Recognizing experiential knowledge in the process of qualification of peer helpers: an analysis of an educational program for service users in France

ABSTRACT

This article analyzes an innovative training program enabling the qualification of peer carers, working within the sector of ‘social inclusion’. Since the French national debate on social work conducted within the ‘Estates General’ of 2015, peer workers have become key players in training programs in virtue of their experiential knowledge and their understanding of issues related to the process of social exclusion. This article addresses the role of peer helpers’ experiential knowledge in the training process. Because of their ‘experiential’ and ‘empirical’ knowledge about questions linked to the process of exclusion, peer helpers have become key players in social work teams and within social institutions, thus contributing to new methods of socio-educational intervention. What impact will this recognition of peer helpers’ and service users’ experiential knowledge have on education in social work? This article gives an account of an 8-month training program for peer helpers examined on the methodological level through a process of Participant observation, and based on data from comprehensive interviews carried out with a panel of peer helpers.