Social Pedagogue – A Cooperation Partner of the Form Tutor at the First Level of Basic Education

Humanitārās un sociālās zinātnes 2017
Natālija Novosada, Astrīda Raževa

The first level of basic education is a crucial period in personality development. Its success determines the further education and has a considerable impact on the factors influencing effective life action. The aim of the article is to analyse the cooperation between the social pedagogue and form tutor at the first level of basic education. In the first four grades, the form tutor is the pedagogue who compared with other teachers spends the greatest amount of time with the learners. Thus the teachers have more opportunities to notice problems in child’s development, learning, behaviour, emotional expressions and consequently provide the necessary support to the learners and their families. Unfortunately, the form tutor may lack strength, skills and competences to provide social pedagogical assistance, therefore the social pedagogue can assist. Comparing the functions, tasks and duties of the form tutor and social pedagogue, it can be concluded that they are similar, differing in scope and depth of their application. This proves the utmost necessity of cooperation. The research on the cooperation of the social pedagogue and form tutor was conducted in 66 comprehensive schools in Riga and 12 schools in cities outside Riga. Document analysis, questionnaire and content analysis were used to do the research. 88 social pedagogues and 162 form tutors of grades 1–4 participated in the questionnaire. The factors hindering the cooperation were determined. Only 45.04 % of social pedagogues consider the cooperation with form tutors successful stating that one in six form tutorsthink that the problems should be solved only by the social pedagogue. The research revealed that the success of cooperation depended on form tutor’s character, preferences and dislikes, professional competences, but not on the learners and their family problems and needs. Understanding of cooperation, its content and scope could be facilitated by professional development of social pedagogues together with form tutors organised at schools. Awareness of duties at the educational establishment can be raised by more detailed job descriptions of teachers’ jobs.

Keywords
form tutor, first level of basic education, cooperation, social pedagogue, social pedagogics

Novosada, N., Raževa, A. Social Pedagogue – A Cooperation Partner of the Form Tutor at the First Level of Basic Education. Humanitārās un sociālās zinātnes, 2017, Vol.27, pp.51-65. ISSN 1407-9291. e-ISSN 2255-8543.

Publication language
Latvian (lv)