The Pedagogue
ABOUT ME
Ideas for posts come from my daily life, so here is a little bit about me to make it easier to read and understand what this is all about.
I'm a social pedagogue working full time as well as trying to write a PhD.
I also live in an intentional community, an old victorian house run as a co-operative.
I am a social pedagogue in children's and semi-independent homes for looked after children in the UK. My role consists in listening to what's important to the young people, support them in experiencing more control over their situations and work with the teams to encourage them to act upon what's the young people have said.
My PhD looks at the influence the 'image of the rich child' has on the work of social pedagogues in children's homes. It's taking ideas from the italian early year education in Reggio Emilia and seeing how they work in residential care.
For reasons of privacy, when I refer to events that happen in my professional and co-operative life I will always present my own version of events, with a careful editing of other details so that no individual situation other than my own is made public.
ABOUT THIS BLOG
It 's all about social pedagogy
In this blog want to talk about my work, my studies and those ideas about education that I find REALLY exiting.
Just like when reading a really exiting article, you want the whole world to know about it because it makes so much sense. The last time it happened to me was binge watching Stranger Things while at the same time reading Mollenhauer's (more of him later) Forgotten Connections. You know the bit in Season 1 when El comes to Mike's house for the first time and he hides her in the basement? Those great moments when we see him becoming a bridge between her and his friends, Hawkins and the rest of the world? He listens to her, he tries to understand her, and suggests ways in which she can connect to others. He advocates for her and shows her how things are done in his world. There is a thread runing through many episodes of the series that Mollenhauer would call upbringing. It's not until the end of the 3rd series that she becomes fully herself, makes her own decisions and crucially is trusted by those who care for her that she knows what's best for her.
It's this process I want to focus on in this blog. It's what my work with children and young people who are looked after is about, but also part of the theme of my PhD.
So i'll post, as life throws examples of things that work...
of doubts ( there are many of them).....
and readings that I found stimulating and challenging...
... in no specific order!!!
