Towards a psycho-social pedagogy as a relational practice and perspective

This article focuses on social pedagogy as a relational practice and revolves around the number three. Its central organising principle is thirdness, as defined in the work of Benjamin (2004) and it has three connected aims. First it aims to introduce a particular integrated approach to working with people in a variety of settings, whether care and/or education and to some extent therapeutic work might be involved. The perspective is known as social pedagogy and is little known in the Anglo-Saxon world and globally (Hamalainen, 2003). It is prevalent in Northern European countries, though its broad and context based nature means that many different interpretations and cross-disciplinary influences may be seen to play a larger role depending on context. Social pedagogy has been seen as a possible new direction in the field of social care in the UK for the last fifteen years or so, particularly in relation to residential care and looked- after children, but it is also starting to attract interest in Australia. The article's second aim is to demonstrate links between three key social pedagogic concepts and the work of Wilfred Bion, Donald W. Winnicott, and Jessica Benjamin in psychoanalysis. The third aim is to offer a direction that might be seen as a psycho-social pedagogy, which could link existing UK traditions of therapeutic childcare and may be of help in developing an Anglo-Saxon version of social pedagogy.