Summary: | <p class="first" id="d1552370e113">Social work and social pedagogy in Colombia are disciplines and professional fields
of special relevance for social and educational action. This article analyses what
has been the evolution of these fields of knowledge and practice in the Colombian
context, from historical, disciplinary, professional and academic standpoints. For
this, a documentary analysis has been carried out methodologically in the two areas
of knowledge, with a historical and theoretical review of the disciplines in the country,
as well as of the relevant national undergraduate and graduate programmes. This article
concludes by establishing that social work has a longer historical trajectory in the
country to provide social responses to complex problems and violence, with vocational
professionalisation, scientific intervention and wide academic recognition in careers
present in the country’s universities. In contrast, social pedagogy has had some attempts
at being instituted into careers in the country and presents a great diversification
of professions from popular or community education, and has struggled to become professionalised
due to the prominence given to social work by public policy and education. Nonetheless,
our analysis demonstrates that with the historical influence of critical pedagogies
and recent global contributions, there is currently a significant upward trajectory
of social pedagogy in Colombia, with two Master’s degrees existing since 2019 (which
train educators and social workers in socio-educational action).
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