Social pedagogy and social work from the perspective of the research areas and practical activities – selected contexts

Abstract

The theoretical and practical development of social pedagogy was influenced by many social, economic and cultural factors (e.g. industrial and cultural revolutions), which took place in Europe and America in the 19th century. In turn, in 1908 Helena Radlińska created the scientific bases of social pedagogy in Poland and initiated its disciplinary development. In her activities, the researcher emphasized the role of a human in the transformation of reality in which they live. Her concept had a lot in common with the theses of the then German and French philosophical and pedagogical thought, among others Paul Bergman, Jean-Marie Guyau, Paul Natorp, Gabriel Séailles (Theiss, 2018, p. 13). The key moment in the initial phase of the development of so-called Helena Radlińska’s school of social pedagogy was the creation of The Social-Educational Work Study of Free Polish University in 1925. It was the first university in Poland to educate, at the academic level, future social and educational workers and educators in the area of adult education, mother and child care , and organization of social life. Social pedagogy as a science of human education, upbringing, and social functioning is a discipline of humanistic and social science. It has an interdisciplinary character shaped on the basis of the knowledge of various sciences, that includes: philosophy of human life, psychology (experimental, social, clinical), general pedagogy, sociology of education, ethics, social policy, family and guardianship law, theory of environmental education (Kamiński, 1974).