Atores-chave do Processo de Construção da Identidade Profissional dos Educadores Sociais em Portugal

Abstract

Social Education is a profession that is still in the process of asserting its identity, which knows a number of challenges, as it is a profession that has not yet matures, not knowing how many social educators exist in Portugal, how many exercises their professional activity as social educators and with what functions. On the other hand, social educators face difficulties in legitimizing their profession due to factors related to the academic evolution of the university itself and the versatility of contexts and functions it may assume, but also due to external factors, due to confusion with similar professional areas and with others professionals with greater tradition in social action. As a result of this confusion and a greater need for rationalization of resources, undifferentiated hiring strategies appear on the part of employers, hindering the professionalization processes of Social Education, where no one else knows who does what. The context in which social educators move – the “social”, a complex and constantly changing context – also currently knows particularities that hinder the consolidation of professional cultures, specifically there are a number of political, economic and social changes, especially in the reconfiguration of the labor market. The profession thus constructed from realities that affect and condition it, provoked by a set of actors who intervene in the professionalizing process. This article starts from a dialectical model of key actors involved in the social educators’ process of professionalization defined by Saez Carreras (2008) to give clues about the reality of Social Education in Portugal.