Interdiciplinary Issues in Estonia – Social Work and Educational Science – (Certificate)

Contents

This is the first co-operational attempt to organise and coordinate the course by the Institute of Social Work and the Institute of Educational Sciences.

The summer course’s objective is to support international collaboration in the field of social work and educational studies in Estonia. By inviting speakers and students from partner universities, we hope to create the opportunity to gain and exchange valuable international experience, an essential tool for the contemporary social worker and educator. An opportunity to study within a multicultural and also in multiprofessional environment is one of the most important goals of our summer course.

This module consists of lecture-seminars on various issues related to social work and educational sciences in Estonia and abroad. Additionally, we will organise field visits and workshops to allow students to get involved in a specific subject area such as child and youth welfare, the welfare of the elderly, the welfare of people with special needs and relevant educational topics. Workshops include seminars with academics as well as with professionals from the social services and educational sphere.

The course includes a 1-day field visit to severeal institutions involved in some aspect of social work or education. Participants will be given the opportunity to visit several social work and educational institutions.

Special focuses are on the following topics: multidiciplinarity, identity & integration, “subject” and “object”, learning by doing, children and youth with special (educational) needs, social rehabilitation, media and child, creation & theraphy, rights and responsibilities of the client; social theatre; theory – practice and philosophy. Students will also have the chance to acquaint themselves with Estonia and our national culture.

We hope that participants will take the opportunity to invest some of their time and energy in discovering more about Estonia and the Estonian Social and Educational Sphere, in a situation and at a time when these are going through a process of intensive development.

We have seen that those who have participated in our summer course in the past have gained a lot of new information and made a lot of new friends. During the past years we have had participants from Spain, Georgia, Holland, Belgium, Finland, Latvia, Germany, Greece, Poland, China, Austria, Tajikistan, Ukraine and France.