Week 44. 1st to 5th of November

This week we talked about "Dealing with special needs of children in different European countries - challenges risen by the convention on the Rights of the persons with Disabilities" with the teacher Sabine Shärper.

It was useful to think about why there are international points.

Interests and aims:

-     International -     Intercultural -     Interanational -     Historical

Social work and education

-     Describing -     Comparing -     Sharing ethical values -     Supporting cooperation

-     Increasing knowledge, broadening perspectives -     Support, improving professional practice

 We made a group work about different conventions in our countries and see what is the situation about, if they are singed, ratified...It was interesting to see it and share different opinions about that. Also we could see the situation and compare it with other countries.

We had another guest teacher, Inge Danielsen, talking about "Social pedagogy in a European perspectice". We had to read two different texts about that and it was usefull to see different views to work with young people in different countries.

We made an exercice of reading different cases and we also answered a questionnaire in little groups and we talked about it with all the class. It was nice because it was an example that we can meet in the real life in our work and we could think what we will do if we were the worker and share different opinions.

The last guest teacher this week was Han Storo, talking about "Transition from care:Young people who are living in care going to independent life".

He talked about the independence that means no help from other people and that you take your own responsibility so we started to talk about interdependence that is being independent in groups, families,...

Aftercare is...work of preparation and support with young people moving from care to independent living with the aim of enabling them to cope on their own (Storo, 2001.)

We talked about the 6 steps to be interdependent about the toung people from care institutions and also the floating support. But also he put some examples about young people who live with his family and then they become interdependent so it was interesting to reflect more.

It was usefull because I could think about the work with young people in care institutions in Spain and I could make connections with leassons that I had in Spain the year before.

Week 43. 25th to 29th of October

In this week we had to make the presentation of our Project work that we had been working in it for 4 weeks.

“Music therapy for autistic children”

First of all, I was really happy because I liked the topic of our project and I really wanted and I want to learn more about it. The music therapy can work with a lot of situations and problems but we had to focus on one concrete tagged group.

Like I said in another post the group of the project work was formed by Bea, Signe, Yoran and me. We had to compare the music therapy for autistic children between Denmark, Netherlands and Spain.

About the process, when we started to search about more concrete information about the countries, sometimes I felt that it was a little bit difficult to found all the information in the Internet. I tried to be in contact with some professionals but I had one answer too late and some of them didn’t answer.

But really, above the difficulties, I think that we found good information to discuss and to think about it. I was surprised about some information for example that the autism was considered as a disability in an international way on the year 2001, so what was the situation before? They didn’t receive any help?

I didn’t know too that it was an International Association about Music Therapy and there are a lot of similarities about the way of work with this therapy on the three countries. Also I knew that there’s a lot of movement about music therapy in my country and now I know some projects too.

For me, to do a project like this in English was a challenge. Sometimes it was difficult to me to express myself and I was frustrated because I wanted to say things and I couldn’t find the way to say it; so it made me nervous and unconfortable. I think that to have different ways to work was an obstacle too; sometimes it was difficult to work in the same way and of course I know that when I will be working on my job it can be the same. But I think that to work in a same way is very important and sometimes it's because a lack of communication.

I didn’t know a lot about autistic children so it was helpful to learn more about this tagged group and I’m happy about that. This year, if it’s possible, I want to make my practical placement about horse therapy and in the future I want to work in it, so it was useful to learn more about the autism too because like music therapy, it works too.

….After making this project I was attending to one cinema session and there was a film about the autism and how can work the therapy with horses; is the story of a family to found ways to improve the situation of their son. The film is “The horse boy”, so if somebody wants to see it, here is the link of the trailer: http://www.horseboymovie.com/Film.php

Week 42. Autumn Break

Berlin!

Week 41. 11th to 15th of October

On Tuesday and Wednesday we has the guest teacher Bill Cleary to talk about the topics: “How religious values have influenced educational thinking practice in Ireland and Denmark” and “Are religious values relevant for the education of teacher/social worker professionals in post modern society?

I think that the religion has some values but one agnostic person can have the same values too. I know that the religion had influenced the social education on the beginning of this profession and that now there are work places that it has a big influence.

Sometimes I have dilemmas because for me the religion it’s not important but I know that I will work with people from different religions and of course I will consider this.

We could know some more aspects about the social education in Denmark and social work in Ireland. It was interesting to see the different ways of work.

For example, in Ireland the social workers are divided in 4 groups to work with different tagged groups, so maybe are more specialized. In Spain if you study social education you can work with different tagged groups, there isn’t different groups of social educators. Of course you can specialize by studying a master or some courses to work with one tagged group, but you decide it by yourself or because the institution want it.

Week 40. 4th to 8th of October

On this week we had the guest teacher Tim Gully with the topic “Angels and demons” (young criminals). Before this class we had to read one article about a crime did by two ten year old boys in England “James Bulger murder and his killers Thompson and Venables”.

This article made me think a lot about how two young boys can kill another child; why they made it, only because they watched a film?, what was wrong to get to do such a thing? What about the family of the killed child and how was the situation after this crime with the other children?, what about the influence of the newspapers, TV news? etc.

And the question is: how to work with them in a good way? I think that punish them is not the solution, it’s only remove them away from the society but the problem is still there event that we are not seeing it. I know other cases but this was so surprising to me because of the age of the boys and also that they didn’t had to treat them as adults.

We talked about the situation of the young criminals and we could know the situation in other countries and to different opinions from the people. Really it was so interesting but it was difficult also to understand all.

Week 39. 27th of September to 1st of October

On Monday and Tuesday we had the guest teacher Marcus Breuer. On those two days the topic of the lesson was the Roma people.

First of all, when the teacher said Roma people, we were a little bit confused, then, when he said gypsies was clearer. But how to say it: roma population, gypsy population?; what they prefer? Sometimes we are not conscious of how a “name” can stigmatize a person or a group of people.

We talked about the integration of young Roma into the Educational System and we saw some statistics too. It was helpful to take a general view of how is the situation around different countries.  We could know some of the projects in different schools.

We did an exercise following the Pyramid Model of Psycho-Social Interventions and the STROP Model (A model to stop Chaos in Children’s Life). STROP means: Structure, Talking, Rituals, Organized play and Parental cooperation. We had to talk about our previous experiences with the Strop model. It was interesting because I didn’t know this model and I could put an example about my experience about working with children in a school.

Structure: Fix structure, fix points of time and with a person of reference (it’s no good to change the person of reference all the time)

Talking: feedback to children, they have to have the opportunity to express themselves, the oral language is very important.

Rituals: If there are different cultures on the class they can have different rituals and ways of stay in a class.

Organized play: It’s very useful to learn through playing.

Parental cooperation: Sometimes, there is not the connection between the families and the school.

We made a project too about the community gardens and intercultural dialogue. It was nice to make an intercultural project with people from different cultures. We made a project for 20 families from Africa, South America and Romania; we had to search the focuses of the project, the resources, SWOT (strenghts, weaknesses, opportunities and threats), etc. It was nice but we didn’t have so much time. Then we made an exposition of our project and we could know other projects about other groups. 

Marcus Breuer gave us some more material about Roma people. I think that it was difficult to talk "all" about Roma people only in two days and maybe it could be more interesting with a different structure.

Week 38. 20th to 24th of September

Well, on Monday we knew the groups of the Project Work. My group is formed by: Yoran (from Holland), Bea (from Madrid), Signe (from Denmark) and me.

We had to discuss our focus and the tagged group to work about. Finally, we decided that the music therapy could be very interesting. First of all, we wanted to focus the work on how the music therapy can help for the social integration, but we changed it for the tagged group autistic children. So, we are still working in it.

On Thursday and Friday we had a Guest teacher, Richard Lee Stevens. We were talking about “Social policy and social work practice in Europe”. Before the class we had to read “Social protection policies for young people: a cross national comparison” and “Empowerment or cooling out? . Dilemmas and contradictions of Integrated Transition Policies”.  It was interesting to know the situation of the young people around different Europe countries and to have different views through different answers of the questions about the lectures.

I think that, in some countries like in Spain, the state doesn´t give the sufficient help for the young people. For example, in the first days of class, when I listened that here, in Denmark, the students receive money for study I thought that it is a big opportunity.

In class we were talking about the education in a quick way that the government wants to make money too. From my opinion this is not a good way of education, we are not like machines, we have to think about the things that we are learning, comprehend it, if not it doesn´t have sense.

The education is not enough to be a social worker/social educator…you have to be real, respect yourself, respect resources…have a dialogue to help somebody. And I think that, it´s more than help people, it´s not the same like charity. The year before we have a kind of conversations in one of the subjects of my degree and, I don´t remember the name, but she said something to represent it: To the person who wants to eat, teach him/her how to get fish, but while, give him/her a fish (it´s a mix with a Spanish expression); it´s to find the way to “give” resources to somebody, so the person can have autonomy, in more or less degree depends on the situation.

Social work challenge: be able to communicate with the subjective world.

Subjective: your feelings day life “life world”. (Informal)- Wild zones

Objective: how the education help you “system”. (Formal)- Tame zones

Week 37. 13th to 17th of September

On Monday we had the study day so I didn’t went to Frøbel. On Tuesday we had the student forum to comment the texts: Social Work and Europe: Educating for Change and The influence on National Cultural Traditions on Pedagogy. On Thursday we had the student forum too to comment the texts: Anti-discriminatory practice and Comparing Social Work from a European perspective.

We worked in groups and we could talk about the texts and later we can comment our work in the student forum. For me some of the texts were so difficult, but the student forum helps me to understand more. While we were talking in small groups we could see differences about, for example, the educational systems and ways to work between the different countries.

We talked about discrimination too. When we will work as a social educators, pedagogs or teachers I think that we need to look carefully at the use of power in society and its effects on disadvantaged or minority groups, like the text says (Anti-discriminatory practice); we have to promote anti-discriminatory practices.

I was working in a school the year before with children from 8 to 12 years old. They were from different cultures and backgrounds. During the playground time, two days per week we were working different things in the class like works and homework. One day, a boy from Morroco, said to another girl that it would be better if she was in her country, India. I was really surprised because they were in the "same" situation ( I'm refering that they were in a new country). Obviously, I talked with them to make a reflexion: why did you say this? How would you feel if someone say this to you? What do you thing now? It’s a good thing to say this to another person?...etc. I think that we have to put emphasise on this things, work in this and do not let it pass, working in a intercultural way by values like respect. I think that it would be nice if in the schools could be a subject to work in values because I think that it's very important for the life and convivence in the society.

On Friday we had a class with a guest teacher, Anne Mette, with the issue "A right based approach". We talked about the Rights of Child. She gave us the Convention on the Rights of the Child and we compare some articles of it and give a puntuation of our country in little groups; we worked in Mauritius and Spain. It was interesting to see the strenghts and weaknesses in relation to the Rights of the Children in our countries because sometimes the words are very beautiful but not in the practice.

Week 36. 6th to 10th of September

On the 7th we visited some institutions in groups. I went to a psyquiatric hospital and to a kindergarden. It was really interesting. I think that to see different ways to work with people it’s useful to enrich our knowledge.

On the second course of my degree I had my practical placement in a residence for people with mental illness and i could see other services and when I saw that my group had to go to the psyquiatric hospitall I thoght that it could be an opportunity to see a different experience with people with mental illness. I think that the way to work is really similary like in Spain but it was interesting too.

Then we went to the kindergarden. I think that it was fantastic. It’s really different from Spain.  There where 21 children of 10 different nationalities and 5 persons to take care of them (pedagogues almost all). They take a lot of advantage by playing at the same time as learning.

It was very nice to to listen the other groups on the presentations because we could listen more examples of different intstitutions and compare it with other countries. Also we lern more about the Pedagogy in a Danish context with Lone and a comparison of the kindergarden in Denmark and a pre-school in England with Karen.

In relation with the class with Lone, It was interesting to see why the pedagogy in Denmark is like it is, see the historical influences (Fröbel, Pesatalozzi, Rosseau, Montessori, Dewey; I had known the majority of these authors at the university and it was so interesting to know how they infuences the pedagogy in Denmark), the curriculum, history about Frøbel...The way that the pedagogues treat the children. For example, in Spain I think that it's impossible to see children with a knive, for example, because it's "dangerous" (protective way), but here, in Denmark, if they have a cut  they learn about it.

Pippi Langstrømpe



As a future social educator sometimes I have dilemmas when I compare ways of work, institutions, etc. because when I see something that works I think that all could be like on the same way in another country. But after I think that every country has it's context and history and I think that to change something radically it's no easy to do and that it’s not appropriate too. With this I’m not pretending to say that when something goes wrong we can’t change this because there are a lot of challenges that we can overcome if we work in it.





Week 34/35. 25th of August to 3rd of September

I arrived in Copenhagen with Laia, Paula and Regina, we are in the same class on the University in Vic. We arrived the 25th of August and one of our classmates, Mia, was waiting for us at the airport. We are really gratefull for it because if she had not been there sure that we had lost because we had to go to Ballerup, at Regina and Laia's house to take some of our staff; so we had to take the bus, the metro, the train... During the travel Mia told us some things about Frøbel and Copenhagen so the travel passed so fast!

Paula and I were in a Hostel because we didn't took the accommodation from the University. The first week in Copenhagen was nice because we met some new people, we walked around the city, saw new places, etc. but it was stressing too because we didn't find a place to live. Hopefully, we founded one room.

The first day at Frøbel was the 26th. We had breakfast and know the new classmates, the tutorial groups, saw the university...On the 27th the Danish students showed us some places of Copenhagen so it was so nice!

The first days of class we had the workshop Intercultural Understanding and we could stay in a camp for 3 days. At the camp we had some classes too but we had a lot of free time too to know us in a more relaxing way, so we enjoyed it!

I think that here the way of making class in Denmark is so different from Spain in some aspects. For example, here, when we have a lecture we comment it in little groups and I think that is helpfull to talk about the text and understand it more too. I thing that is very interesting to talk about concepts with people because in this way you can know other points of veiw, examples, etc.

About culture...
In the world there are a lot of cultures and we can found part of them in only one country. In Europe, for example, there are a lot of countries that are multicultural; but it’s all right if it’s only multicultural? I think that if it’s only multicultural the communication with the people of other cultures it’s impossible because there is not interaction between them. On the first days, working in an exercise, we wrote a definition of cultural meeting with Marine:
“A cultural meeting is to communicate and share or debate opinions, experiences, etc. with respect. It has to be intercultural and not a multicultural only. It’s a possibility to everybody to take off prejudices and judgments of the other cultures“. I think that the communication and respect between different cultures is essential for the social cohesion