TRAINING SOCIAL EDUCATORS’ PROFILES IN HIGHER EDUCATION IN ITALY: LEARNING OBJECTIVES AND COMPETENCES

Training social educators’ profiles in higher education is highly debated in the literature and in the political discussion in Italy. The question about the definition of new training paths in universities becomes a further problem after Law n. 205 in 2017, that recognized educational professionalism. Social educators work in a range of dynamic contexts which require to relate with persons, target of the educational action, and multi-professional teams and then continuously reflect on educational practice. In particular, they have to take care of and pay attention to relationships that emerge in work contexts; moreover, they must think educational solutions and learn from experiences. Therefore, universities would need to conceive the learning experience based on reflective practice and on real problems in education in order to enhance competences. Hence, the training paths of the bachelor’s degree in Education studies (course code: L-19) have the responsibility to form competences for social educators. The point is: what are the fundamental competences that social educators have to acquire in universities? The starting point to understand learning outcomes of the courses L-19 is the analysis of SUA (Schede Uniche Annuali – Single Annual Forms), that contain training objectives for every degree. The aim of this paper is to present the initial phases of a work of analysis of the SUA forms of the L-19 degree courses in Italy. The purpose is to reflect on the competences that Universities claim to form for social educators.