The school educator is a figure who uses his or her training and personal characteristics to develop relational educational and training strategies in the pedagogical field, helping children along their school path.
The figure of the school educator intends to act as a point of reference for the children, acting as a bridge between the school and extracurricular actors in order to design, together, targeted educational interventions for both the individual and the class group.
The figures of the teacher and the educator may often appear to be interchangeable, even at the risk of confusing the children's expectations, but the distinction is as substantial as the collaboration between the two roles. The school educator bases his or her educational-relational strategy on informality, in order to come into contact with the child's world, to get to know the child's state of awareness, with respect to his or her strengths and weaknesses, and to assess the child's developmental level so as to create complete knowledge about the pupil. Education becomes a tool for conveying educational messages and for reinforcing self-esteem and positive behaviour. The school educator can devote her/himself to the individual, where necessary and indispensable.
Collaboration with the teaching staff and with the whole network around the child is therefore fundamental, important to create an ad hoc individual pedagogical plan and to give continuity, coherence and stability to the developmental pathway.
Often the educator, because of the role he/she assumes, can become one of the "reference figures" outside the family on whom to rely in difficult moments, using informal listening. He or she can be supportive, but can also direct children to increase their motivation at school, develop personal self-realisation, promote peer relations through peer-education and develop skills other than curricular ones, offering educational proposals that help foster a sense of belonging to one's community.
The school educator is becoming an increasingly important figure in fostering pupils' school and extracurricular development. Some schools already have a 'Schulsozialpädagoge', with whom educators work closely, if at all. In this case, the educators deal with individual pupils in a more specific and targeted manner, on the instructions of the 'Schulsozialpädagogen', who is responsible for all the pupils in the school and cannot focus on an individual pupil for an entire year.
The tasks of the educator are:
To identify the pupil's academic and extracurricular weaknesses and strengths;
To identify and help the pupil discover his/her own resources in order to improve his/her self-esteem;
Developing personalised study and learning techniques to foster autonomy in learning notions;
Countering and preventing bullying;
Collaborate with the entire teaching staff to foster learning of school notions and to improve the climate of the class group;
Listening to and understanding the pupil's needs in order to be able to provide alternative tools and methodologies that enable them to cope with various problems;
If necessary, mediate between pupils and teachers;
Interacting, communicating with the family, where requested and agreed;
Orienting pupils (especially in eighth grade) towards the choice of high school/professional considering their passions and abilities.
To become a socio-pedagogical educator, one must obtain a three-year degree in educational sciences. On the other hand, to become a pedagogist, one must obtain a master's degree in pedagogical sciences or in the coordination and planning of educational services.
