• Summary: Social pedagogy is a virtually unknown concept and practice within the Anglo-Saxon world, yet it has considerable importance on the European mainland. This article provides an analysis of the concept of social pedagogy from the point of view of social work. The analysis traces the intricacy of social pedagogy by looking at its historical background and the different contexts in which the concept is used. • Findings: This analysis has been enormously influential in determining that identifying social pedagogy too closely with social work may hinder the development of social pedagogy as a discipline that forms a part of social work education. • Applications: The concept of social pedagogy can be manifested in several national traditions and therefore used in different contexts. The combination of social and pedagogical points of view can be integrated in social work education, adopted to produce theoretical constellations to form a special branch of study and used to organize social help.

The concept of social pedagogy consists of two parts. The principal term is ‘pedagogy’ and the qualifying one is ‘social’. The word ‘social’ is used in different ways and contexts. Therefore, there are also many kinds of semantic interpretations of the concept of social pedagogy. This paper discusses discrepancies of the concept of social pedagogy, paying attention especially to different uses of the qualifying attribute ‘social’. Attention is paid to varieties of theoretical self-conceptions of social pedagogy within the history of the concept.

This paper deals with the problem of ambiguity in relation to the term social pedagogy. It portrays a picture with multiple theoretical drivers, including historical, epistemological and professional. The aim is to improve our understanding of the multifaceted nature of social pedagogy—a topical and complex issue. Both distinguishing and common denominators associated with different schools of thought are considered. The analysis shows that building a social pedagogical theory usually deals with the tension between a person's autonomy and modern society's requirements in the process of socialisation, and that social pedagogical theory is often being applied to alleviate social ills through education. Social pedagogy has been conceptualised as a science (a field of research and theory building), as a science-based occupational system of practices (a field of professional practice) and as a system of corresponding professional education (discipline).

The closure of schools because of the COVID-19 pandemic created a challenge for families and teachers in supporting children’s remote schooling. This study investigates parents’ perspectives on their accommodation to the rapid change to remote schooling from the point of view of sustainable education. The study was conducted at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in spring 2020 via an online questionnaire for parents, to which 316 voluntary participants responded. Data were analyzed using a theory-driven content analysis. According to the results, parents were worried about the learning and wellbeing of their children as well as management of daily life and use of information and communications technology (ICT). The results show the importance of schools and teachers as well as networks in supporting family resilience during rapid changes. Families’ individual needs should be acknowledged and met in a sustainable way to support children’s learning in changing settings, including remote schooling.

Aims: Social workers report high levels of stress and have an increased risk for hospitalisation with mental diagnoses. However, it is not known whether the risk of work disability with mental diagnoses is higher among social workers compared with other human service professionals. We analysed trends in work disability (sickness absence and disability pension) with mental diagnoses and return to work (RTW) in 2005–2012 among social workers in Finland and Sweden, comparing with such trends in preschool teachers, special education teachers and psychologists.Methods: Records of work disability (>14 days) with mental diagnoses (ICD-10 codes F00–F99) from nationwide health registers were linked to two prospective cohort projects: the Finnish Public Sector study, years 2005–2011 and the Insurance Medicine All Sweden database, years 2005–2012. The Finnish sample comprised 4849 employees and the Swedish 119 219 employees covering four occupations: social workers (Finland 1155/Sweden 23 704), preschool teachers (2419/74 785), special education teachers (832/14 004) and psychologists (443/6726). The reference occupations were comparable regarding educational level. Risk of work disability was analysed with negative binomial regression and RTW with Cox proportional hazards.Results: Social workers in Finland and Sweden had a higher risk of work disability with mental diagnoses compared with preschool teachers and special education teachers (rate ratios (RR) 1.43–1.91), after adjustment for age and sex. In Sweden, but not in Finland, social workers also had higher work disability risk than psychologists (RR 1.52; 95% confidence interval 1.28–1.81). In Sweden, in the final model special education teachers had a 9% higher probability RTW than social workers. In Sweden, in the final model the risks for work disability with depression diagnoses and stress-related disorder diagnoses were similar to the risk with all mental diagnoses (RR 1.40–1.77), and the probability of RTW was 6% higher in preschool teachers after work disability with depression diagnoses and 9% higher in special education teachers after work disability with stress-related disorder diagnoses compared with social workers.Conclusion: Social workers appear to be at a greater risk of work disability with mental diagnoses compared with other human service professionals in Finland and Sweden. It remains to be studied whether the higher risk is due to selection of vulnerable employees to social work or the effect of work-related stress in social work. Further studies should focus on these mechanisms and the risk of work disability with mental diagnoses among human service professionals.