Social housing, multi-ethnic environments and the training of social educators: combined anthropological and educational perspectives

Abstract

The paper presents part of a broader project that explores the role played by informal citizenship learning in social housing urban environments (SHe) and the related educational challenges for social educators, NGO practitioners and also researchers. In this article, in particular, I focus on issues related with social educators' and NGO practitioners' professional training. The aim of the paper, in this perspective, is to offer some introductory theoretical and methodological remarks for the training of NGO practitioners working in SHe. The basis for this reflection is the idea of informal learning (Schugurensky, 2000), the concepts of learning for reflexive citizenship and learning for active citizenship (Johnston, 2005) and anthropology of citizenship (Ong, 1999, 2003). In the research process, we have intersected instruments and methodologies coming from the different fields of anthropology and educational sciences. Our hypothesis consists in considering the possibility that exploring the professional field of social educators in SHe with an ethnographic approach could contribute to improve reflexive attitudes of social educators and shape their educational attitudes.