1. Background and purpose
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2. A short introductionto socialeducationalwork
3. Requirementsof educationand practiceand trainingof social educators
4. Professionateompetencesfor sociaieducators
4.1.1. Competences of intervening
4.1.2. Competences of evaluating
4.1.3. Competences of reflecting 4.2. CENTRALCOM PETEN CES
4.2.1. Personal and relational competences
4.2.2. Social and communicative competences 4.2.3.0 rg anisatio nal co mp etences
4.2.4. System competences
4.2.5. Development and learning competences
4.2.6. Competences generated by the professional practice
4.2.6.1. Theoretical knowledge and methodological competences
4.2.6.2. Competence of the conduct of the profession
4.2.6.3. Cultural competences
4.2.6.4. Creative competences
5. Demand for Ethical Basis
5.1. 0BJECTIVESOFTHEETHICALGUIDELINES
5.2. PRINCIPLESOF THE ETHICALGUI DELI N ES
6. The Declarationof Montevideo
4.1. FUN DAM EN TALCOM PETEN CES
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1. BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE
This document about the professional competences of socialeducators is based on the document of the European Bureau of the I international Association of Social Educators: "A Common Platform for Social Educators in Europe" {AIEJI Europe, January2005). After a specificregulation for the freedom of movement of EuropeanUnion workers, in year2003, the AIEJI European Bureau thought that it wasthe time forall European professional associations to start working together. The main purpose was, complying with the specificregulation of the referred law, to establish a set of criteria of the required level of competences for the practice of the social educator profession.
The first steps were taken on a first symposium where the participating associations realised that they were working in the same reference areas and developing the same tasks. From then on, the professional competences of the European social educators were written and endorsed by
all participating associations in a second meeting in January 2005.
After further editing, the material was published with the title "A Common Platform for Social Educators in Europe".
The document was presented at AlEJIs world congress in November2005and the participants expressed great interest in the document. Further, the document wasdiscussed at AlEJs board meeting in May 2006, and the board decided to send out the document for consultation in AIEJK regions. The idea wasto createa globalcommon platform forsociai educators. On thisbackg round the board has decided to publish this document: "The professional competencesof socialeducators u a conceptual framework". The purpose is not to comeup with a final definition of social education but to giveinspiration both to the individual social educator, the social educational workplacesand social educators as
a profession at national level to developand dis-cusstheir profession.lt means too that the board welcomes contributions from individuals as well as agencies and national associations about the professional basis of social educators. "The profess onal competences of social educators" is meant to be a framework for our common and continuing discussions about and development of our professional basis. The document is to be read with the Declaration of Montevideo from the XVI World Congress of AIEJI (chapter 6 in this document).
Benny Andersen, President
International Association of Social Educators
2. A SHORT INTRODUCTION
TO SOCIAL EDUCATIONAL WORK
Social educational work has its historical roots in work with children and young people. The profession comprises education and conditions of childhood and adolescence in a broad sense, and in some particular contexts it includes treatment. Today, social educational aid targets disabled children, adolescents and adults as well as adults at particular risk: the mentally disordered, alcohol or drug abusers, homeless people etc. Social educational work is constantly developing with regard to the various forms of measures, target groups, methods etc. Social education is characterised as a special strategy that contributes to the integration of the community. It isthe answer of the community to some of its integration problems □ not all of them, but those arising from social and educational situations of need. Social education deals with excluded and marginalised people in a special way, and this means that the contents and
character change according to the social, cultural and educational situations of need that are created by the community. Social education can be defined as: The theory about how psychological, social and material conditions and various value orientations encourage or prevent the general development and growth, life quality and welfare of the individual or the group.
A fundamental element in social educational work is to fadlitate integration and prevent mar-ginalisation and social exclusion. This is done in a social interaction process in order to support and help exposed individuals and groupsat risk so that they may develop their own resources in a changing community.
In social education the practitioners engage in an activity and use themselves in order to support and enhance the user's development together with the user. Social education is an inten-
tional action. It isthe result of conscious de-liberations that are converted into a planned and target-oriented process. The interventional character of social education means that, based on professional deliberations, objectives for other people's development and lives are defined. This is why the profession is based on a set of ethical values as well.
Social educational work is understood as a process of social actions in relation to individuals and various groups of individuals. The methods are multidimensional and include: Care, education, intervention, treatment, development of non-exclusive life space treatment etc. The goal is full sociability and citizenship to all.
SOCIAL EDUCATION
Care
Education (learning) Treatment Intervention Protection
Development of non-exclusive life space
FULLCITIZENSHIP
The goal of full sociability and citizenship to all also means that the social educators are obliged to identify and opposethe exclusion mechanisms of societyand communicate their knowledge of these exclusion mechanisms to the pub lie authorities.
Social education is based on UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and presupposes a
fundamental understanding of the integrity and value of each single human being, irrespective of race, gender, age, belief, social and economical and intellectual status in the society.
The goal and content of social education range from the recreation of the culture of everyday life on the one side and on the other the creation of the individual's own culture.
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Social education is a profession with great dynamics and adaptability. It is not anchored in or committed to a specific scientific tradition. The professional knowledge that is apart of thesocial educational practice has been defined by various sciences. Nowadays the profession is determined by a variety of humanistic and social science disciplines such as developmental psychology, social psycho logy,ethics, anthropology, cul-
tural sociologyand sociology.ln addition there are a number of subjects and areas such as administration, management and welfare political conditions, as well as communication, activity and culture subjects. This professional knowledge allows social educatorsto connect the critical analysis with constructive actions.
Thus, social education is rooted in the humanities. It is based on several disciples and has an integrating view of knowledge as a central principle. The competency of social educators may be characterised as a synthesis of knowledge, skills and attitudes The social educational college programmes include both theoretical and practical subjects and thereby become a connecting link between theory and practice.
The trained social educator is supposed to assist the individual person in fulfilling and meeting his o r her need s and targ ets. Thisi mp I ies f o r instance:
• Assisting persons in developing to such an extent that they become able to solve their own or shared problems
■ Enhancing the individual person's ability to determine and to ad apt and develop.
Social educational work takes place in direct contact with children, young people and adults often over a long period of time. The contact is not limited to a particular time of the day. This implies that a social educator has relatively few users and thus establishes a thorough knowledge of the individual user. Not least the extent of the direct contact gives the social educator the opportunity to enter into close and intimate relations that are continuous and stable.
In general terms the methods of socialeducation are multiple and maybe described aseffortsthat combine the needs of the target groups with the purpose of thesocial educational work. The educational perspective focuseson the user and aims at values such as democratisation, self-de-termination and autonomy. The ideal is the em-powered 1 person who is capable of understanding and acting in the community by meansof hisown insight, knowledge and skills.
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' Em powered refers to the expansj on of freedom of choice and action. It involves an increase of the authority andpower of the individual on his/herown resources and on the decisions that affedt his/herlife,
A common feature of social education is, however, that the interpersonal processisthe essential tool. In principle, the tools of the social educator are her own body and mind. This puts substantial demands on the social educators to be able to define contents, relationships, dynamics and methods.
Social educatorsdo not just work on the basis of various theories and multiple methods. The development of the social educational work may also be viewed by means of the development of methods, because the methods of the profession cannot be isolated as mere techniques. It would be morecorrectto saythat the methodsof the profession correspond to a certain historical period's understanding of the relation between the individual and society.
The fact that social educational work is an interpersonal relationship and that the educational process is a social relation between the partici-pa-ting social educators and children, young people or adults, demands that the social educator is capable of committing herself to herwork.
Social educators must commit themselves; otherwise they cannot establish confidential relationships and genuine contactswith other persons.
Social education as a profession is constituted by a particular combination of theoretical knowledge, practical skills and commitment. Besides being obliged to continue to work with the integration of marginalised groups and individuals "social educatorsare obliged also to identify and oppose the exclusion mechanisms of society.
3. REQUIREMENTS OF EDUCATION AND PRACTICE AND TRAINING OF SOCIAL EDUCATORS
As social educational work is about and intervenes in other people's conditions of life, social educators must have solid basic education and training in orderto carryout this task in a professionally proper manner. Social educators should therefore _ asother professionals who work with people "havegraduation at post-secondaiy level of 3 to 4yearsof full-time study.The education should be recognised and approved by the national authorities and qualifying for social educational work. Further, the education should be recognised by the national profession associations) as qualifying for social educational work.
The education should take place at universities or colleges of similar level recognised by the national authorities as providers of the basic
education for social educators. The education should ensure that the knowledge foundation reflects the professional competences for social educators quoted in the 4th section of this document. Further, the education should ensure that the most recent national and international research is included in the training.
The educational institution should be engaged in relevant development and experimental projects relating to the work field, and be an active partner in the work to include the practice field in this activity. One part of the students' training should be in such development projects.
Training and practice in the work field should be an integrated part of the programme. The edu-
cational institution and the practice field should work together on this training/practice,
A publicly recognised system of continuing and further education for social educators should be linked to the profession. This system should be related to the basic education in order that the gained knowledge and experience will be of advantage to the basic education.
The responsible authorities and the social educational work places are responsible that social educators currently receive continued and further education in order to improve the social educational practice.
Training and/or practice should be so comprehensive that the student will both gain a realistic impression of the organisation and tasks of the work field and challenge himself in the practical work.
This training and/orpractice should be approved so that the student may continue or finish his education.
4. PROFESSIONAL COMPETENCES FOR SOCIAL EDUCATORS
In the following text the term competences should be understood as the social educator's potential of action relating to a certain task, situation or context u i.e. the social educational work □which comprises knowledge and skills, intellectual, manual and social skills as well as attitudes and motivation.
Generally speaking there are two dimensions in the competence profile of socialeducators. One
dimension indicates various levels for how the social educator should be able to act, intervene and reflect in various practice contexts.
The second dimension regards the central competences derived from perspectives and conditions for social-educational work.
4. PROFESSIONAL COMPETENCES
4.1. Fundamental Competences
The complexity of the professional practice involves different action levels, that demand as well, from the Social Educators, the handling of the following competences:
4.1.1 Competence of intervening
We think, among other things, that the social educator should be able to actdirectly in the actual situation in relation to the needs and wishes of thechild/youth/ad ul ina suitable way and with a not too long time of reflection. The action may be motivated in intuition or non-linguisti c knowledge, but also in theoretical or experiencebased knowledge. To putit more simply: the social educator should be able to act under compulsion to act.
4.1.2 Competence of evaluating
This second competence includes that the social educator should be able to plan, organise and reflect in relation to future actions and interventions. The social educator should be able to qualify his planning and reflection by including
theory and knowledge, but also by including reflection about his own or others' practice. The social educator should beableto assessthe connection between intention, action and result.
4.1.3 Competence of reflecting
The social educator with colleagues and other professional persons should be able to reflect about professional problem fields to ensure a common professional understanding and development of the profession. The reflections should be communicated to professionalsaswell as the public.
4.2. Central competences
4.2.1 Personal and relational competences
The fundamental conditionsfor social education constitute the framework for social educators' competence profile. The relation to the person who need support is central in all social educational work. Social educational work is a relation between social educator and the one who needs support. These two poles of the relation constitute and are constituted by the relation.
Therefore, personal and relational competences are crucial in all social educational work.
During the past years the personal aspect has gained a far more central position in working life in general. Personal competences such as commitment, motivation, attitudes and "heart" are in demand and requested farmorenowthan before by managers and "users". However,to the social educator who "workswith people" the question of personal commitment to the work has another aspect to it: the personal relation to the child/ youth/adult where educational human view,
background, moral and ethics are included and expressed.
The personal side of the professionalism is about being able to work professionally with relations. It is the instrument which creates the contact to the child/youth/ad ut, the sensitive registration of it, the interpretation of it, the processing and the modification of it. It is this contact which makes important finger prints that effects that the educator has anything to do with the child/youth/ adult and that makes the social educator at all capable of intervening in another person's life.
The relation is not symmetric. The social educator should be able to relate personally and professionally to any child/user, whereas the child/user is not in the same way obliged to relate to the educator. It is also a relation of power, which may be destructive if not used in a constructive way. Not least because of this the social educator must be conscious of his fundamental human view, own norms and values.
To engage professionally with one's own personality demands a great deal of inclusiveness, a high degree of professional focus on the needs of the child/user, professional ethics and moral and last but not least, the ability to separate private relations from professional relations. This demandsa great deal of empathy .conscientiousness, ethical reflections, extroversion, accommodation, and sense of responsibility, and a great deal of professionalinsight.
4.2.2 Social and communicative competences
Social educational work is not a solo performance. To agreat extent it isdependenton andcar-ried out in collaboration with a great number of involved parties: the child, the youth, the adult, colleagues, users, parents, relatives, other professional group sand authorities etc. The social educators must therefore also possess social and communicative competences.
Most social educational work nat all levels ntake place in teams of colleagues or groups. This preconditions that educators are able to collaborate
with and take part in teams of colleagues. However, part of the educator's social and communicative competencesisthat the educatorshould be able to act in a field where there is not always harmony and agreement about aims, means and methods. It maybe between colleagues, in relation to child/user, in relation to parents and relatives, in relation to social authorities or in relation to the political system.
Collaboration is a fundamental part of the social educator's work. A constructive collaboration where also conflicts are handled and used in a constructive way are crucial for both the well-being of the child/user, the professionalism and the educator's psychological working environment. Therefore, social educators should have competences to solve, handle and use conflicts in a constructive way.Thisis done on the basis of their knowledge of methodsto handle conflicts, collaboration forms, group dynamics, work psycho logy, etc.
In relation to parents, relatives and of coursenot least the children/users, the social educator must
master special communicative competences, theoretically as well as practically and methodologically in order to exchange messages and views targeted precisely at the recipient and his social codes, language and background and Dor perhaps especially U when it comes to difficult conversations.
A greatdeal of sociafeducationalworktakesplace in interdisciplhary collaboration.Therefore, social educators should be able to work in interdisciplinary teams. They should be able to use the professional terminology in interdisciplhary connections and have knowledge about other professional groups' professionalismand terminology.
Besides, social educators should be able to collaborate with authorities, administrations and relatives. This also demands considerable social and communicative competences and an adjustment of the social educational terminology in relation to the collaboration partner.
Last, but not least, the social educator should be able to counsel and guide parents and relatives.
Thus, the social educator should be able take on the special role as counsellor and recognise the relation of power of this role. This demands strong communicative competences and knowledge and mastering of counselling and guidance techniques.
Thus the social educator should be able to:
• Work in teams of colleagues and have knowledge of teambuilding techniques and group dynamics.
• Work in interdisciplinary teams with a wide range of tasks.
• Have knowledge about other professions, their professional terminology and ethics.
• Collaborate with parents and relatives.
• Use methods for interdisciplinary collaboration.
• Communicate at many levels, including mastering of various communication instruments.
• Have knowledge about and be able to use variousmethodsof conflict handling.
• Analyse problems and "weird" situations on
the basis of experience with and approved knowledge about various psychologicallyand socially conditioned problems. • Counsel and guide, including knowledge about and be able to use various counselling techniques.
4.2.3 Organisational competences
However, relations are not just relations for the sake of the relation. They have a purposeand an aim motivated by the educational task to educate, develop, culture and master life towards which social education, its actions (planned as well as not planned) and activities are targeted. Thisrequires both professional and organisational competence and competence to reflect and act. These make the social educator able to Din a targeted way here and now and overtime apian and implement social educational activities and processes based on the social educational relation, to reach a professionally motivated aim.
The social educator's organisational competences have to do with administration, management and development of the social educational
work place and to have the organisation and the social educational work function □ planned and systematically The social educator should be able to planand implement social educational activities and processes as well as document and assess these as well as the social educational visions, aims and methods.
Thus, the social educator should be ableto LWith-in the general framework- independently and in collaboration with other others to:
■ Define aims for, plan, structure and systematise the total educational practice of the insti tution and the social educational work n including the educationally physical and psycho lo g ical f ramewo rk
■ Define aims for, plan, initiate, structure, implement, co-ordinate and evaluate majorand minor tasks, social educational activities, processes, projects and development projects □targeted at individuals as well as groups
■ Take responsibility for own actions and decisions and be ableto motivate them based on professionalism and experience
• Adjust and implement personal as well collective counselling and guidance to parents, relatives, colleagues and other professional groups.
The core of social educational work and thus of the social educator's competences is the child/ youth/adult and his needs However, the social educational work also implies □ far more now than before nadministrative tasksand participation in meetings.
Thus the social educators must also have knowledge of administrativ? routines that are general for the social educational workplace, e.g. IT documentation, evaluation, management of meetings with colleagues, parents, relatives and other professional groups.
4.2.4 System competences
The community, the public system, the political agenda, parents, relatives and other professional groups, and indeed the social educator's own moral, ethics and professionalism, constitute the fundamental conditions for the work to a great
extent. It is under these conditions the social educator has to function, act, negotiate and carry out his social task. System competences cover the complex of competencesthat, among other things, make the social educator able to act under these conditions. The social educational work is a social task. The social needs, changes and shifting political agendas together with the public and private system of whichthe social educational work place is part, set the framework for the social educator's work, its contents and status. On the one hand the social educator has to support and guide the user/child in relation to the "system". On the other hand the social educator has to administer the community expectations and demands to these groups. The social educator must also help improve and develop frameworksand conditions for these groups.
As mentioned abovethe social educational work place does not just live its own isolated life. It is a social institutionalisation and thus part of a major organisation, which sets up the general framework for the social educational activities.
The social educator should have knowledge about and be able to relate to and act in the context of which the work place is part and must thus:
• Have thorough knowledge of and be able to plan the work within the framework of the legislation, rules and agreements which constitute the general framework of the social educator's work.
• Have knowledge of and based on his profession be able to act in the public and private
administration, including known chains of decision and commands.
■ Have understanding of organisations and administrative systems, the management of these systems and be able to meet present and future demands on public and private enterprises for documentation, assessment and quality insurance.
• Have a knowledge of relevant systems for evaluation and documentation of social educational work.
• Have thorough insight into and be able to participate as authoritative professional per-
son in the creation of the dialogue and negotiation about decisions of local authorities, which constitute the local framework for the social educational work. It may for instance be child/youth policy,staff policy,and labour market and family policy. • Be ableto act in relation to thefact that social education nasa mostly public activity nalso has great interest and attention from the public. Thusthe social educator must also be ableto takepart in the current social debate about the social educational work and its impact on the community.
4.2.5 Development and learning competences
The increased expectations and demands from the public authority for documentation, assessment, quality ensuring and interdisciplinary collaboration may on the one hand help qualify the educational work. On the other hand it demands time and resources which are taken in many cases from the direct interpersonal relation with the user. This does not always easily go along with parents' and relatives' demand and request
that the social educator spends as much time with and gives as much educational attention as possible to the user. The competences deriving from this may be summarised as partly system competences partly development- and learning competences.
The object field, tasks, challenges and problems of the social educational work change both in character and extent along with the development in society and changes in the political priorities. Add to this an increasing demand for assessment, documentation and efficiency Along with this, research is carried out and new knowledge is developed about social educational work and its character and the effects and side effects of applied practiceand methods which should be included in the development of practice.
All this calls for a need for current development of solutions and working methods and not least a current and continuing development of the competences, so that the social educator possesses the necessary competences for the current tasks at anytime.
The social educator must be readyforchange and possess a development instrument, including to:
• Be able to developand improve his professional competences and theoretical basis through continuing and further education, imp ro vement of co mp etences, d evelo p ment projects, supervision by colleaguesetc.
• Be able to seek and gain new knowledge and skills continuously and be able to transform it to practice.
• Have knowledge about systematic, strategic and adequate competence improvement and be able to participate in the planning of it and take part in it.
• Be able to take part in informal as well as formal learning processes.
• Alone and together with others to systematically gather, document, generalise and use experience in performance and development of the social educational work (experience based development).
• Be able to critically reflect on and assess own work alone or together with others.
• Be ableto include analyses, development and
research results in the performance and development of the social educational work and its knowledge foundation (knowledge based development). ■ Be able to contribute to and take part in analyses and development activities in relation to own work.
4.2.6 Competences generated by the professional practice
Add to this different opinions from other professional groups on howthe educators should perform and administer their educational profession so that it supportstheir work with the child/ youth/ adult in the best possible way.However, besides this u and just as important Lithe self-understanding, ethics, moral and norms of the profession also set up a framework for the educators'work and relation to children/youths/ adults and other collaboration partners. The competences deriving from this may be summarised as competences generated by the professional practice.
The personal and relational competences, the social and communicative competences, system
competences, the organisational competences and development and learning competences should also be supplemented with actual competences generated by the professional practice in order to altogether constitute the basis, so that the daily social educational work functions and is carried out in a professionally and ethically safe way.
These competences include:
4.2.6.1 THEORETICAL KNOWLEDGE
AND METHODOLOGICAL COMPETENCES
Today social education is well developing and building its own and independent system of concepts, although it is not fully framed in aunivocal theory. This work in progress gets normative and descriptive elements from our professional practice combined with elements from pedagogy, p sy cho log y ,so cio lo gy, anthrop o log y, p hilo so phy etc. Social educational practice thus implies social educational expertise and professionalism, theoretical and practical knowledge, methods and instruments.
Social educators should thus
• Be familiar with the basic, generally recognised and predominant educational and social educational theories
• Be able to seek and acquire the prevalent adequate and relevant educational, psychological, sociological, anthropological etc. theories and include them in the work
• Be able to acquire and use adequate and recognised methods in the work ue.g.group work, outreach work etc.
• Be able to reasonhis actionsand activities on the basis of recognisedtheories and methods
• Be able to contribute to generating knowledge on the basis of recognised descriptions, reflections about and experience from social educational work.
4.2.6.2 COMPETENCE OFTHE
CONDUCT OFTHE PROFESSION
Apart from theoretical and practical knowledge
about methods, the self-understanding, norms,
ethics and moral of the profession are crucial for
the social educational professionalism. This
entails a set of profession competences that are necessary forthe conduct of thesocial education profession. The social educator's competences of the conduct of the profession are among other things:
• Mastering the terminologyand conceptsof the profession and take part in the creation of it.
* Being able to internalise and influence the ethics and moral of the profession.
* Being able to take part in debates and draft documents, agreements etc. with a basis in the social educational profession.
• Having knowledge of terminology,concepts and ethical foundation of close professions.
4.2.6.3 CULTURAL COMPETENCES The social educator's professionalism also includes cultural competences. These are knowledge aboutand understanding and inclusiveness as regards different cultures and cultural values. Thesocial educator should be able to use his cultural competence together with the children/ youths/adults as regards understanding of the individual person's values and reasons to beable
to contribute to the development of their cultural competencesand with regard to communicating social and cultural values to the persons.
The social educator's cultural competence thus has several dimensions:
• A fruitful relation to the child/user depends on the fact that the social educator knows and recognises that cultural values help form and set up the frameworkforthe child/youth/ adult's access to other people and about the way he or she relates to and behave in the community.
■ Knowledge about or competence to acquire knowledge about and understanding for different cultures and their values.
■ Consciousness about and ability to relate to the culture in which the institution and the social educational practice are included and which they communicate. Thus they are forwarded to the child/youth/adut as a part of the social educatio-nal development and life-mastering task.
4.2.6.4 CREATIVE COMPETENCES The social educator must master forms of expression and skills within creativity, movement and music that can be developing,activating, initiating or creative and which are used as an integrated part of the social educational work with the individual child/youth/adult's emotional, social, linguistic and intellectual development.
Further, the social educator should be part of a collaboration with the child/youth/adul about how to acquireand develop his/hers own forms of expression and extension of creative horizon in a social and cultural context.
5. DEMAND FOR ETHICAL BASIS
The professional work of socialeducatorsis based on humanistic and democratic values Social educators endorse equality and respect towards ail persons and pay special attention to individual needs. They respect and protect their clients' rights to privacyand auto no my. Social educators use their professional expertise to impravethe living conditions and quality of life of their clients. Respect, care and empathy for their cli-ents and their families, solidarity with vulnerable groups, the battle against povertyand strife for social justice form the foundation of the profession of social educators.
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5.1 Objectives of the Ethical Guidelines
5.1.1 Enhance ethical awarenessof actionswith-in the field of social education.
5.1.2 Enhance best practice and professional performance in accordance with universally acknowledged principles and criteria determined by the second symposium of the European Association of Social Educators.
5.1.3 Stimulate societal interest in and draw attention to the ethical foundation of socialedu-cation.
5.1.4 Develop a professional identity among social educators independent of their countries of origin.
5.1.5 Encourage and guide ethical reflection and discussion among social educators.
5.2 Principles of the Ethical Guidelines
5.2.1 Social educators respect the declarations and documents of the United Nationsand other internationally acknowledged human rights organizations that call for respect and protection of freedom, equality, dignity and autonomy of all human beings. Social educators conscientiously
perform their duties irrespective of nationality, ethnic background, religion, colour, gender or individual abilities.
5.2.2 Social educators work in full co-operation with their clients/ users to facilitate and enhance
the potential of allindividualsto copewithand be in control of theirlives. Empowerment, guided by dignity and respect, is an essential element in the professional practiceof sociä educators.
5.2.3 Social educators maintain confidentiality regarding personal information of clients Professional confidentiality shall protect clients/ users' rights to control personal information. Confidentiality is the cornerstone of atrusting relationship between social educators and their clients. All personal information shall be recorded and stored in such a way that access is protected, if personal information is to be used for educational o r informational purposes permission must be obtained from the client and/or the family and anonymity must be preserved if requested. Exemption from professional confidentiality must be justified in terms of higher priority and reinforced by official agencies.
5.2.4 Social educators maintain high professional standards This includes professional knowl-
edge, ethical reflection and the quality of daily work. Social educators are fully responsible for their own actionsirrespective of alleged demands fro ma superiorauthority. Social educatorsrespect personal autonomy of their clients/ users and oppose any use of coercionthat is not founded on law and regulations, or isethically unjustified.
5.2.5 Social educators accept professional accountability in line with their education. They strive to provideservice that meets the strictest professional demands. Social educators are responsible for maintaining their professional knowledge.
5.2.6 Social educators treat co-workers with respect and strive to protect the honour and interests of the profession and the wider community. A comprehensive and well co-ordinated service system will rely on positiverelationships between staff and service users. Social educators shall exhibit respect and trust towards other professiorials, co-workersand administrative officers within
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their network. They look to other specialists for assistance if needed, recognise the expertise of other professionalsand use their own expertise to advise others.
5.2.7 Social educators carry responsibility for calling attention to conditions, which create social problems and maylead to socialexclusion or unacceptable living conditions.
5.2.8 At times it may be necessary that Social Educators lobby politicians or the media directly in orderto proposaoest practiceforpositivesocial change. In allpublicappearancesit must be made cl ear whet her o ne acts ind ep end entlyoronbehalf of one'sprofession/employment. Social educators adhere to their professional code of ethicsand the principle of personal accountability.
5.2.9 These principles and values are not to be viewed as constituting a complete description of acceptable professional practices of social educators.
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6. THE DECLARATION OF MONTEVIDEO
The Declaration of Montevideo from the XVI Wbrld Congress of AIEJI state that:
1. We reaffirm and confirm the existence of the field of Social Education as a specific task oriented to ensure the rights of the people we workfor, which requires our permanent commitment at the ethical, technical, scientific and political levels.
2. To accomplish this commitment, the role of the Social Educator must be consolidated, as well as the integration in workteams and group organisation.
3. This task requires Social Educators with a good initial and permanent training.
4. This training must emphasise practice, with a permanent critical analysis.
5. We see the importance of thesystematisation of the professional practice as awayto contribute to the training, professional improvement -which is a right of the users of the social education-, and the approach of our political-pedagogical purposes in this process.
6. We reaffirm that ethics must be a permanent reference, collectively conceived and earned out with the critical participation of the subjects.
7. Social Educatorsrenew our commitment with democracy and social justice, defend our cultural heritage and the rights of all human beings. We are convinced that another world is possible.
Montevideo, 18th November2005
AlEJIisan international association of socialeducators. The purpose of theassociation is to emphasize and promote the philosophy of social education and its unique-nessin being actively involved in partnership with clients working with them, not only individually but in groups families, communities, in the milieu, towards the devel-
opment of their strengths and in resolving personal, social, and community difficulties You can become a member as an indicidual, as an agency or as an association. Read more about AIEJI on www.aieji.net where you also can applyfor membership.