**9. More thoroughly about** *Erziehung* **and** *Pädagogik***: education and pedagogy**

One of the basic problems of current practices in education is made up of different types of action that do not actually appear to be inscribed in a theoretical framework and a well-set planning of reference, nor do they seem to be carried out by suitably qualified practitioners: this order of problems is also complicated in the compliance with the principles that still recall the Italian Neoidealism, and its refusal to consider the educational dimension scientifically and technically as, well as, teaching itself. In other words, a transition from Erziehung to Pädagogik, and from the Erzieher to Pädagoge, is necessary for all that part, which is fundamental and appropriate to fulfill, that is for an increasingly significant and growing aspect of the educational reality.

Considerations like these would be sufficient to throw light on the existence and importance of the vital intermediate level of pedagogy or, better, the human mediation of the pedagogist.

It would be enough to reflect on the distance between theory and practice as for the specific part of education, leaving no room for illusions (above all the ones groundless in principle) according to which this space is filled by itself, or for educators' voluntary pursuit to theory, or for the theoretical pedagogists' voluntary access to practice.

Short in-service qualification courses also held in agreement with the university serve to cover up an existing problem of an illusory smokescreen and to allow promotions without real consideration for the skilled personnel who will remain qualified only on paper, besides the perpetuation of a neglect educational policy of social and health institutions.

We always remember that an essential characteristic of the Italian school and university is the full legal value of the qualification, the centrality of the conquest of the "piece or sheet of paper," which is at the same time strength, weakness and problematic.

Pedagogy is not limited to the confined dualism theory-practice but is qualified in its own autonomy with the presence of a dimension in between, with an intermediate level, which allows communication and mutual integration of theory and practice for achieving something else significantly different. The Italian Pedagogy today has a wide awareness of this as well as the dangers of reductionism in a way or another [11].

Hence the Professional Pedagogists' own dimension appears, precisely the dimension of *Empirie* or *Anwendungsmöglichkeit*. Far from being the Hegelian 'synthesis,' it is the level of the dialectic continuous interaction between theory and practice that admits the usage of the Frankfurt School critical theories, in order to be understood. A few years of an intense debate on the qualification of the Professional Pedagogist took place in the world of trade associations.

At present, there is a general agreement in claiming that it corresponds to the post-graduate level, with a few more years of study, training, development, and one or more passages. However, the 3-year course graduate student in the field of the Sciences of Education is not properly a 'pedagogist,' as a law degree student is not a 'lawyer.' The remembered Italian law 205/2017 finally recognized the profession, asking for at least 5 years of university study.

## **10. From Pedagogy as social science to pedagogist as professional practice in society: so that it is democracy and not authoritarianism**

The following pages of this paper will be addressed to take some general guidelines and methodologies into consideration in the practice of the Professional Pedagogy, as well as how it is actually experienced.

But first, one more reflection is necessary, with regard to the relationship between the level of the general theory, and that of praxis—practice and performance, in education.

An attempt to abolish the level of pedagogical mediation is not impossible: rather, it is unacceptable, not acceptable as it integrates a totalitarian, fundamentalist, humanly incongruous project. A project where there are, on the one hand, a small circle of advisers to the Prince dictating from above the lines of what ends to be a *Kommandierte Pädagogik* (Commanded Pedagogy), and on the other hand, an army of performers who respond directly to 'the central authority' and that, without a true expertise but full of honors and formal observance, ensure the accurate and loyal implementation of those provisions.

It is not a coincidence that the Pedagogy is absent in similar domains, replaced by philosophy at the top and by practical experience at the bottom.

The denial of pedagogy is well combined with the denial of democracy, with the denial of science, the reduction of scientific culture to pure technology, with the denial of professionalism. Giovanni Gentile was not the unique philosopher teacher in this sense: the problem still occurs over and over again, even today, in various forms.

### **11. The Professional Pedagogist's helping relationship: some basic elements of this professional practice**

Pedagogy as a profession, not performed in schools, is a recent one, though grafted on the trunk of an ancient knowledge. For this, it needs doctrinal elements, its own methodology, a specialistic vocabulary, a set of procedures, and so on, elements for a long time held by other professionals, and all consistent with its origin and history, therefore its roots. We will explore below a broadly representative number of them, both as a 'state of the art,' and as suggestions, or as an openness to future experience and developments, referring to the details of some other works where there is no time, nor space to enter [12].

The Professional Pedagogist's helping relationship (initially '*rélation d'aide*') is a form of dialogical action, a '*let us talk!*'. This is a reason why it can be exchanged, at first glance, with an overlap to certain psychological and psychotherapic interventions, but it is a very different thing, as we are trying to describe.

The pedagogist has no patients or customers, and she/he has *interlocutors*.

The pedagogist's interlocution is one whose domain is in the educational and relational field and it always takes place on the cultural level, referring to the essential dimensions of man as a subject of culture, history, and cultural evolution. The following are some important examples of fundamental components of this form of professional dialogue:


It is an explicit dialog, through which the pedagogist clearly puts her/his thesis and positions into discussion, as the other self is requested to do: each one is called

**161**

*Pedagogist as Social Professional: Sozialpädagogik and Professional Pedagogy*

to present and treat one's own point of view for what it is, that is, as personal positions that are not meant to be generalized. The pedagogist's interlocution is not effective if someone claims to present her/his own positions like the ones "belong-

In the dialog, each of the two (or more) parties, including the pedagogist, brings into play what we might call their visions (views, beliefs, etc.). The term, however, indicates at least two different concepts, for which we may suggest, as technical

A first concept consists of the / *die Einsichten*, those 'visions' that are presupposed to experience and whose possession allows the experience to take place. These are not empirical, but prior to the empirical moment, since most of the positivistic 'pure experience' misunderstanding is scanty reproducible. These conceptual tools are self-evident and unmistakable, but together necessary for the educational process: "*Unter Einsichten werden Aussagen verstanden, die det Urteilsart der apriorischen Sätzen entsprechen. Dieses Vorausgehen gilt natürlich nicht im Sinn der physikalischen Zeit, sondern als logisches Vorausgehen"* (*Insights are statements that correspond to the type of judgment of the a priori sentences. This precedence is of course not in the sense of physical time, but as a logical precedence.*) [13]. It is neither the psychological-cognitive insight, that is to say, the sudden enlightenment that helps to solve a problem posed rationally, perceiving the essential relationships, nor the psychoanalytic insight that is the ability to look within oneself, motivations, dynamics, inner meanings. If anything, in this respect, the concept of archetypes can be borrowed from

The *Einsichten* with a further example, the images of male and female that have so strongly imbued with their own culture the past two or three centuries: the male as an external projection, fast, tending to the sudden attainment of the outcome on the other's ground, even with her sacrifice; the female as an internal projection, all inclusive, tending to achieve some outcomes in the long run, on her own ground and with her own sacrifice. These visions have a metaphor in the physiology of the reproductive organs and, in this sense, they are prior to the experience, but they have nothing to do with the actual males and females as subjects of culture, except

Different concepts, referring to what we would call '*visions*,' are the general views

Typical is the example, in relationships, of the comparison between different *Anschauungen* of one of the partners who leads a life of external commitment in work, culture, art, sports, and so on, and the other one who expresses her commitment inside the house, in the stability of the relationship and in children: this diversity had its canonical composition in the nuclear couple with a hard, indisputable, division of tasks imposed by an education that is aimed at this, which passed it as if it were 'natural.' Today, other possible solutions are to be found, and this is a

The *Anschauungen*, with a substantial difference from the previous ones, are also the result of experience and indeed continually subject to revision in the light of the

What matters most in this dialogic context, of the one and the other "*visions*," is that each of the parties (including the pedagogist) tells her/his own, thus becoming

of reality under study and, in this case, of the pedagogical interlocution. Those are called *die Anschauungen*. One thinks of the *Welt-anschauungen* (*worldviews and theories?*), probably the best known and most widely used compound term than those that can be formed with this term, but it means more specifically philosophical or ideological views of the universe. We are rather interested in the visions of mankind, of the human being, of the intrinsic characteristics of man as such, that is

possible to emphasize by a compound: *Mensch-heit-anschauungen.*

goal whose nature is typically professional-pedagogical.

experience itself and evolvable as any other human activity.

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.91335*

psychoanalysis as an important example.

for a purposeful education in this sense.

terms, two German nouns.

ing to everyone", and to be passed for indisputable.

#### *Pedagogist as Social Professional: Sozialpädagogik and Professional Pedagogy DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.91335*

*Education Systems Around the World*

and loyal implementation of those provisions.

**elements of this professional practice**

where there is no time, nor space to enter [12].

professional dialogue:

• The life project

• The relation with peers

• The logical and methodological consistency

• The process of evolution and transformation

• The education process-centered activity

tions, but it is a very different thing, as we are trying to describe.

mance, in education.

But first, one more reflection is necessary, with regard to the relationship between the level of the general theory, and that of praxis—practice and perfor-

An attempt to abolish the level of pedagogical mediation is not impossible: rather, it is unacceptable, not acceptable as it integrates a totalitarian, fundamentalist, humanly incongruous project. A project where there are, on the one hand, a small circle of advisers to the Prince dictating from above the lines of what ends to be a *Kommandierte Pädagogik* (Commanded Pedagogy), and on the other hand, an army of performers who respond directly to 'the central authority' and that, without a true expertise but full of honors and formal observance, ensure the accurate

It is not a coincidence that the Pedagogy is absent in similar domains, replaced

The denial of pedagogy is well combined with the denial of democracy, with the denial of science, the reduction of scientific culture to pure technology, with the denial of professionalism. Giovanni Gentile was not the unique philosopher teacher in this sense: the problem still occurs over and over again, even today, in various forms.

**11. The Professional Pedagogist's helping relationship: some basic** 

Pedagogy as a profession, not performed in schools, is a recent one, though grafted on the trunk of an ancient knowledge. For this, it needs doctrinal elements, its own methodology, a specialistic vocabulary, a set of procedures, and so on, elements for a long time held by other professionals, and all consistent with its origin and history, therefore its roots. We will explore below a broadly representative number of them, both as a 'state of the art,' and as suggestions, or as an openness to future experience and developments, referring to the details of some other works

The Professional Pedagogist's helping relationship (initially '*rélation d'aide*') is a form of dialogical action, a '*let us talk!*'. This is a reason why it can be exchanged, at first glance, with an overlap to certain psychological and psychotherapic interven-

The pedagogist has no patients or customers, and she/he has *interlocutors*. The pedagogist's interlocution is one whose domain is in the educational and relational field and it always takes place on the cultural level, referring to the essential dimensions of man as a subject of culture, history, and cultural evolution. The following are some important examples of fundamental components of this form of

It is an explicit dialog, through which the pedagogist clearly puts her/his thesis and positions into discussion, as the other self is requested to do: each one is called

by philosophy at the top and by practical experience at the bottom.

**160**

to present and treat one's own point of view for what it is, that is, as personal positions that are not meant to be generalized. The pedagogist's interlocution is not effective if someone claims to present her/his own positions like the ones "belonging to everyone", and to be passed for indisputable.

In the dialog, each of the two (or more) parties, including the pedagogist, brings into play what we might call their visions (views, beliefs, etc.). The term, however, indicates at least two different concepts, for which we may suggest, as technical terms, two German nouns.

A first concept consists of the / *die Einsichten*, those 'visions' that are presupposed to experience and whose possession allows the experience to take place. These are not empirical, but prior to the empirical moment, since most of the positivistic 'pure experience' misunderstanding is scanty reproducible. These conceptual tools are self-evident and unmistakable, but together necessary for the educational process: "*Unter Einsichten werden Aussagen verstanden, die det Urteilsart der apriorischen Sätzen entsprechen. Dieses Vorausgehen gilt natürlich nicht im Sinn der physikalischen Zeit, sondern als logisches Vorausgehen"* (*Insights are statements that correspond to the type of judgment of the a priori sentences. This precedence is of course not in the sense of physical time, but as a logical precedence.*) [13]. It is neither the psychological-cognitive insight, that is to say, the sudden enlightenment that helps to solve a problem posed rationally, perceiving the essential relationships, nor the psychoanalytic insight that is the ability to look within oneself, motivations, dynamics, inner meanings. If anything, in this respect, the concept of archetypes can be borrowed from psychoanalysis as an important example.

The *Einsichten* with a further example, the images of male and female that have so strongly imbued with their own culture the past two or three centuries: the male as an external projection, fast, tending to the sudden attainment of the outcome on the other's ground, even with her sacrifice; the female as an internal projection, all inclusive, tending to achieve some outcomes in the long run, on her own ground and with her own sacrifice. These visions have a metaphor in the physiology of the reproductive organs and, in this sense, they are prior to the experience, but they have nothing to do with the actual males and females as subjects of culture, except for a purposeful education in this sense.

Different concepts, referring to what we would call '*visions*,' are the general views of reality under study and, in this case, of the pedagogical interlocution. Those are called *die Anschauungen*. One thinks of the *Welt-anschauungen* (*worldviews and theories?*), probably the best known and most widely used compound term than those that can be formed with this term, but it means more specifically philosophical or ideological views of the universe. We are rather interested in the visions of mankind, of the human being, of the intrinsic characteristics of man as such, that is possible to emphasize by a compound: *Mensch-heit-anschauungen.*

Typical is the example, in relationships, of the comparison between different *Anschauungen* of one of the partners who leads a life of external commitment in work, culture, art, sports, and so on, and the other one who expresses her commitment inside the house, in the stability of the relationship and in children: this diversity had its canonical composition in the nuclear couple with a hard, indisputable, division of tasks imposed by an education that is aimed at this, which passed it as if it were 'natural.' Today, other possible solutions are to be found, and this is a goal whose nature is typically professional-pedagogical.

The *Anschauungen*, with a substantial difference from the previous ones, are also the result of experience and indeed continually subject to revision in the light of the experience itself and evolvable as any other human activity.

What matters most in this dialogic context, of the one and the other "*visions*," is that each of the parties (including the pedagogist) tells her/his own, thus becoming the object of interlocution as well as the necessary conditions for it. Rather, the necessary conditions are the explicit and unreserved complete statement of the one and the other visions, and a willingness to challenge them fully and without reserve.

The latter requirement is an important prerequisite for interlocution, as for any proper educational intervention.

In fact, for an interlocution to be turned on, it must assume a peculiarity in the parties, which we call *openness*, that is, the full and unreserved availability to change, to become, and to be subject to an evolutionary becoming, to put in question one's own ideas and life project, to reflect on and change one's own choices, especially the fundamental ones, and even things considered taken for granted and well set, including oneself, to begin with one's own person, and a profound conviction of the value of pluralism and divergence.

In front of an interlocutor who refuses somehow to be opened to relevant parts of the dialog, the pedagogist, by rule, could do nothing, in practice, something can be done by indirect means and ways, or looking for glimpses of revelation if it seems that they do not exist.

Dialog, of course, is always bi-directional or multi-directional when the human beings who seek the pedagogist's help are more than one, or when she/ he considers involving other people, and she/he succeeds. But a part of this word process is the pedagogist himself/herself, who must be the first to show openness, and to be the witness of human positiveness. Ideas are always for the man, and we mean all the ideas since Pedagogy could not accept the reverse nowadays.

A *project of life* is always present, in any person. Of course, it should not be rigidly unchanging, and many difficulties arise precisely when the subject is closed in it, and chained to it, regardless of both its internal (e.g., logic) and external (e.g., disproven by the facts) contradictions. This is not a *plan* or a *model*.

In addition, there are often embedded or hidden aspects, which as such do not indicate any contradiction with the reality or with the life plans of other closer persons, even when such contradiction is apparent. A typical case is when implied, tacit, taken for granted aspects in one's life project occur as a desire for obligations or functions to be fulfilled by the partner but never argued or quarreled upon.

Consistency, or at least the compatibility between life projects of those who establish whatever human partnership, should be considered a necessary condition: it is true for the couple, the family, school, education, associations, cooperation, and so forth.

The pedagogist has an important role in clarifying what is implicit, that is, to change the functions and properties (the "extensions") of a sort of hidden file. Note carefully that these are ideas that dwell in the conscious level: digging into the unconscious is not the pedagogist's task, but of the psychologist's task in some of his specialties.

The addressee of the pedagogical support is, therefore, the human subject, meant as a subject of history and culture, as the place of values and a complex interpersonal communication link, as a subject of politics in the broadest sense and in the original sense of πολιτεία: that is to say, with a strictly technical term, the *persona* (*person*). The Latin term entered the philosophy and disciplines of man in the last century. It has had greater success in the context of the Catholic philosophy and pedagogy, but it has been for a long time gotten the attention of laity pedagogists, and moreover, Mounier himself identified its roots in Socrates, Kant, Leibniz, and Pascal.

The term "individual" is employed in other contexts: the use of this term is not incorrect, by itself, when one wants to speak about an element of a population, giving prior attention to the population itself, may be in the case of evolutionary studies, or statistical-operational studies such as those that belong to the so-called (in Italy) experimental pedagogy. But the pedagogist in his professional practice

**163**

*Pedagogist as Social Professional: Sozialpädagogik and Professional Pedagogy*

focuses his attention on the interlocutor. As Mounier wrote in a famous quotation, Personalism emphasizes " *l'insertion collective et cosmique de la personne*" [14]

The attention is required, then, especially when we talk about '*help*' (or 'aid?), for example, to '*family*,' '*school*,' '*a company*,' '*the association*,' '*the sporting club*,' and '*the couple.*' This is, therefore, a synecdoche: the whole instead of and for its parts. When a pedagogist is invested with a supportive task with reference 'to the couple,' he actually helps the partners to deal with problems related to their being a couple,

Here, too, the discussion is far from being purely nominalist. For example, choosing one of the frequent cases of which we have extensive experience: when a couple supportive relationship is started, it is not the same thing if the pedagogist helps the one or the other partner, and this even when they both ask for the pedagogist's help and at the same time, as well as the case of parenthood is very different when one is called upon to help parents (or one parent) or the son. The two partners are not characterized by the same "*insertion collective et cosmique*," and the same goes from parents to children. Problematic situations, in such cases, may also be the same, and sometimes it is not even said that they are such, but this is not true for problems, that is, how each person poses problems starting from problematic situations that can also be similar, but in any case, the similarity cannot be considered for

A misunderstanding to avoid with careful attention concerns the cultural character of the pedagogical interlocution however it is meant. *The pedagogist's intervention is never a therapy*, and the pedagogist should not be confused in any way with a therapist. In pedagogy, there is not a 'physiology' that, in violation of some of its standard parameters, integrates some form of disease whose cure is the task of

What the pedagogist can do is, if anything, *to be of some help to the therapy* that, as just noted, is a *support to the therapist himself*, or to those who have to approach the treatment or must follow it (but it is not possible to speak of "patient" even in this case), or even for those who are near, as caregivers to the one who must follow a therapy. Typical are the cases of the depressed (or her/his family members) who need a cultural intervention to rationally approach what should be considered a disease like any other and family members affected by a conversion syndrome (formerly 'hysteria') who need to know how to behave during accesses and at the end of these, how to come back to everyday life and every form of relationship after operations or disabling diseases, how to prevent cases of potentially pathological situations to be held under control (such as diabetes), or diseases that require special diets and regimes of life), and so forth. These are cases in which the pedagogist acts largely as a teacher (the so-called non-school teaching…): cases in which she/he is more likely to appear as a woman/ man of learning and culture, far from the stereotype of the therapist, even though

the physician, psychotherapist or some other professional or practitioners.

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.91335*

to their relationship as a couple.

(*the collective and cosmic insertion of the person*).

the particular helping relationship to be activated.

she/he acts in healthcare facilities or at the side of it.

verb κλίνω, which indicates to address, to lean to approach.

For this reason, she/he cannot call patients her/his interlocutors.

He can instead use the adjective 'clinical,' in the methodological sense. When using this adjective, and the corresponding noun one may note also a distant kind of etymological meaning. In classical Greek, also used by Claudius Galen, κλινικός was an adjective [15] related to the intervention on the bed (κλίνε) where the patient was lying, that is to say, a specific intervention '*in situation*.' One can also refer to the

*Clinical* as a conceptual method is used for the obvious occurrences in the educational dialog as for any elements of communication in the sanitary clinical field: for example, realism, attention to the addressee, the problematic nature of things and situations, the direct relationality, professionalism, the focus on doctrine, the

*Pedagogist as Social Professional: Sozialpädagogik and Professional Pedagogy DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.91335*

*Education Systems Around the World*

proper educational intervention.

that they do not exist.

and so forth.

specialties.

tion of the value of pluralism and divergence.

the object of interlocution as well as the necessary conditions for it. Rather, the necessary conditions are the explicit and unreserved complete statement of the one and the other visions, and a willingness to challenge them fully and without reserve. The latter requirement is an important prerequisite for interlocution, as for any

In fact, for an interlocution to be turned on, it must assume a peculiarity in the parties, which we call *openness*, that is, the full and unreserved availability to change, to become, and to be subject to an evolutionary becoming, to put in question one's own ideas and life project, to reflect on and change one's own choices, especially the fundamental ones, and even things considered taken for granted and well set, including oneself, to begin with one's own person, and a profound convic-

In front of an interlocutor who refuses somehow to be opened to relevant parts of the dialog, the pedagogist, by rule, could do nothing, in practice, something can be done by indirect means and ways, or looking for glimpses of revelation if it seems

Dialog, of course, is always bi-directional or multi-directional when the human beings who seek the pedagogist's help are more than one, or when she/ he considers involving other people, and she/he succeeds. But a part of this word process is the pedagogist himself/herself, who must be the first to show openness, and to be the witness of human positiveness. Ideas are always for the man, and we

In addition, there are often embedded or hidden aspects, which as such do not indicate any contradiction with the reality or with the life plans of other closer persons, even when such contradiction is apparent. A typical case is when implied, tacit, taken for granted aspects in one's life project occur as a desire for obligations or functions to be fulfilled by the partner but never argued or quarreled upon. Consistency, or at least the compatibility between life projects of those who establish whatever human partnership, should be considered a necessary condition: it is true for the couple, the family, school, education, associations, cooperation,

The pedagogist has an important role in clarifying what is implicit, that is, to change the functions and properties (the "extensions") of a sort of hidden file. Note carefully that these are ideas that dwell in the conscious level: digging into the unconscious is not the pedagogist's task, but of the psychologist's task in some of his

The addressee of the pedagogical support is, therefore, the human subject, meant as a subject of history and culture, as the place of values and a complex interpersonal communication link, as a subject of politics in the broadest sense and in the original sense of πολιτεία: that is to say, with a strictly technical term, the *persona* (*person*). The Latin term entered the philosophy and disciplines of man in the last century. It has had greater success in the context of the Catholic philosophy and pedagogy, but it has been for a long time gotten the attention of laity pedagogists, and moreover,

The term "individual" is employed in other contexts: the use of this term is not incorrect, by itself, when one wants to speak about an element of a population, giving prior attention to the population itself, may be in the case of evolutionary studies, or statistical-operational studies such as those that belong to the so-called (in Italy) experimental pedagogy. But the pedagogist in his professional practice

Mounier himself identified its roots in Socrates, Kant, Leibniz, and Pascal.

mean all the ideas since Pedagogy could not accept the reverse nowadays. A *project of life* is always present, in any person. Of course, it should not be rigidly unchanging, and many difficulties arise precisely when the subject is closed in it, and chained to it, regardless of both its internal (e.g., logic) and external (e.g.,

disproven by the facts) contradictions. This is not a *plan* or a *model*.

**162**

focuses his attention on the interlocutor. As Mounier wrote in a famous quotation, Personalism emphasizes " *l'insertion collective et cosmique de la personne*" [14] (*the collective and cosmic insertion of the person*).

The attention is required, then, especially when we talk about '*help*' (or 'aid?), for example, to '*family*,' '*school*,' '*a company*,' '*the association*,' '*the sporting club*,' and '*the couple.*' This is, therefore, a synecdoche: the whole instead of and for its parts. When a pedagogist is invested with a supportive task with reference 'to the couple,' he actually helps the partners to deal with problems related to their being a couple, to their relationship as a couple.

Here, too, the discussion is far from being purely nominalist. For example, choosing one of the frequent cases of which we have extensive experience: when a couple supportive relationship is started, it is not the same thing if the pedagogist helps the one or the other partner, and this even when they both ask for the pedagogist's help and at the same time, as well as the case of parenthood is very different when one is called upon to help parents (or one parent) or the son. The two partners are not characterized by the same "*insertion collective et cosmique*," and the same goes from parents to children. Problematic situations, in such cases, may also be the same, and sometimes it is not even said that they are such, but this is not true for problems, that is, how each person poses problems starting from problematic situations that can also be similar, but in any case, the similarity cannot be considered for the particular helping relationship to be activated.

A misunderstanding to avoid with careful attention concerns the cultural character of the pedagogical interlocution however it is meant. *The pedagogist's intervention is never a therapy*, and the pedagogist should not be confused in any way with a therapist. In pedagogy, there is not a 'physiology' that, in violation of some of its standard parameters, integrates some form of disease whose cure is the task of the physician, psychotherapist or some other professional or practitioners.

What the pedagogist can do is, if anything, *to be of some help to the therapy* that, as just noted, is a *support to the therapist himself*, or to those who have to approach the treatment or must follow it (but it is not possible to speak of "patient" even in this case), or even for those who are near, as caregivers to the one who must follow a therapy. Typical are the cases of the depressed (or her/his family members) who need a cultural intervention to rationally approach what should be considered a disease like any other and family members affected by a conversion syndrome (formerly 'hysteria') who need to know how to behave during accesses and at the end of these, how to come back to everyday life and every form of relationship after operations or disabling diseases, how to prevent cases of potentially pathological situations to be held under control (such as diabetes), or diseases that require special diets and regimes of life), and so forth.

These are cases in which the pedagogist acts largely as a teacher (the so-called non-school teaching…): cases in which she/he is more likely to appear as a woman/ man of learning and culture, far from the stereotype of the therapist, even though she/he acts in healthcare facilities or at the side of it.

For this reason, she/he cannot call patients her/his interlocutors.

He can instead use the adjective 'clinical,' in the methodological sense. When using this adjective, and the corresponding noun one may note also a distant kind of etymological meaning. In classical Greek, also used by Claudius Galen, κλινικός was an adjective [15] related to the intervention on the bed (κλίνε) where the patient was lying, that is to say, a specific intervention '*in situation*.' One can also refer to the verb κλίνω, which indicates to address, to lean to approach.

*Clinical* as a conceptual method is used for the obvious occurrences in the educational dialog as for any elements of communication in the sanitary clinical field: for example, realism, attention to the addressee, the problematic nature of things and situations, the direct relationality, professionalism, the focus on doctrine, the

possibility of considering any form of individual variation, the mutual exclusion of 'medium,' types that instead are involved in the educational processes, even, statistics based. The procedure recalls rather the *abduction* or *retroduction*, originally 'απαγωγή: from some elements of a peculiar 'clinical' case, the expert professional is able to go back to the general case, or 'casuistry.' Human mediation is a condition of knowledge and of professional handling of the case itself. It's a way to remember the *anthropological principle*; reality is cognizable because of man.

Argumentations such as these lead us to state that the pedagogist should be considered also, and in an increasingly strong perspective, a methodologist.

Among the professional techniques specifically pedagogical, there is the usual procedure, theoretically and epistemologically founded, that is to help the other person to make *the transition from the problematic situation to the problem.*

With some substantial difference from both the Pragmatistic-Strumentalistic Pedagogy, and the Epistemology of Critical Rationalism or Falsificationism, we call *problematic situations* any case in which the living-man is in conflict, contrast, contradiction and imbalance, discrepancy, thus in crisis with its environmental interaction; being aware that interaction is undeniable and criticism is usual, normal, obvious, extremely frequent. Only when there is a part of the human disposition to react positively, constructively, ready to take charge of, we properly speak of *problem*.

We also do not speak of 'solution' to the problem, but '*attempts (note the plural) to solve the problems*,' having no criteria of truth.

Problematic situations are into the reality of things, and only the man is able to put them as problems, and to take them in charge, sometimes in such a small way. This is an aspect of vision, properly anthropological of education and pedagogy (General and Professional).

The Professional Pedagogist, for her/his intrinsic reasons, is the one who helps the interlocutor in his/her solution attempts. Even if she/he had possible hypotheses to solve some problems, if anything, she/he should present them as her/his own, or not presenting them at all. The whole dialog-based work consists of ensuring that the other person tries to develop her/his possible solutions.

The pedagogist has no solutions to offer, but an ongoing process that tends to help the research for such solutions. The interlocutor who asked "So doctor, what is the course of study my son can follow?" ; "Must I abandon my wife/my husband?"; and "Must I change my job or stay where I am?", the only answer the pedagogist can give is, ultimately, "*we will go on talking about it."*

Of course, she/he could envisage her/his possible solution, or even more than one: if it is clear that these are some possible hypotheses and provided that it is one or more within a broader and more diversified variety. But she/he must carefully refrain from doing so, whenever her/his hypotheses are likely to be taken for what they are not (a judgment, diagnosis, expertise, etc.), or it might become an excuse for the interlocutor who hides behind it and breaks the discussion ("the expert told me so!"…).

As for the pedagogist: a researcher, with no ends or τέλος, there is neither a '*physiology*' to refer to nor a '*law*' the violation of which constitutes an offense, which would lead to judgment and condemnation.

Also, for this, the pedagogist does not make judgments (as pedagogist), and in any case does not impose sanctions, or pronounce convictions. In some cases, he takes on external factors: the diagnosis of a doctor, a judgment of a court, the recognition of habits and established practices of a sociologist…'*external*' does not mean stranger, being well known that the pedagogist's culture is a very complex one, and that she/he must be able to make herself/himself a specific resource of contributions coming from that set of sciences that are presented as *Sciences of Education*.

The pedagogist rather expresses *opinions*, and *points of view*: his own or those of others, always explicitly and admittedly.

**165**

*Pedagogist as Social Professional: Sozialpädagogik and Professional Pedagogy*

He does not really give advice, rather *suggestions*. He does not tell anyone to follow a different path from the chosen one: if anything, he tells that in addition to the determined one there are other tracks and discusses with her/his interlocutor

After having, presented and argued his views, opinions, points of view, visions (in the sense of Anschauungen and Einsichten), directions, suggestions and anything similar, the next step consists of "*let's talk again*," provided that the interlocu-

In regard to the interlocutor's legitimate and understandable need to find answers

They are answers, methodologically speaking, which take the form of hypothetical imperatives. The normativity of pedagogy, in the case of Professional Pedagogy (or at least in this case), is a normativity that connects certain directions to the existence of certain premises. The type of response by which the Professional

But still, the hypothetical procedure is, at a closer look, double. It hypothesized the subsistence of the premise or protasis ("*if…then…" or "if not…then*…"). But the link between the premise and the consequence, protasis and apodosis, "*if…then* 

Those of the pedagogist, and probably not only belonging to the Professional Pedagogist, are then *double hypothetical imperatives*: when one cannot read them in this form, which often happens in the educational literature, it comes from the fact that the premise or protasis or the hypothetical link one wishes necessary and rigid,

This is a way to overcome the dualism, typical of philosophy and intrinsic to it, between prescriptiveness and descriptiveness, between normative and descriptive

The hypothetical nature of these essential steps in the pedagogical supportive relationship and the overcoming of the just mentioned dualism give substance and implementation also in the pedagogical field to the praise of a *systematic doubt* that was well taken, in the contemporary epistemology, by the Critical Rationalism. Doubt permeates the pedagogist's opinions, information, suggestions, visions: expressing himself in these terms and in her/him subsequent professional practice, she/he also gives an account of non-omnipotence of education, being also an example of a way of life, dealing with problems, in strictly pedagogical terms, as

An essential part of the pedagogist's technique in the helping relationship is the ability to become involved deeply and basically in the dialog: the pedagogist does not have, at present, either the "*clinical detachment*" or something that resembles it, and probably he cannot own anything analogous for intrinsic reasons to his specificity. What he makes systematic use has a lot to do with *empathy*, such as how it has been dealt with by Carl Rogers. The latest, while rightly pointed out in the History of Pedagogy, was not a pedagogist but a psychotherapist: this should be reminded of those who would claim to transfer to the pedagogical field that *Client Centered Therapy*, which was named as such (therefore, as previously said, an intervention

However, the technique that the pedagogist is required to make use of is substantially different from the pedagogist: *it is to get inside the problematic situation* 

The answers that the pedagogist can give, and it is her/his duty to give, are answers on method and not on merit. When he gives answers on merit, and it happens, he does not give them as a pedagogist, rather, as a human person to whom the claim by Terentius "*Homo sum: nihil humani a me alienum puto*" [16] is relevant.

on merit, the pedagogist can only have a specific task: to help him find them.

Pedagogist helps his interlocutor to arrive at is a sort of "*if…then*…".

*maybe…or if not…then maybe*…" is even hypothetical.

sciences, nomothetic and idiographic disciplines.

well as in coherence with human nature.

maybe important but not pedagogical at all) [17].

is hidden, with a determinism that is typically positivistic.

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.91335*

tor maintains the necessary openness.

what they are.

Pedagogist never prescribes, rather *indicates*.

#### *Pedagogist as Social Professional: Sozialpädagogik and Professional Pedagogy DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.91335*

Pedagogist never prescribes, rather *indicates*.

*Education Systems Around the World*

possibility of considering any form of individual variation, the mutual exclusion of 'medium,' types that instead are involved in the educational processes, even, statistics based. The procedure recalls rather the *abduction* or *retroduction*, originally 'απαγωγή: from some elements of a peculiar 'clinical' case, the expert professional is able to go back to the general case, or 'casuistry.' Human mediation is a condition of knowledge and of professional handling of the case itself. It's a way to remember the

Argumentations such as these lead us to state that the pedagogist should be considered also, and in an increasingly strong perspective, a methodologist.

person to make *the transition from the problematic situation to the problem.*

Among the professional techniques specifically pedagogical, there is the usual procedure, theoretically and epistemologically founded, that is to help the other

With some substantial difference from both the Pragmatistic-Strumentalistic Pedagogy, and the Epistemology of Critical Rationalism or Falsificationism, we call *problematic situations* any case in which the living-man is in conflict, contrast, contradiction and imbalance, discrepancy, thus in crisis with its environmental interaction; being aware that interaction is undeniable and criticism is usual, normal, obvious, extremely frequent. Only when there is a part of the human disposition to react positively, constructively, ready to take charge of, we properly speak of *problem*. We also do not speak of 'solution' to the problem, but '*attempts (note the plural)* 

Problematic situations are into the reality of things, and only the man is able to put them as problems, and to take them in charge, sometimes in such a small way. This is an aspect of vision, properly anthropological of education and pedagogy

The Professional Pedagogist, for her/his intrinsic reasons, is the one who helps the interlocutor in his/her solution attempts. Even if she/he had possible hypotheses to solve some problems, if anything, she/he should present them as her/his own, or not presenting them at all. The whole dialog-based work consists of ensuring that

The pedagogist has no solutions to offer, but an ongoing process that tends to help the research for such solutions. The interlocutor who asked "So doctor, what is the course of study my son can follow?" ; "Must I abandon my wife/my husband?"; and "Must I change my job or stay where I am?", the only answer the pedagogist can

Of course, she/he could envisage her/his possible solution, or even more than one: if it is clear that these are some possible hypotheses and provided that it is one or more within a broader and more diversified variety. But she/he must carefully refrain from doing so, whenever her/his hypotheses are likely to be taken for what they are not (a judgment, diagnosis, expertise, etc.), or it might become an excuse for the interlocutor who hides behind it and breaks the discussion ("the expert told me so!"…). As for the pedagogist: a researcher, with no ends or τέλος, there is neither a '*physiology*' to refer to nor a '*law*' the violation of which constitutes an offense,

Also, for this, the pedagogist does not make judgments (as pedagogist), and in any case does not impose sanctions, or pronounce convictions. In some cases, he takes on external factors: the diagnosis of a doctor, a judgment of a court, the recognition of habits and established practices of a sociologist…'*external*' does not mean stranger, being well known that the pedagogist's culture is a very complex one, and that she/he must be able to make herself/himself a specific resource of contributions coming from that set of sciences that are presented as *Sciences of Education*. The pedagogist rather expresses *opinions*, and *points of view*: his own or those of

*anthropological principle*; reality is cognizable because of man.

*to solve the problems*,' having no criteria of truth.

the other person tries to develop her/his possible solutions.

give is, ultimately, "*we will go on talking about it."*

which would lead to judgment and condemnation.

others, always explicitly and admittedly.

(General and Professional).

**164**

He does not really give advice, rather *suggestions*. He does not tell anyone to follow a different path from the chosen one: if anything, he tells that in addition to the determined one there are other tracks and discusses with her/his interlocutor what they are.

After having, presented and argued his views, opinions, points of view, visions (in the sense of Anschauungen and Einsichten), directions, suggestions and anything similar, the next step consists of "*let's talk again*," provided that the interlocutor maintains the necessary openness.

The answers that the pedagogist can give, and it is her/his duty to give, are answers on method and not on merit. When he gives answers on merit, and it happens, he does not give them as a pedagogist, rather, as a human person to whom the claim by Terentius "*Homo sum: nihil humani a me alienum puto*" [16] is relevant.

In regard to the interlocutor's legitimate and understandable need to find answers on merit, the pedagogist can only have a specific task: to help him find them.

They are answers, methodologically speaking, which take the form of hypothetical imperatives. The normativity of pedagogy, in the case of Professional Pedagogy (or at least in this case), is a normativity that connects certain directions to the existence of certain premises. The type of response by which the Professional Pedagogist helps his interlocutor to arrive at is a sort of "*if…then*…".

But still, the hypothetical procedure is, at a closer look, double. It hypothesized the subsistence of the premise or protasis ("*if…then…" or "if not…then*…"). But the link between the premise and the consequence, protasis and apodosis, "*if…then maybe…or if not…then maybe*…" is even hypothetical.

Those of the pedagogist, and probably not only belonging to the Professional Pedagogist, are then *double hypothetical imperatives*: when one cannot read them in this form, which often happens in the educational literature, it comes from the fact that the premise or protasis or the hypothetical link one wishes necessary and rigid, is hidden, with a determinism that is typically positivistic.

This is a way to overcome the dualism, typical of philosophy and intrinsic to it, between prescriptiveness and descriptiveness, between normative and descriptive sciences, nomothetic and idiographic disciplines.

The hypothetical nature of these essential steps in the pedagogical supportive relationship and the overcoming of the just mentioned dualism give substance and implementation also in the pedagogical field to the praise of a *systematic doubt* that was well taken, in the contemporary epistemology, by the Critical Rationalism.

Doubt permeates the pedagogist's opinions, information, suggestions, visions: expressing himself in these terms and in her/him subsequent professional practice, she/he also gives an account of non-omnipotence of education, being also an example of a way of life, dealing with problems, in strictly pedagogical terms, as well as in coherence with human nature.

An essential part of the pedagogist's technique in the helping relationship is the ability to become involved deeply and basically in the dialog: the pedagogist does not have, at present, either the "*clinical detachment*" or something that resembles it, and probably he cannot own anything analogous for intrinsic reasons to his specificity.

What he makes systematic use has a lot to do with *empathy*, such as how it has been dealt with by Carl Rogers. The latest, while rightly pointed out in the History of Pedagogy, was not a pedagogist but a psychotherapist: this should be reminded of those who would claim to transfer to the pedagogical field that *Client Centered Therapy*, which was named as such (therefore, as previously said, an intervention maybe important but not pedagogical at all) [17].

However, the technique that the pedagogist is required to make use of is substantially different from the pedagogist: *it is to get inside the problematic situation*  *suggested by the interlocutor, taking into account deliberately some future developments, in order to give it back in a way that can be solved better by the same interlocutor*.

It is therefore suggested to use the original term *Einfühlung*, which may indicate a design, a technique that one can learn and that is taught and that evokes a different theoretical and professional context (as the same *Einsicht* instead of *Insight*). In German, the term *Empathie* exists as well.

The use of *Einfühlung*, the absence of any kind of clinical detachment, makes on the one hand the Professional Pedagogist's intervention important, *the sense of limit*. In this context, some supportive relationships that last months or years, with weekly meetings or even more frequently, as it happens in psychotherapy, or in certain medical or social relations, in sport training, in musical or art teaching, are not to be forecasted.

### **12. A kind of conclusion: human imperfection and education**

This, among other things, due to the deepest sense of *human limitation* characterizes this one as many other educational relationships. Human limitation perceived on the one hand in terms of *perfectibility* as the other side of *imperfection* belonging to the same coin, which is mankind, and on the other hand, in its nomothetical and regulatory aspects, that is, the ethics of looking for that "*better*," which is always possible and that man is oriented to seek and pursue.

The Professional Pedagogist's helping relationship has fairly strict limitations, also for some wear and tear of human resources: approximately, we could talk of a few weeks, or even long-term relationships however made of short and dense interviews and breaks, filled with letters or phone calls or short messages, remembering that the dialog is never exclusive and conclusive in the process.

As it grows and develops, this dialogic relation is meant to be followed by other dialogs, or rather by the next development of that same dialog in other places and with other interlocutors. Even before the supportive relationship begins before meeting the other person, the pedagogist knows very well that the dialog she/ he has to establish will be followed by other interventions, he/she sets how and when, of course, but this basic feature must be clear to her/him and without any prejudice.

There are essentially *two basic choices*, not mutually exclusive.

One is the observed need to continue the conversation with some other professional or expert: a psychologist, a doctor, a social worker, a lawyer, a sociologist, a therapist, or any other. It is an ethical principle, therefore, on the part of the Professional Pedagogist, not only to ensure an effective *redirection* that is a plain dimension, which happens at a fixed time but also to supply any help to this (as in the already mentioned so-called *support to therapy*, for example). This is what we call *professional redirection*.

The other choice, hopefully, more frequent, consists in propitiating the continuation of the dialogic relation in the context where the problematic situations arose or with people who started the controversies, or with persons that may be involved positively in them. If the dialogue at first, before the professional performance of the Pedagogist, was poor, in the couple, or at work, or in family, or in any human fellowship, it will start again with new and more effective vitality and openness. This is the Professional Pedagogist's act named as *canonical redirection*.

Anyone can be redirected especially in any site of human relationship, which may have some educational meaning to the interlocutor.

In a time of transition from a short Evo eighteenth/nineteenth century to the next, today's society shows a new need in the field of education, human and social relations.

**167**

**Author details**

d'Annunzio", Chieti-Pescara, Italy

provided the original work is properly cited.

Franco Blezza

*Pedagogist as Social Professional: Sozialpädagogik and Professional Pedagogy*

General and Social Pedagogy, PPEQS Department, University "Gabriele

© 2020 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,

\*Address all correspondence to: franco.blezza@unich.it

The Social and Professional Pedagogy, with its 2500 years of history and the frame of the nineteenth century, Sozialpädagogik has got all the resources to

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.91335*

respond in a completely positive way.

*Pedagogist as Social Professional: Sozialpädagogik and Professional Pedagogy DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.91335*

The Social and Professional Pedagogy, with its 2500 years of history and the frame of the nineteenth century, Sozialpädagogik has got all the resources to respond in a completely positive way.
