Social Pedagogy: Conception of Discipline and Profession by Students and Social Educators in the Czech Republic
Abstract
This paper brings knowledge of disciplinary and professional preferences of social educators in the Czech Republic. We work with data from questionnaires where 333 Czech students and Social Pedagogy graduates were involved.
The aim of the research was to determine their preferred conception of the discipline, what mission they attribute to the profession and what conception of exercising their profession is preferred. The main results include that social educators prefer a practical approach of social pedagogy as a help for clients in various life situations.
Additionally, they significantly prefer a democratizing social conception of the discipline and executing the profession based on their relationship. Variables, such as sex, age, practical experience, work position, higher education etc. do not have an influence on such choices in the majority of cases.
An interesting result is that students and graduates are in general satisfied with the choice of profession; however, graduates who stayed working in the field are more satisfied than the students. Also, social educators in the Czech Republic succeed in various social and pedagogical professions.