In November, the board of AIEJI held their semi-annual board meeting in Campinas in the state of Säo Paulo, where the local organization AEESSP (Associação dos Educadores e Educadoras Sociais do Estado de São Paulo) was hosting the meeting.

Many trivial things such as budget, membership payment, welcome package to new members and the use of the website was discussed. However, the main discussion, initiated by President Benny Andersen, was the question of “what is AIEJI?” What kind of organization do we want AIEJI to be? What do the members of AIEJI expect from it? How do they want to use it – or how would they like to be able to use it? What kind of activities and projects should AIEJI initiate and be involved in? How can AIEJI support the professional development of its members and strengthen their professional profile? How do we ensure that members benefit from the large, international network at hand through all the member organisations and individual members and use it to exchange experiences, knowledge, methods and practices?

This discussion has only just begun and will be continued at the coming board meetings in 2012. But in order to have a qualified discussion the board needs to hear the voices and opinions of AIEJI’s members. So at the meeting it was agreed that in the new year a questionnaire will be distributed among the members of AIEJI to find out what you believe AIEJI should be, how AIEJI can help you and how you would like to be able to use AIEJI in the future.

And since the discussion has now opened, I encourage everyone to make their comments below. Let us hear what you have to say!

Dear friends and colleagues,

In the on-going discussion about the profession of social educators and social pedagogues and how it is defined in different countries, I received a very interesting paper that talks about social work and social pedagogy in England, Germany, France and Denmark.

The paper is very informative in the way that it gives an insight to understand social work in an English context and how there is a growing interest and understanding of social pedagogy in the UK.

Download the paper European Perspectives on Social work: Models of Education and Professional Roles.

Dear colleagues,

In the discussion about the professional development of social pedagogy/social education I asked a British colleague, Claire Cameron from Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, in the UK to give an account of the development of social pedagogy in the UK.

Read here about the status of Social Pedagogy in the UK.

In the process of overcoming grief, outdoor activities can provide children and young people with a way to regain self-confidence and come to terms with their situation. In this article, Hans-Georg Renner describes methods of using and planning outdoor activities for bereaved children.

Read the whole article here.

In Italy, educatori professionali are recognized only by the Ministry of Health and the training for working in the profession is handled by medical school. This is important at European level, because Italy may be the only country in Europe where social educators are labeled “health professionals” and not a social profession. Educatori professionali work in social services too, but there is no law in Italy recognizing the social professionals. The only social profession recognized in Italy is the social worker, which in Italy is called assistente sociale but is different profession. We as educatori professionali work with social workers, but we’re not social workers. In short, educatori professionali have the same competences as social educators

in Spain or in Denmark, as it was ratified by the “AIEJI Common Platform for Social Educators in Europe”, but in Italy they are recognized as health professionals.

So, if a social educator coming from Spain or Denmark wants to work as educatore professionale in Italy, she must submit her training to the Italian Ministry of Health, and often she must do countervailing measures (stages, exams etc.).

In Italy ANEP is involved with the other health professionals such as nurses, physiotherapists, speech therapists, radiologists, and so on. This is the reason why we, as Italian educators, are so interested in the European Directive: as health professionals we are in Europe in the same pool as other health professionals, but as social professionals we are in the same pool as our colleagues in AIEJI. Our position is not clear and we hope the European Directive can bring more clarity.

EU is working on a new directive regarding the classification of registered professions – which hopefully will also include social educators/social pedagogues. The European Bureau is following the development closely.

Below is an example from our Italian colleagues in ANEP of how the classification of social educators needs clarification and common ground.

Read more here.