begun to become a significant resource contributing to intercultural learning and dialogue around the benefit of social pedagogy. Together with the insight report it showcases the variety of traditions and highlights what we all have in common. Both outputs make a strong case for how practitioners and decision-makers can promote social justice through relationship-centred practice and structural changes that will have lasting benefits.