The experience of children and youth participating in the peer group can cake a different educational dimension, especially as the present civilization has created a possibility to open new contacts by means of modern technological media. Contemporary family is going through a crisis, which results from deep social changes. This, obviously, affects its rearing function and leads to occurrence of negative effects. Therefore, the intention behind the present work was to find out about schoolchildren’s parents’ opinions on the peer-group- based relationships among students of junior high school. According to the new structure of the school system, learning at middle school lasts 3 years and concerns students from 13 to 16 years of age. The subject matter of the present research are both problems related to parents’ knowledge of the functioning of students of middle school in the peer group environment and assessment of the role the latter plays in the rearing process. The empirical verification was carried out by means of the diagnostic survey method with the use of the technique of interview. The survey covered parents of students attending junior high schools. The obtained research material points to the fact that, generally, parents of middle school students are familiar with their children’s peer-group-related contacts since they endeavor to get to know the children’s friends personally. Mothers appear to be more involved in the rearing process and therefore they know more about their children’s mates more than fathers. Parents are aware of the growing role of the peer group in the time of their children’s growing up and tiy to control the latter in this respect. The greatest source of parental concern in the possibility of a destructive impact the peer group can have on individual youth, which can manifest itself in developing a-social forms of behavior. However, the majority of parents declare leaving considerable freedom to their children as regards choosing friends. There is a view dominating among parents that teenagers need to keep contacts with their peers since this has a positive influence on the process of their socialization. Parents who experience problems with rearing their children tend to express the opposite opinion. In the light of the problem situation they come to face they tend to see the causes of misbehavior of the young in their relationships with the peer group. They assess the role of the peer-group-related environment as a definitely negative one.

Individual and common self-identifications determining their specificity take place in given areas, predominantly the cultural ones. However, what’s crucial is the perspective that conceptualizes such identities. For instance, sense of the national belonging of both individuals and communities constitutes one of such perspectives. It is shaped by various determinants, starting from cultural heritage of a given nation through established social and cultural practices which result from socialization and education at the cultural meeting points. The aim of this article is to present the cultural context of socialization and education exemplified by Polish families living in the Vilnius region with reference to those, among who’s the cultural difference is manifested by their national diversity. The issue that gave rise to this article was the attempt to interpret the cultural context of the pedagogical thought of Meilė Lukšienė, crucial for multicultural discourses within pedagogy.

The article discusses problems of socialization that are particularly significant in adolescence, when a adolescent attempts to find his / her place and establish him / herself in the adult world. The conducted research is based on longitudinal studies and focuses on highlighting some factors that affect the process of socialization in the families of adolescents and non-formal school education.

The article presents counselling as an activity that supports socialisation processes. Lifelong career counselling helps young people prepare for vocational and life-related roles and aims to assist an individual in developing competencies one needs to function effectively on the labour market. One of such competencies is professional mobility, which is a typical marker of contemporary biographies called boundaryless career

The article focuses on the analysis of expression of speaking, as a prerequisite to socialization, in the curriculum of the Lithuanian language as mother tongue. The theoretical part compares two learning theories making attempts to highlight the importance of speaking to cognitive and social achievements of learners. The theoretical analysis is based on the comparison of the approaches of two learning theories, that is, constructivism and social constructivism. The research part of the article analyses the dual purpose of speaking, i.e., as learning object and as learning tool, and its expression in the general curriculum of the Lithuanian language (as mother tongue) for basic school.

The article analyses the problem of the re-socialization of convicts. The conditions encouraging the positiveness and effectiveness of the process of re-socialization are revealed here, namely, the constant process, continuity, specialists’ improvement of professional skills and the like. The generalized scientific (academic) literature is illustrated (grounded) by the empirical research data. While presenting the research data, the conclusion that convicts have evident educational needs is made. Besides, convicts who do not have a secondary education commit the highest number of crimes. It also comes into light that younger convicts (aged between 18 and 24) are more motivated in a professional sense than people of other age groups (ages). Through the analysis of the research data it is shown that convicts who have grown up in the families of their biological parents maintain warm and open mutual relationships with their parents more often than those who have not been raised in their biological families. In addition, the majority of the convicted project their future in prison (70 %). More than 60 % of respondents plan to ensure their means of subsistence legally after the release from prison.

At present the system of community social services is burgeoning in Lithuania, as an alternative to stationary social services, which like the one in all western European countries targets at the utilization of societal educational potential. Since the end of the 19th century there has been a tendency to establish diverse community centres opting to become the edifice bringing members of different social groups together to solve various communal problems in Western Europe. It was in the community homes where socio-educational activities of divergent nature such as provision of cost-free legal advice, construction of playgrounds, recreation employment, and adult education were commenced. Various historical periods had an obvious impact on the changes of both the form and content of the activities of these centres. [...]

The final paper presents assessment of educational needs of the people infected with HIV and importance of their satisfaction in Lithuania. The work highlights the importance of education and the evaluation of the importance of education in contemporary society as well as analysis of HIV discrimination and equal opportunities in the society. The paper assesses the social integration of the people infected with HIV, their participation in education, the importance of increase in equal opportunities for patients with communicable diseases, presents the necessity of vocational rehabilitation of the HIV infected, reveals special assistance provided to the infected by specialists of education institutions. The qualitative research method is applied assessing perception of the importance of educational needs of the people infected with HIV and their satisfaction. The relevance of the topics was substantiated by interviews with HIV infected people in order to determine their educational needs. The end of the paper presents the findings and recommendations of theoretical and practical parts.

Authors of the article deal with the problem of social participation of students while studying in basic school. One of the most important aims of education is to help them to perceive themselves as a members of community, as a members of the whole society and become an active and creative participant of this society. Contemporary school creates the climate which has to be friendly to each student and has to help them to develop social competences as a main indicator of the creator of society. Social participation of students are seen as a main actor of socialization process. Thus basic school pays strong attention to organization and improvement of social activities in the school as well as outside the school life of students. Social education includes students social and civic culture, embodies humanistic and democratic values and principles and responds to individual and changing needs of the society. Social activities are an integral part of general and basic education. The organization of the educational process, additional education, school-community partnership, communication and cooperation in its relations with the local community promote students social maturity of the whole school community life. Theoretical analysis show that social activities in school educate not only the student’s knowledge, skills and understanding, but also affect in personal and spiritual powers.

Under-age trangressors (juvenile delinquents) are in the range of vision of many researchers such as forensic detectives, sociologists, educators, psychologists and others. The authors of the article bring to light the problems of the impact on juvenile delinquents and analyze the preconditions of their re-socialization on the basis of the research data of the representatives of the above-mentioned sciences.