Innovating the Practicum in social education: experience of collaborative work by stakeholders

Abstract

Society demands from Universities to prepare professionals to be incorporated into the working world and in such training the Practicum has a special responsibility in providing students with professionalizing experiences. Planning and developing the Practicum in undergraduate social education is complex because the professional life is as well. Likewise, it involves an inherent interagency and interdepartmental activity. This paper analyzes an innovative process in the context of action research, which encompasses four years of collaborative work where college faculty, professionals in partner social and educational institutions collaborating with the Practicum and undergraduate students all participated. The purpose is to share the experience, provide suggestions for planning the Practicum and show the value of interdepartmental and interagency collaborative work in the optimization of educational processes.