Analysis of the professional practice of social educators in secondary schools

Abstract

This article focuses on the social educator as a professional in the social education context who is qualified to carry out social education activities in schools, taking on functions aimed at resolving situations and problems that affect students and families. The main objective of this study was to see which professionals were responsible for attending to the socio-educational needs that arise in secondary schools in Spain’s different Autonomous Communities, and to analyse what functions they carry out. It is a descriptive-correlational study in which a digital questionnaire was given to a sampleof 440 agents of socio-educational intervention. Descriptive techniques of central tendency and dispersion as well as correlational and inferential techniques were used through non-parametric testing of hypotheses. The results show that the social educator is a professional that performs social-educational functions addressed to attending to situations of conflict or needon a more regular basis than other professionals who work in schools. The results show that the work of social educators focuses mainly on actions aimed at preventing absenteeism and controlling the students as they arrive at school, tasks of detection and prevention of risk factors, organising parents’ schools and information programmes, conflict mediation, development of communication programmes, socio-educational support and assessment for the educational community, and preparation of cultural events.

Keywords

• Acción socioeducativa
• educador social
• centros escolares
• funciones