Social educators between network and partnership

Social educator is a professional whose expertise is not always recognized and valued in the social field and especially in Italy its role is often relegated to administrative assistance or social support, without a real educational intervention: in fact educational skills are often seen as less important than medical care, psychological support, legal assistance, etc. Very often social educators are not able to clearly define their role and competences as those of other operators they are supposed to cooperate in the social field. The paper intend to present a research aiming to analyse the specific role of social educator in the social field, in particular defining what are the skills and competences needed to work in a network and in partnership with other “social workers” (doctors, social workers, mediators, nurses, etc.) at National and European level for the benefit of people involved in the social process. The result should help in create and renovate modules for initial and continuing education for social educator.