The role of the social educator: validation of the CFES-R questionnaire

Abstract

INTRODUCTION. This article presents the CFES–R questionnaire, on the role of social educators (known in the English-speaking countries, as social workers or community workers), as a useful and adequate instrument to study, evaluate and research on the generic functions of their job. It contains those generic educational functions that work effectively for individual and social well-being of vulnerable children and socially excluded people or those at risk of exclusion. Additionally, we test its use as an instrument to evaluate the relation between the education and training received by the workers by means of a specification table. METHOD. A descriptive and correlational research has been carried out, on a nationwide sample of 1242 workers from 16 different regions (Autonomous Communities). The instrument, prepared according to the classical test theory, has been made up by developing a theoretical model based on the therapeutic or retraining assistance to the beneficiaries, differentiating three subscales of roles, namely: counselling, community work and management roles. RESULTS. The questionnaire achieves high reliability in Cronbach’s alpha test and shows sufficient validity obtained from professional documents and through expert panels. The overall reliability is .94 and those of the subscales (personal counselling, community work and management) are around .90. DISCUSSION. The 37 items of the instrument show stable and consistent measurements. The functions about the retraining assistance are relevant and the existence of a subscale of community functions is proven. Further studies are required for other subscales (counselling and management). The instrument could help to assess the academic training and to review and improve the curriculum.