Social Pedagogy | Social Education

11

Authors: Andrea Preissová Krejčí, Jana Máčalová

This article is a critical review of the Czech approach to multicultural education. Using as an example the American multicultural educational system, we illustrate the narrow understanding of the content of multicultural education in the Czech Republic and Czech schools. We also point out the problematic moments which not only obstruct the successful fulfillment of educational goals, but may also strengthen or even create a stereotypical, xenophobic or racist environment in classrooms. The significant agents in this process are considered to the teachers on the one hand, and on the other the conceptualization of a specific vocabulary used in many textbooks, which is typical for racist and nationalist movements.

13

Authors: Hana Včelařová, Miroslav Chráska, Jana Martincová, Pavla Andrysová

The authors of this study present the results of surveys in significant areas of social pedagogy relating to both the prevention of overweight and obesity in children, and healthy lifestyle education. The psychosocial aspects of overweight and obesity in early age and preschool children are monitored in the context of selected socio-demographic indicators in the Czech Republic, Great Britain, the USA, Australia, some European countries, Iran and China. The purpose of such oriented studies is to find appropriate preventive, pedagogical or therapeutic interventions that could contribute to the elimination of risk factors in the particular societies. It turns out that the sociodemographic and psychosocial aspects of overweight and obesity in children (in terms of particular countries) cannot be always uniformly described and defined. Numerous psychosocial or sociodemographic characteristics were found when comparing different ethnic groups, the different age cohorts of parents or the different developmental stages of children, when comparing countries with various standards of living, or even just, when comparing different socioeconomic strata within the same country. It also appears that the relationships identified by the below-mentioned researches don´t have a straight forward effect, but are also modified by the influence of other variables. A common feature overweight and obesity in children in the majority of countries seems to be associated with significant social inequalities within a specific country. According to some authors, one of the possible ways to fight overweight and obesity in children is to reduce the inequalities of the macroeconomic society.

14

Authors: Petra Potměšilová, Miloň Potměšil

Children and pupils with special educational needs are becoming increasingly integrated into the mainstream educational process. In reality, there may be situations where during their education students with special needs come into contact with pedagogues who do not have the required specific competences. The aim of this paper is not only to describe briefly the conditions for integrated education, but also to summarize the requirements and support the staff needs in order to work more effectively on the basis of the respondents‘ concerns. Morevoer, the concerns of the pedagogues working in integrated educationwere analyzed by using qualitative tufts. The results of the analysis were related to the teachers‘ social conditions. The proposed support activities are divided according to the possible forms of preparation and follow-up support. The results and recommendations are based on the practical experience acquired during the praparationof students in Social Pedagogy at St. Cyril and Methodius Theological Faculty of the Palacky University in Olomouc.

24

Authors: Jana Benešová

The article is a summary of the main findings concerning (re)construction of the gender identities of children placed in a contemporary diagnostic child-care facility in the Czech Republic. The research setting has the fictitious name DDÚ Archa. The author of the arcticle is summarizing the interim results from her Ph.D. dissertation project. The goal is to catch processes which have been neglected so far by the Czech professional community, and which may become potential disciplinary tools in the hands of professionals in a wide range of helping professions, including social and special pedagogy.

11

Authors: Eleonóra Mendelová

In accordance with changes in social conditions, family life experiences its own development and as a result of it, the traditional family changed into the modern family and then to the postmodern family. The article presents descriptions of the current postmodern family, which form a basis for the analysis of the work division inside the family. The aim of the paper is to present the current state of patrimonial division of work inside the family and to detect the participation of men and women in everyday duties and work in the household and participation in child care, based on the empirical findings (with emphasis on Slovak and Czech research). The next aim is to analyse opinions and expectations of people in the area of parental roles and get an answer to the question, whether equal relationships exist in current families or there is a continuation of specific gender divisions of work in the household.

15

Authors: Vladimíra Zemančíková

The study examines results from undertaken research among teachers of primary and secondary schools in Slovakia. The object of the research was problematic behaviour of students. The results have shown that teachers of different school types indicate various levels of experience with problematic behaviour of students, and also evaluate themselves to prevent and solve problematic behaviour. The results have also shown that the teachers mainly associate the job of the social pedagogue at school with problematic behaviour of students.

18

Authors: Martin Stanoev

The article presents selected findings of research of drug careers focused on the social consequences, which is currently being completed in the author’s dissertation. The aim of the thesis research was to transcribe changes in the social environment of individual drug careers of those individuals whose process of addiction begins in adolescence and does not come from a socially marginalized environment. The particular aim was to extract relevant conclusions for the helping professions. The sample consists of eighteen informants, the sample design goal was to include cases of a comparable nature. The research uses a case study design and analytical procedures and the main and key data collection method is an in-depth interviews with a script. Interviews had elements of a narrative interview and retrospectively identified drug career. Selected findings focus on the climate associated with the use of non-alcohol drugs in a school class team, recognising the identification with the anti-hero of the addicted individual as a surprising motive for drug use, and analysing the moment of balance as an opportunity for intervention of helping professions. The author tries to put the findings into a broader sociocultural context and reflects on the contemporary context of identity formation in adolescence and the question of normality/deviance in relation to illicit drug use.

11

Authors: Ladislav Macháček

The issue of long-term youth unemployment in the Slovak Republic is considered to be a problem that can be solved by adopting a new intergenerational social contract. Youth policy after 1993 allowed young people to respond adequately to the challenges of modernization of the three sectors in the new literacy: language, computer and civil. There has been no response from the state policy to the new civilization challenge, which is the result of long-term unemployment: Gaining the ability to work. The author justifies the need for the development of specific program transition (transition from school to work). It should start with projects encouraging parents to engage their children in domestic work and community service in the village, we could go on with a wide range of small jobs for pupils and students during secondary school education and could culminate in restoring experienced apprenticed mobility of graduates in the area of unified Europe.

16

Authors: Peter Ondrejkovič

The issue of relations between the generations is one of the important factors of the dynamics of social development. Intergenerational relationships are affected by the characteristics of youth, the process of individualization, the loss of traditional certainties, "tribalism" and "nomadism", insecurity and violence. Permanently generating new tensions and insecurity, as well as fear and anxiety associated with finding new certainties, are often connected with escape from reality. The issues of globalization and ambivalence, including the opposites, are becoming the central living paradigm of the young generation. The ambivalence stems from the growth of the possibilities of social action, on one hand, and the incoming threats and risks arising from the need to manage and overcome the ever more complex and difficult life tasks, without any support in previous forms of socialization, on the other. Teachers, psychologists and social workers should be properly educated with fresh knowledge on the younger generation and the new situation that can be characterized as a megatrend.

25

Authors: Silvia Dončevová

Empirical and comparative study brings knowledge of the author's own research, whose main objective was to identify, analyse and interpret the problem impact of gender inequalities and stereotypes in the creation and development of violence, particularly against children and adolescents, primarily in the educational environment of the family. Research has attempted to capture the intersection of gender studies and social pedagogy, two sciences, which, although from a different angle, devoted, inter alia, the problem of the origin and acceleration of violence against children and adolescents. Research design was grounded in theory, the research method was the semi-structured interview, conducted with eight respondents, children and young people aged 12 - 23 years. A quantitative methodology was used to strengthen the validity of the process of triangulation; content analysis of text documents (case studies from the archives crisis centre for victims of domestic violence).