Conference

2008 Safe Internet Use

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Highlights of previous SSBA conferences :-

2007 Developing a Parent Council and Encouraging Parental Involvement

2006 The Way Forward for Parental Involvement

2005 Parents in Partnership

2003 Partnerships and responsibilities

2002 SSBA is fit for the future

2001 Roadshow

2000 International
and published book
available here online

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Workshops
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Teachers and Parents in Partnership at Lithuanian Schools

The school is mainly called to develop the child in four directions.

These fall into two interrelated groups:

1. Cognitive and academic development.

2. Personal and social development.

The first group up till now has been investigated and assessed by a number of scholars, because it is possible to measure the achievement in this sphere.

At present this trend in Lithuanian school practice is very well expressed. It is an indication that the school is focused towards the achievement of academic results. Until now this trend of school has satisfied society's needs.

Social changes in Lithuania ,following the declaration of Independence in 1991, affected all segments of social life .It has called for increasing attention towards the personal and social development of child.

The school is being reminded not to deviate from the idea of developing holistic personality, covering all the four aspects which were mentioned above. There are many problems which the school is not capable of solving without the family, nor is the family capable to cope with all the problems which are caused by numerous changes in the society.

At the beginning of 1999 there were almost 950,000 children under 18 in Lithuania 25.5% of total population. The main source of childrens' social problems is disharmony in family, poverty, parents who are too busy, and an increase in the number of disfunctional families. Children from these families do not attend schools, have no hobbies and try to earn money on the streets. They spend a great part of their time on the streets and thus get closer to the criminal world.

To help the family a new position, that of the 'social pedagogue' , is being introduced at schools. These specialists are expected to provide children and their parents with pedagogical assistance and help to solve diverse problems in terms of the socialization of the children that have become very evident in the implementation of the second stage of the educational reform, which (among other numerous things) places stress on the equal opportunities to get an obligatory education for every child. It means trying to give an opportunity for child not only to be in the school but also to create an environment in which to learn and to live full social life.

The school in its turn should do its best to make it possible to develop the child in all four aspects.

Dr.E.Giedraitiene, Dr. V.Kavaliauskiene
Klaipeda University, Lithuania

On Teachers and Parents Partnership at Lithuanian Schools

The Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania states that both the school and parents are responsible for the education of children. Consequently, the Law on Education envisages that parents should provide conditions for life and study of their children guaranteeing a sound and secure development of their mental and physical abilities as well as their moral improvement also be responsible for their education. and development.

Teachers in their turn are expected to maintain co-operation will parents ill taking decisions related to children's teaching and education. Such are formal requirements. But until now the understanding that school teaches and parents educate has been and is alive. In many cases child's behavioural problems at school are expected to be improved by parents. Lazyness or low motivation or any similar things are considered more parents' than teachers' concern and parents are supposed to find ways to cope with these problems. On the other hand there is an opposite view that parents transmit their responsibility for their child's education and development to the teachers. Evidently, these are extreme assertions. The idea of home's and school's reciprocal responsibility in the education and development of the child is one of the problems of the educational reform that up till now has not been given adequate attention though parents have always been considered having professional significance to teachers.

Yet it would be wrong to say that school and parents in Lithuania have become good educational partners.

The statement in the educational documents that schooling must be "in co-operation with parents" doesn't improve the situation. Anyway, not a few instances may be found showing that such a co-operation exists.

If we follow the division of the main forms of parental involvement (as presented M Fullan's book "The New Meaning in Educational Change" Fullan, 1991) including:

1) parent involvement at school
2) parent involvement in learning activities at home
3) home / community - school. relations
4) governance

It would be true to say that we can find the samples illustrating each aspect of such a parental involvement at our schools. But it doesn't mean that the school routines are geared to effectively include all of them in the schooling process. Usually it is up to an individual school to provide the forms of parent involvement in schooling matters in practice. It is a common experience in Lithuanian schools that parents are welcome to visit the school whenever they choose to see the teacher or any authority of the school . But parents have no right to observe the work of the teacher. The 1aw on Education, article 30 states: Only persons specified in the respective regulations of the certification commissions, the state inspectors of education and of educational institutions have tlie right to observe the teacher's work only subject to the teacher's consent.

Traditionally, parents are particularly welcome at school on special occasions such as the first day of school, school leaving ceremonies, festivals commemorating state and national holidays, at Christmas parties and many other times. Also they are invited to parents' meetings to discuss the progress of learning, behaviour, social habits and various school activities. Parents also make a part of the School Board where they add to making decisions on issues important to the functioning of the school. These may include the maintenance of good relations between tile school and parents, the education of children, extra curricular work and cultural activities, etc. But in practice these things do not look so smooth. In general it can be stated that both instructional and non instructional forms of parent involvement are found at Lithuanian schools. But generally taking, parents are more concerned with the results of the education of their children. In practice a rare school can boast having adequate and effective functioning experience with parents. Instead we often hear about a gap existing between the school and homes. No wonder, the parental dimension in schooling has not been sufficiently considered in the implementation of the educational reform. Neither has this issue been given an adequate attention at teacher education institutions. Recently a new position, i.e. of the social. pedagogue has been introduced at school. Among numerous other functions the latter specialists are expected to provide children and their parents with pedagogical assistance and help to solve diverse problems in terms of the socialization of the children that have become very evident in the implementation of the second stage of the educational reform and particularly in supplying children with equal opportunities for obligatory education. It is expected that these specialists at school will undoubtedly, among other things, add to the improvement of parent and school partnership for the child's benefit.

References

Fullan M. The New Meaning of Educational Change (ed. With. Stiegelbatier) Toronto : OISE Press, 1991.

The Law on Education of the Republic of Lithuania. Vilnius, 1998.

Vanda Kavaliauskiene, Elvyra Giedraitiené
Klaipeda University, Lithuania

The Position of a Social Pedagogue in Lithuania

For several years researchers of Lithuanian universities where social pedagogues and social workers are trained haven't been able to decide who should be working at schools - social pedagogues or social workers. The discussion becomes even more complicated by the issue whether social pedagogs, is a specialisation of social work or whether both these fields are independent. The issue has been given a lot of attention at the conference "Problems of Modern Special and Social Pedagogy" that took place on January 26-27, 1999, at the University of Šiauliai. The conference was attended by representatives of all universities in Lithuania, as well as guests from Estonia and Latvia. It was organised within the framework of the TEMPUS project "Drawing Up Interdisciplinary Programmes for the Training of a Social Pedagogue". The Universities of Šiauliai and Klaipeda, the Ministries of Education and of Social Affairs of Lithuania, together with their partners from Manchester Metropolitan University (the U.K.) and Sweden have been working at the project for 3 years.

The reports of S.Jones, M.S.Johnson (the U.K.), Sh. Harmer (Sweden) reflected the problem urgent to us against the background of the experience of their countries.

The need for social pedagogues in the process of the Education Reform in Lithuania was analysed in the report of Vice-Minister of Education Vaiva Vëbraitë.

Thus, the issue of similarities and differences between a social pedagogue and a social worker is still being discussed by researchers. Generalisations of theory and practice of social work and social pedagogy of Europe leads to the conclusion that bipolarity of these two professions is not valid or desirable; obviously, they'd better be considered integral and complementing each other than totally isolated and seeking monopoly. Getting acquainted with the experience of England and Sweden within the framework of the project proves it: the curricula of a social pedagogue and a social worker differ onlv in the amount of credits in psychology and pedagogy. At our University, both social pedagogues and social workers get almost the same amount of subjects in psychology and pedagogy, as their curricula are worked out in accordance with uniform requirements of the Ministry of Education.

The theoretical discussion is of no great interest to social pedagogues and teachers who are alreadv working at schools. They would just be interested to know qualification requirements for a social pedagogue / social worker, on the basis of which each school could define the rights and duties of a social pedagogue, as well as the amount of their work at school.

In March 1999, a work group, formed by the order of the Minister of Education, which included representatives of all the universities of Lithuania where specialists of this type are trained confirmed transitional requirements for a social pedagogue. The requirements will be valid for 3 years, and will be revised and upgraded in accordance with the experience accumulated. Anyway, even if that document hasn't helped to solve the main problem under discussion and to decide who is who, it allowed for the profession of a social pedagogue to become established in schools.

In summer of 1997, the Minister of Education Z.Zinkevicius signed the order on introduction of the position of a social pedagogue in schools, but it was only in 1999 that 57 million Litas for employing social pedagogues were allotted. Alas, the amount allotted is not sufficient for introducing the position in all Lithuanian schools. The Ministry of Education will be setting priorities: which schools are to have social pedagogues first. That's why the decision on transitional qualification requirements for social pedagogues was of vital importance.

The author of the report was a member of the group responsible for drawing up the qualification requirements for social pedagogues. Therefore she'd like to present the document to the participants of the conference, with the aim of discussing the subject once again.

The document states that a social pedagogue is one of the specialists of social workers. A social pedagogue is a social worker who works in an educational or guardian institution and who has the education of a social worker and respective pedagogical qualification or the education of a social worker. Social pedagogyis a speciality of the science of pedagogical or a specoiality of social work with respective qualification of pedagogical or social work.

Possible fields of professional specialisation of social pedagogues are:

• Social pedagogues for educational institutions (comprehensive secondary schools of all types, educational schools, institutions of protection of children's rights, children's homes, preschool institutions);

• Social pedagogues for specialised educational or guardian institutions for physically or mentally handicapped children;

• Social pedagogues for work with groups of social risk (drug or alcohol addicts, cases of violence).

The most general purpose of a social pedagogue is creating optimum conditions for the social functioning and development of the child. Therefore, social pedagogues work systematically with groups of children or individually with separate children in need of special attention, they co-operate with children's parents or guardians, with organisations of youth and children and other tutors and render assistance to them, they pool the efforts of all educational, guardian, social, medical and other institutions in the neighbourhood, they participate in planning social development of the community and influence changes in social policy.

When working with individuals from all the above mentioned groups, a social pedagogue fulfils the following functions:

• evaluates (accumulates information and draws conclusions)

• consults (helps and gives advice)

• corrects (encourages, stimulates and mobilises)

• organises (pools resources and plans)

• educates (informs and explains)

• co-ordinates (keeps in touch, directs or transfers information)

• prevents (foresees negative phenomena or actions and helps to prevent them)

• provides legal assistance (represents and defends).

When fulfilling the said functions, a certified social pedagogue, irrespective of the level of studies has to know the following things:

• the main stages of the development of the child's personality, and the mechanisms of influence of the pedagogical, psychological, biological, social and cultural factors on the development of the personality;

• the peculiarities of development of the personality of children with special needs and the laws of mainstreaming them into the system of education and the society;

• social, humanistic, cognitive, psychodynamic and other theories of learning;

• theories of social interaction;

• mechanisms of forming and formation of individual behaviour and behaviour in a group;

• the main theories and methods of social intervention;

• theories and ways of research and of data collection and analysis;

• ways and methods of learning and analysing the child's personality at different ages;

• ways and methods of drawing up and evaluating different intervention programmes;

• the peculiarities of modern social macro- and micro-environment, tendencies of its developmcnt (economic, political, demographic, cultural, etc);

• social, legal and organisational fundamentals of the protection of children's rights ;

• the history of the system of education, its modern tendencies, perspectives and the policy of financing it;

• the svstem of rendering social services and specialised help to a child and family;

• the peculiarities of social education under different conditions (at school, in the family, in a guardian institution, in the neighbourhood, in children's societies, in confessional communities which provide education in accordance with the state requirements, in culture and sport organisations, etc;

• the peculiarities of the activities of a social pedagogue, the requirements for their personality and professional education;

• the fundamentals of legal knowledge;

• the peculiarities of the child's anatomy, physiology and anomalous development;

• the fundamentals of management of social work.

A social pedagogue has to be able to:

• evaluate the needs of the customer, to name the reasons which caused the customer's social problems;

• find out about the possibilities (inner reserves) of the customer, their environment and / or their team, for the solution of the problem;

• make use of the acquired theoretical knowledge;

• organise individual and group work in an effective way;

• organise team work;

• associate and co-operate with the customer, their family, workers of educational and guardian institutions, and the members of the team;

• represent the customer's interests in other institutions;

• summarise and evaluate the effectiveness of social services;

• evaluate one's own and community efforts in a critical way.

A person can be employed as a social worker in an educational or guardian institution when they acquire the qualification for social work in a college or a higher school and have a certificate of a pedagogue's professional qualification or of the specialisation of a social pedagogue, or when they, complete long-term retraining courses and get a respective certificate of qualification (code 2108) which gives them the right to work as social pedaogues.

Those qualification requirements allowed, to draw up recommendations for preparing the scope of responsibilities for social workers, in which defining their rights and duties is of special importance.

A social pedagogue has the right to:

• attend lessons and after-school activities;

• get acquainted with documents of educational and guardian institutions related to separate pupils or groups;

• be members of Teacher Councils, participate in the sittings of Councils of educational or guardian institutions;

• within the framework of their competence, put proposals to the administration or teachers of an educational or guardian institution, to parents or authorised representatives;

• when necessary, apply to respective specialists in educational or guardian institutions and outside them;

• get the necessary information and support from the authorities, legal institutions, institutions of the protection of children's rights;

• represent the child's rights in school and outside it;

• get scientific and methodological assistance from research or any other competent institutions;

• in accordance with the law, upgrade their qualifications and choose the time and the form for that.

A social pedagogue is obliged to:

• when solving problems or making decisions, not exceed the limits of their professional competence;

• be responsible for the confidentiality of data, observe the Code of Professional Ethics of' social workers;

• inform the administration and teachers of an educational or guardian institution about the situation without violating the requirements of confidentiality;

• be responsible for the choice and use of methods applied in work, and for the correct use of advisory methods;

• consult with one's colleagues and, when necessary, send the customer to respective specialists to solve the child's problems;

• collect information about the customer and keep it till the pupil finishes an educational or guardian institution;

• note down the data of the customer's visits, investigation and conclusions in a special office record.

The decision defines the functions of a social pedagogue in an educational institution. A social pedagogue:

1. works individually with a person , i.e. the child, parents, legitimate representatives of the child, teachers and other specialists of educational and guardian institutions. They evaluate and help to solve problems related to difficulties the child may encounter (such as satisfying their essential needs, protection of those who suffer from sexual exploitation, drug and alcohol addiction, social adaptation, etc), manage preventive programmes for solving problems in the fields of self-expression and selfrealisation, motivation for studies, attendance, leisure,.emotions and behaviour;

2. helps parents (or legitimate representatives of the child) to contribute to the education of their child in an active and effective way, to understand and accept social and psychological needs of their child, to better understand children with special needs (gifted, or mentally or physically handicapped), to better understand the child's rights and duties, the possibilities of getting social assistance;

3. helps the staff of educational and guardian institutions to co-operate with colleagues in a more effective way when solving social problems of children and looking for efficient ways of education, to better understand the period of social change of the society and its peculiarities, to create cosy and secure working atmosphere, meeting the demands of the child and the educational institution;

4. keeps in touch with the community and different institutions, takes care of the adaptation of the environment to the child's needs;

5. organises the rendering of social services to the child: investigates the demand for social services; analyses expedient use of social services; rendered in accordance with the decisions of the Government of the Republic of Lithuania; together with the staff of educational or guardian institutions and with public organisations; participates in the organisational - informational work of the institution; organises and initiates new social projects and participates in their implementation; strives for more efficient functioning of the institution; looks for resources to satisfy the essential needs of the child and the family (to get food, clothes, etc); keeps in touch with different institutions to ensure effective rendering of help required; when authorised to represent children's rights and protect them in legal and other institutions, co-operates with the children rights' protection and other institutions; accumulates data about customers who are rendered social services.

To organise all these activities, one has to be a well-trained specialist, with sufficient theoretical and methodological knowledge. In training such specialists, the most urgent problem is the preparation of the basis and the training of supervisors for practice periods. The decision on transitional qualification requirements of a social pedagogue has been adopted. Recommendations for the scope of responsibilties of a social pedagogue have been worked out. Three years allotted for the experiment will pass fast. Social pedagogues and social workers will try to implement their profession in practice, and their work will help the theoreticians to answer the questions that worry us today and the questions the life will offer.

(The material is prepared after the project " Transitional Qualification Requirements for Social Pedagogues", March 3, 1999).

Elvyra Giedraitiené
Lithuania

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