Abstract:

Social pedagogues considered as educational assistance specialists in Lithuania, who are responsible for rendering social-educational support for children, their parents, and teachers with the purpose to increase effectiveness of education. This presentation reveals the image of social pedagogues (working in mainstream schools), assessed by different actors of educational process (parents, teachers, social pedagogues).
The problem of this research presupposes problem questions: How different actors of educational process are tend to describe social pedagogues, their main functions, competencies. What are the basic requirement for social educational assistance? What are the main indicators improving social educational assistance as well as indicators that could be involved into training educational programs for social pedagogues. The research object is the professional image of social pedagogues. The aim of the research: to identify the structure of the social pedagogues' image assessed by pedagogues, parents, and children.
The social pedagogues' image was analysed using a quantitative data collection method. Written questionnaire-based survey was used (N=102) during the research with the purpose to identify the image of social pedagogues in the context of improvement of training programs for social pedagogues. Statistical data analysis (descriptive analysis, non-parametric tests, and cluster analysis) allowed to reveal the structure of social pedagogues' image as well as some tendencies for improvement of social pedagogues training programs. Empirical data analysis reveals that professional skills such as the ability to communicate properly and effectively as well as the ability to listen should be given quite high priority. Also, regarding the continuous training of these professionals, the idea of lifelong learning should be considered in the training process of social pedagogues.

Keywords:

Professional image, social pedagogue, training of social pedagogues, lifelong learning.