Social Pedagogical Perspectives on Fidelity to a Manual: Professional Principles and Dilemmas in Everyday Expertise

Title: Social Pedagogical Perspectives on Fidelity to a Manual: Professional Principles and Dilemmas in Everyday Expertise

Research authors: Lotte Junker Harbo, Robyn Kemp

Published in: International Journal of Social Pedagogy (September 2020)

Harbo and Kemp originate in Denmark. They suggest that when it comes to methods or programmes, the nature of social pedagogical or social care practice calls for Navigation Methods (Jensen, 2010), structured around Guiding Principles (Rothuizen, 2004). This approach calls for the practitioners to act in everyday situations, using their professional knowledge and making situated judgments regarding what seems to support the intended process the best, this is termed “situated practice” and leads to a “consensus-based conditional programme” (based on values that allow and enable practitioners to facilitate change through drawing on their everyday expertise). The focus is on the possibility for the practitioners to, at any given time, reflect on whether practice is moving in the right direction (Rothuizen, 2004, p.152)