Pedagogical Action in Social Work
Prof. Dr. Janne Fengler
Pedagogical Action in Social Work
Janne Fengler, Professor of Childhood Education and Educational Psychology
The book series “Basic Knowledge of Social Work” (Kohlhammer Publishing) aims to present the entire foundational knowledge of social work and its related disciplines successively in individual, self-contained volumes—while at the same time limiting the amount of material to what is necessary and manageable and deliberately linking theory and practice.
The now available Volume 16, written by Janne Fengler, professor in the Department of Educational Sciences at Alanus University, conveys the pedagogical basic knowledge that is important for social work. In doing so, it addresses, among other things, a particular challenge for social work professionals: Should support for clients be designed in a goal-oriented or process-oriented way, standardized or flexible and individualized, “top down” or “bottom up”? The result is often uncertainty in professional pedagogical practice.
Educational science can make valuable substantive and methodological contributions here. This volume presents central theories, concepts, and methods along with numerous practical examples from social work. It shows in an accessible way how measures can be tailored from case to case to the respective initial conditions in order to achieve success. Three action steps serve as points of reference, embedded in a meta-model of methodological action (“dialogic-dynamic impulse model of pedagogical action” = ALOHA model): assessing the clients’ “actual” situation, formulating the desired “target” situation, and designing measures. Practice exercises as well as an extensive collection of materials with various working aids available for download illustrate the presentation and facilitate the transfer between theory and practice.
