Professional Orientation of Social Pedagogy Students at Work Placement in Prisons

The research is based on work placements done by social pedagogy students in Slovenian prisons. It focuses on their professional orientation as reflected by their journal entries. A qualitative substantive analysis of a collection of their journal entries was performed, recognising six key topics that also represented the key aspects in which the journals differentiated drastically. Based on these, a continuum of student orientations was developed, featuring three models: the adoptive, non-professional and engaged orientation. Findings reveal a heterogeneity in the students’ orientations and are in this aspect in line with several other studies that have similarly shown various orientations and operating models in social pedagogy. This research adds to studying this field whilst being a reminder that perhaps the largest potential of social pedagogy today is to be able to state clear position about this variety and to be more assertive in promoting certain models and practices, whilst being critical to others. The research has shown that this can already be done during the students’ studying process, i.e. in the process of forming new future professional identities.