Announcing Our Free Lunchtime Webinar Series on Relational Practice

Posted on by Gabriel Eichsteller

We’re excited to introduce our upcoming free lunchtime webinar series focused on Relational Practice with care experienced young people. This series is designed to share valuable insights and practical strategies to enhance relational working.

Background

Research consistently highlights the importance of relationships in helping young people in and leaving care to thrive. Despite this, implementing relational working practices remains a challenge. To address this, the National Leaving Care Benchmarking Forum, the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation’s Leaving Care Learning Programme and ThemPra ran a peer learning programme throughout 2023-24. This initiative aimed to support local authority leaving care teams and voluntary organisations in developing effective relational practices.

The programme has produced a wealth of learning materials, resources and links, which we will share here over the next few months. To further share these insights, we are hosting a series of webinars this autumn. These sessions are open to everyone, and we encourage you to share the details with anyone who might be interested.

Webinar Schedule

Young People’s Views on Relationships

Date: 23rd October, 1pm-1.45pm

Details: Introduction to the relational working peer learning programme and insights from care experienced young people on relationships.

Register Here

Relational Practice with Care Experienced Young People: What Research Tells Us

Date: 6th November, 1pm-1.45pm

Details: Discussion on the latest research and practical implementation of research findings.

Register Here

Supporting Interdependence

Date: 21st November, 1pm-1.45pm

Details: Using the Relational Universe to visualise and support key relationships in young people’s lives.

Register Here

Being Authentic

Date: 3rd December, 1pm-1.45pm

Details: Exploring authenticity in practice using the 3 Ps (Professional, Personal, Private).

Register Here

Love in Professional Practice

Date: 22nd January, 1pm-1.45pm

Details: Examining the role of love in work with care experienced young people and fostering a sense of being loved.

Register Here

Reflecting & Describing Impact

Date: 11th February, 1pm-1.45pm

Details: Reflecting on the impact of relational practice using creative methods like Most Significant Change.

Register Here

Our Toolkit Treasure Trove

Date: 19th March, 1pm-1.45pm

Details: Highlighting additional resources and toolkits to strengthen relational practice within the current policy context.

Register Here

We hope to see you in these sessions. Please feel free to share this information with colleagues and networks who might benefit from these webinars.

International Journal of Social Pedagogy special issue ‘Towards an Eco-Social Pedagogy’

Posted on by Gabriel Eichsteller

Call for contributions

We’re delighted to invite contributions to our new special issue, guest edited by Prof Arto O Salonen (University of Eastern Finland), Dr Katrin Bain (London Metropolitan University), Gabriel Eichsteller (South East Technological University) & Robyn Kemp (Social Pedagogy Professional Association).

As one of the most urgent crises affecting societies across the globe, the climate emergency requires all human professions to critically consider how they can meaningfully integrate an environmentally conscious perspective in their practice. With climate change disproportionately affecting individuals and communities who are already disadvantaged, we argue that any serious attempts to address social inequality must require approaches that encompass a holistic view of the well-being of the entire planet. This raises the question what an eco-social pedagogy might look like and how it can become a key feature in mainstream discourse and practice. We are inviting authors to publish academic and practice papers as part of a special issue offering contributions that can help develop an eco-social pedagogy.

⏲ Expressions of interest accepted until: 15th July 2024
⏲ Deadline for draft papers: 31st December 2024

👇 Please find the full call for papers below.

The International Journal of Social Pedagogy is a peer-reviewed, open-access diamond journal (meaning there are no publication charges for authors or fees to read the journal), publishing articles on social pedagogy in the broadest sense.

DOWNLOAD CALL FOR PAPERS

 


Thematic Context for this Special Issue

Social pedagogy is frequently characterised as providing educational solutions to social issues through relationship-centred approaches that further well-being, social inclusion and active citizenship. The impact of climate change is increasingly threatening this ambition in manifold ways, from air and water pollution affecting people’s health to extreme weather events threatening entire communities, disrupting food supplies and causing destitution that force people to seek refuge in other parts of the world.

We argue that the climate emergency has two important implications for the field of social pedagogy – as well as related fields across the human professions:


  1. Social pedagogy must develop a multi-faceted understanding of how it can combat environmental degradation through an eco-social justice perspective, recognising that environmental justice and social justice are intricately linked. It can do so by drawing on explorations in fields such as planetary pedagogy (Salonen et al, 2023), green social work (Dominelli, 2018) and eco-social work (IFSW, 2022), eco-justice pedagogy (Bowers, 2001), ecosystemic wellbeing (Ellyatt, 2022), nature pedagogy and outdoor education, to name just a few. It can also learn from community-based initiatives that might not seem directly connected but draw on shared principles, such as community gardens, city farms and environmental arts.


  2. Climate change is likely to require new forms of social pedagogical support aimed at helping individuals and communities deal with climate-related issues, such as environmental disasters. As a field it can outline meaningful educative ways in which this support can strengthen people’s political agency and engagement as active citizens in environmental issues and other ways to support climate action, including by drawing on the creative arts to explore and highlight the impact of environmental issues and using nature as a medium for our own richer understanding of life aspects, such as interconnectedness, symbiosis, and the complex ways in which we shape – and are shaped by – our environment.

Social pedagogy is focussed on human relationships, and we assert that this should extend to human relationships with nature. We need to understand that the human rights of both present and future generations require our urgent concern with environmental rights and protecting natural resources, ecosystems and biodiversity. Our belief that social pedagogy can make a valuable contribution towards this most critical social issue of our times is echoed by the work of Prof Arto O. Salonen and his colleagues at the University of Eastern Finland, who have outlined a framework for planetary inclusion as part of a forthcoming publication in IJSP. It also builds on the brilliant work by the International Federation of Social Workers in articulating eco-social justice as part of the People’s Charter for an Eco-Social World (2023).

We welcome contributors from social pedagogy, social work, social education and other related human and environmental disciplines to present their research, conceptual contributions and/or practice insights. We particularly invite provocations that enable us to critically reflect on existing discourse and practice, pushing the boundaries of how we understand eco-social justice issues and integrate these into practice. We also welcome policy-level perspectives and learning from work in other practice contexts and from other countries across the world. We encourage authors to integrate or connect their writing to the body of literature on social pedagogy to highlight the relevance of their contribution to the discourse we have been promoting as the International Journal of Social Pedagogy.



Submission to this special issue



Please send early expressions of interest to the IJSP Editorial Office (editors@internationaljournalofsocialpedagogy.com) by July 15th, 2024 in the form of an abstract of 300-500 words, up to six references, and a 50-word biographical statement.

Successful authors will be invited by July 31st, 2024 to submit a full draft for editorial review by December 31st, 2024 through the journals online submission system. Please consult the notes for authors on the journal’s webpage here.

For enquiries about your ideas please email the special issue editors, who will be happy to provide further guidance. The journal is keen to encourage new and existing writers and as such we can offer support in a variety of ways, e.g. for new writers, or for writers who are less confident about writing in English.

Making Co-Production Meaningful – new dates for our experiential online course

Posted on by Gabriel Eichsteller

Learn how to co-create and co-produce positive change with the people and communities you serve

This course is for you if ...

Designed for anyone working in public service, such as social workers, educators, health professionals, community workers, managers, and leaders, our course will introduce you to the key principles of social pedagogy and Human Learning Systems, and how you can use these approaches to co-create change with the people you support. With a strong emphasis on learning transfer and peer learning, the course enables you to connect your learning straight to your unique practice context and critically reflect within an inspiring peer group on how your co-production practices can have the greatest positive impact. Here are some of the benefits of taking this course:

  • You will gain a deeper understanding of the key principles of co-production, collaboration, and participation.
  • You will learn how to apply these principles in your own practice.
  • You will develop the skills and confidence to co-create meaningful change with the people you support.
  • You will connect with a community of practitioners who are also committed to co-production.

Our next cohort starts in September 2024

Session 1: 26 Sep, 2024 – 9.30-12.30
Session 2: 3 Oct, 2024 – 9.30-12.30
Session 3: 10 Oct, 2024 – 9.30-12.30
Session 4: 17 Oct, 2024 – 9.30-12.30
Session 5: 7 Nov, 2024 – 9.30-12.30

Find out more here or click the button to book your place on our next cohort.

REGISTER HERE

 

Further questions?

Please get in touch with us via email if you would like to know more about this course or any of our other learning activities.

Learning Out Loud

Posted on by Gabriel Eichsteller

For the last few months we’ve been testing a new idea to help you reflect and learn in practice: Learning Out Loud is our monthly learning forum taking place every first Monday of the month (starting from September 2024). Each session is 50 minutes long, free to join and designed to help you reflect on a recent learning experience. Those who have taken part in the sessions so far have found them really valuable – especially because of the enjoyable company of others in the social pedagogy community😊 It’s brought clarity, insight, appreciation, inspiration – and it’s an easy format to replicate within teams, too. Plus, it helps make reflection and learning a habit. 

In the Learning Zone

If you struggle to find time to stop and reflect on what you have actually been learning, then join the LOL session to ensure you give your learning the priority it deserves. The session format will enable you to make sense of a practice challenge by learning out loud, with the support of like-minded people.

Say you’ve had a difficult conversation with a colleague that you’re trying to process, or you’ve found it particularly tough to engage with a person you’re supporting, or you’ve achieved a breakthrough with something and are trying to extract greater insights from it to help you consider the best way to build on it …

Then enter your learning zone with us every second Friday of each month and gain greater clarity.

Session format

We’ll be doing 2 main things as part of Learning Out Loud:

  • Our first method is called ‘sparkling moment’ and will focus on you sharing your learning story with someone else, who will tell it back. This is designed to help you identify what’s central to your learning experience and to have it reflected back.
  • Our second method follows the 4 Fs framework to analyse your learning experience in greater detail, looking in turn at facts, feelings, findings and futures. This is designed to stimulate self-reflection and systematic insight. It also encourages you to think about how you want to use these insights.

Ready to give it a try? Sign up here to join our next session for free.

REGISTER FOR FREE

Join our next SPDN event

Posted on by Gabriel Eichsteller

Most Significant Change: Storytelling in social pedagogical practice

11 March, 2024 9.30-12.30 (GMT) via Zoom
– FREE –

The importance of meaningfully gathering and exploring stories of change

Outcomes-focused evaluation has long been promoted – particularly in services and programmes focused on change and improvement. Gathering evidence of people’s outcomes is now a common-place requirement. However, measuring and gathering change outcomes in ways that are meaningful can be challenging. There is a growing recognition that people’s stories can be more powerful in learning-focussed evaluation. Most Significant Change is a storytelling approach to gathering and exploring change outcomes that was developed in the context of public health and community development (Davies and Dart 2005). It has been used successfully in a broad range of situations with individuals and communities to capture the impact of a change in their lives – from their perspective and in a way that enables their views to be heard and explored further in dialogue with relevant stakeholders.

What this event will cover

Led by Nick Andrews, research and practice development officer at the Developing Evidence-Enriched Practice (DEEP) project, this online workshop will introduce you to the essentials of Most Significant Change technique. It will outline the principles and practice of gathering MSC stories and exploring and learning from them in MSC story selection panels, with a range of examples that enable you to determine how you might integrate MSC in your own practice.

Who would benefit from this event?

Anyone with an interest in how to measure outcomes in a way that puts people and their stories at the heart of this process. MSC will be of particular relevance if you’re interested in evaluation, for instance in relation to a service, training course or programme focused on change or improvement.

This event is free to anyone and organised by ThemPra Social Pedagogy in partnership with the Global Alliance for Social Pedagogy and Social Education and the Social Pedagogy Professional Association. If you’re interested in learning more about social pedagogy, then check out the free resources on our website, join one of our experiential online courses, watch our webinar series or take part in one of our other learning events.

REGISTER FOR FREE