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Introducing the November issue 2018 / Editorial

Editorial

Introducing the November issue 2018

Dear Readers,

we would like to introduce the open English issue of the Sociální pedagogika | Social Education

journal. We wanted to give you the opportunity to publish papers that cover a wide range of topics in

the field of social pedagogy both in the Czech and international environments. We intended not only

to spread abroad some information from the Czech environment, but also to share the ideas and

experiences of social pedagogical practices from abroad. We are taking the next step towards opening

the journal to a wider foreign community. The November issue includes three articles which are

presented in the empirical study section together with one interview, a review, and two informative

texts in the section outside of a double blind peer-reviewed content of the journal.

Although we received a great deal of theoretical and empirical studies (or abstracts), in this issue we

have published less than a third of the paper received. We are pleased to see that there is a steady

number of studies that are thematically interesting and inspiring. This is a proof for us that our journal

gets into the hands of a number of readers and generates new authors.

On the other hand, we want to maintain a high level of quality for all the published papers, which is

reflected in the complexity of the review process. This fact is mainly due to higher demands on the

quality of submitted papers from the authors themselves, but also to the greater workload of the

editorial staff and the reviewers. We are primarily committed to maintaining the high quality and

originality of published studies. We believe that despite the fact that for the authors the process of

reviewing is demanding, it enriches and brings valuable feedback.

We present the following papers as part of this English issue. An initial study entitled Perspectives

regarding the self-efficacy of social activation workers in the Czech system of caring for at-risk

children deals with the perceptions of field workers with respect to the self-efficacy in the care system

for vulnerable children. In her study, the author Jaroslava Pavlíčková summarizes the results of a

qualitative research based on some in-depth interviews with nine workers of social activation services.

By using the procedures of the grounded theory, the professional profile of a worker is represented in

three levels: personality, professionality and stress. Moreover, in the structured model of the

profession in the care system for vulnerable children, she highlights the importance of those resources

that influence professional efficiency (e.g., experience, transferred experience, encouragement and

emotional states). A deeper interest in the professional fitness in this field is indispensable for the

performance of the profession and it can contribute to the quality of the service provided.

The topic concerning the impact of a different cultural environment on the home preparation of

children for schooling is dealt with in the study entitled Home preparation of anglophone children for

school: The influence of a different culture. The author Lenka Venterová presents the results of a

qualitative analysis aimed at identifying the most frequent difficulties with home preparation

experienced by children whose parents come from different cultures and have also different mother

tongues. These children must cope not only with the different culture of their parents, but also with a

different teaching language than their native one.

Another study entitled Educational practices and strategies that promote inclusion: Examples from

the U.S. gives an inspirational insight into the possibilities of addressing inclusion in education for the

Czech educational context. The authors, Renáta Tichá, Brian Abery, and Laurie Kincade, from the

University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, USA, present both processes and strategies that are implemented

in the inclusive education in the US at school, in classrooms, small groups, and at the individual levels.

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Introducing the November issue 2018 / Editorial

The text is conceived as an example of good practice, focusing on the description of some selected

strategies that promote instructional, social, and psychological inclusion.

Through the review, Helena Skarupska presents Sapiens, a book written by Yuval Noah Harari, and

translated by Anna Pilate from the original Sapiens A brief history of Humankid. In the following few

issues we want to bring the readers closer to the history and present of the social pedagogy in Slovakia,

so we are opening a new section Social pedagogy in Slovakia. In this issue we publish the text from

Professor Jolana Hroncová, which summarizes the development of social pedagogy in this country after

1989, in the context of the Banská Bystrica School of Social Pedagogy.

The issue concludes the informative text by Jakub Hladík. This is a brief summary of the activities and

objectives of some European social pedagogical associations.

We will be glad if the readers find in this issue the inspiration to think about the outlined questions

arising from the presented studies, interviews, reviews or informative texts. Finally, we would like to

thank all editorial board members, authors and reviewers for their collaboration in creating this issue.

We believe that our journal will retain the support of existing readers and expand its public also

abroad.

Editorial team