Juan Sáez Carreras

El enfoque por competencias en la formación de los educadores sociales: una mirada a su caja de herramientas

El debate sobre las competencias no puede plantearse exclusivamente como si fuera una cuestion solo tecnica. Para acceder a una comprension mas amplia de esta nocion es necesario enmarcar el dialogo dentro del contraste de las dos logicas que se encuentran involucradas: la logica disciplinar y la logica profesional, de las que aqui solo se esbozan algunas de sus respectivas caracteristicas mas relevantes. --------------------------------------------------------------------- The debate on skills can not be explained exclusively as if it was only a technical matter. To access a wider comprehension on this notion it is necessary to frame the dialog within the contrast of both logics involved: the disciplinary logic and the professional logic, of which we draft here only some of the most relevant features.

Por una ética situacional en Educación Social

La mayoria de los planteamientos eticos relacionados con las actividades de las profesiones, entre los que se encuentra la Educacion Social , se han realizado desde las llamadas eticas profesionales, normalmente pensadas desde enfoques funcionalistas e idealizantes y con frecuencia asociadas a un catalogo de principios e imperativos formulados a modo de guia u orientacion de lo que deben hacer los profesionales en sus actividades particulares (Deontologia) o , tambien, como ha sido puesto de manifiesto, de justificacion de corporativismos que cuestionan las mismas reglas relacionadas con los comportamientos dentro de una profesion y, por tanto, los propios codigos deontologicos. Esta linea de exploracion de la etica profesional como etica aplicada tiene tradicion y ha sido objeto preferente de atencion de los estudiosos de esta forma de racionalidad que se configura en torno a principios generales con ambiciones universalistas y pocas posibilidades de aterrizaje en situaciones concretas y reales. Los educadores sociales en Espana disponen de un codigo deontologico que de alguna manera define el “ethos” de la profesion de Educacion Social. Nuestro objetivo es ofrecer una interpretacion de la etica desde posiciones menos trascendentes y mas inmanentes, lo que supone apostar por su construccion desde la practica, desde las situaciones reales y relacionales vividas por los educadores sociales en las instituciones donde trabajan. Tratamos, asi, de invertir el camino que transita de lo universal a lo particular, donde se aplican principios y supuestos, para recorrerlo en sentido inverso, reflexionando sobre las dimensiones eticas de la accion educativa en donde los educadores sociales, en relacion, ponen en juego sus competencias y habilidades. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Most of the ethical approaches related to professional activities, among which Social Education is included, have been put into practice from the field of the so called professional ethics which are usually thought from functionalist and idealizing approaches usually associated with a certain group of principles and imperatives formulated as a guide for orientation for what professionals should do in their particular activities (deontological ethics) or, as it has been proven, with the justification of corporatisms which question the same rules related to the different behaviors existing in a profession and, therefore, their own deontological code. This line of research of professional ethics as applied ethics has a lot of history and has been subject of attention for researchers of this kind of rationality which have as starting point general principles with universalist ambitions and which has very few opportunities of generating specific and real situations. Social educators in Spain have deontological ethics that are somehow defining the “ethos” of the Social Education profession. Our goal is to offer an interpretation of the ethics from less transcendent points of view and to aim for its practical side, building it from real situations and from relationship created by the social educators in the institutions where they work. We try thus, to change the current way in which this goes from the universal to the specific, applying principles and assumptions to go through it in the opposite direction, thinking about the ethical dimension of educational action in which social educators, altogether and interacting, use their abilities and competencies.

Generations, Intergenerational Relationships, Generational Policy: A Trilingual Compendium [online] By Lüscher, K., Liegle, L., Lange, A., Hoff, A., Stoffel, M., Viry, G., and Widmer, E.

This text, aimed at professionals, professors, and researchers working in different areas of the social sciences, is presented as a compendium of terms that seeks to “contribute to the current debate” about the fascinating subject of intergenerational relations. The Swiss Academy of Humanities and Social Sciences’ decision to publish this compendium was motivated by the diversity of intergenerational relations and the fact that such relations are “key to understanding the development of individuals and communities.” The authors attempt to create a unified conceptual structure that, based on the concept of generation (the manifest multidimensionality of which urgently calls for the creation of a network of language structured around this notion), makes it possible to use a “common language that is beneficial for overall communication” across disciplinary, linguistic, historical, social, and cultural boundaries. To this end, they have put their efforts into the creation of a conceptual guide, of an ambitious toolbox that can be used by different actors involved and interested in intergenerational relations. Why? To bring about further reflection on the concepts at play as used by the different currents, approaches and geographies and to facilitate and propitiate understanding of public discourse on this matter, often plagued with simplistic and, in many cases, dogmatic definitions. So, we have before us a necessary and coherent work. I outline some of the most significant tasks taken on by its authors. First of all, the creators of this compendium present an overview of the notion of generation. To do so, they use, among other methods, metaphors, those great grammatical and pedagogical resources, with which they blend elements in a kind of interdisciplinary intersection from fields of knowledge as solid and of such long cultural tradition as biology, history, anthropology, and sociology. Second, they explore some very suggestive questions, such as “The Three Phases of the Concept’s History” (p. 97) or “Orientations in the Current

Generations, Intergenerational Relationships, Generational Policy: A Trilingual Compendium [online] By Lüscher, K., Liegle, L., Lange, A., Hoff, A., Stoffel, M., Viry, G., and Widmer, E.: (2010). Bern: Swiss Academy of Humanities and Social Sciences. http://www.sagw.ch/de/sagw/laufende-projekte/generationen/publis-generationen.html. ISBN 978-3-907835-73-9.

This text, aimed at professionals, professors, and researchers working in different areas of the social sciences, is presented as a compendium of terms that seeks to “contribute to the current debate” about the fascinating subject of intergenerational relations. The Swiss Academy of Humanities and Social Sciences’ decision to publish this compendium was motivated by the diversity of intergenerational relations and the fact that such relations are “key to understanding the development of individuals and communities.” The authors attempt to create a unified conceptual structure that, based on the concept of generation (the manifest multidimensionality of which urgently calls for the creation of a network of language structured around this notion), makes it possible to use a “common language that is beneficial for overall communication” across disciplinary, linguistic, historical, social, and cultural boundaries. To this end, they have put their efforts into the creation of a conceptual guide, of an ambitious toolbox that can be used by different actors involved and interested in intergenerational relations. Why? To bring about further reflection on the concepts at play as used by the different currents, approaches and geographies and to facilitate and propitiate understanding of public discourse on this matter, often plagued with simplistic and, in many cases, dogmatic definitions. So, we have before us a necessary and coherent work. I outline some of the most significant tasks taken on by its authors. First of all, the creators of this compendium present an overview of the notion of generation. To do so, they use, among other methods, metaphors, those great grammatical and pedagogical resources, with which they blend elements in a kind of interdisciplinary intersection from fields of knowledge as solid and of such long cultural tradition as biology, history, anthropology, and sociology. Second, they explore some very suggestive questions, such as “The Three Phases of the Concept’s History” (p. 97) or “Orientations in the Current