Origin and purpose of the social pedagogy: theoretical approaches

Abstract

The social and educational conditions of Germany in the mid-nineteenth century were the referent and context that inspired Paul Natorp to refer to social pedagogy as “the science that studies the social conditions of education and the educational conditions of social life “. His contributions and pedagogical principles were disseminated, rethought, and adjusted in accordance to the different European and American environments in which they gained in visibility and took on new meaning from a diversity of interpretations. The purpose of this text is to reflect upon and compare accepted depictions, implementations, creation, development, presence and functionality of social pedagogies as more prominent in some countries than in others. Such is the case of Spain and Colombia: countries separated by oceans and land borders, but united in anthropic similarities and consolidated in educational expectations according to their specific needs and interests.