Knowledge Tree
youth work
Facts (30)
Sources
Developing youth work: Chapter 5 - Beyond social education infed.org 30 facts
claimAge-related behaviors are a central motif in the dialogue between youth work practitioners and young people, but these behaviors must be considered alongside factors like class and gender to avoid responses that confirm dependency.
claimThe Youth Service Review (1982) defined a young person's social education as the processes by which youth work and work by other agencies assist personal development.
perspectiveA more effective approach to youth work is to clearly demarcate purpose and method, starting from first principles while taking into account the unique offerings of youth work.
claimDuring the late 1970s and the 1980s, interest in social education was renewed within formalized arenas of education and training, but not within youth work.
perspectiveYouth work practitioners should view 'youth' as a way of identifying their target group rather than as a problem to be traversed or solved.
quoteRichard Pring (1984) argues that for a school or youth work unit to be effective, it requires 'a careful, philosophical reflection upon what it means to be a person, how development as a person is inextricably linked with a form of social life, and where moral values and ideas are presupposed in both'.
quoteThe Fairbairn-Milson Report (1969) asserted that the primary goal of youth work is to help young people create their place in a changing society through critical involvement in their community, rather than focusing on basic education, economic needs, or the communication of an agreed value system.
referenceSocial educational practice in youth work rarely progresses beyond a concern with the self and immediate others, according to Lee (1980).
claimThe term 'social education' has been misused within schooling and youth work to cover a wide range of practices that are not genuinely educational in ethos.
quoteDavies and Gibson (1967) defined the prime concern of youth work as being 'with any young person’s meetings with others, with his capacity in these meetings to accept others and be accepted by them, and the ideas, thoughts and opinions, the motives and the emotions inherent in such meetings and interests'.
procedureTo help young people grow up, youth work practitioners should respond to them in a way that allows them to take responsibility for their own learning and to face the consequences of that learning.
claimIn the mid-1980s, Leigh and Smart identified an 'emerging crisis of purpose in social education,' noting that while the term was used as an expression of purpose and method in youth work, it was rarely subjected to serious enquiry.
claimThe 'personal adjustment' approach to youth work assumes that society’s rules and norms are given, and that young people should adjust to this view of maturity.
claimThe shift toward 'social education' in youth work debates represented a conceptual move from an emphasis on 'personal adjustment' to 'person-centredness'.
claimIn the context of youth work, the term 'social' in 'social education' carries a double meaning: one relating to the method of instruction and the other relating to the content of the education, which generally refers to the personal development of the individual in relation to others.
claimThere is no specific, unique method in schooling or youth work that can be exclusively labeled as 'social education'.
quoteDavies and Gibson (1967) stated that the product of youth work is 'any individual’s increased consciousness of himself — of his values, aptitudes and untapped resources and of the relevance of these to others. It enhances the individual’s understanding of how to form mutually satisfying relationships, and so involves a search for the adult for ways of helping a young person to discover how to contribute to as well as take from his associations with others.'
claimThe National Association of Youth Workers (NIYWA) attempted to define the concept of social education in 1987, but the term lacks a sustained and consistent body of practice within youth work.
claimWritten discussions of social education in youth work since the 1970s have emphasized cooperative and collective working methods, a focus on the individual, the importance of harnessing personal experiences, the use of problem-posing, and the necessity of placing these processes in a political perspective.
perspectiveThe theory and practice of youth work, by reflecting the view of youth as a period of enforced dependence, disadvantages young people by tending to undervalue them as they are in the present.
perspectiveThe term 'social education' has become so corrupted and misused within youth work that it is now frequently applied to learning that would have occurred regardless of intervention, often lacking any specific educational intent.
claimThe Albemarle Report (HMSO, 1960) is considered the landmark in the usage of the term 'social education' within youth work.
claimMuch youth work practice remains rooted in the personal level without referencing the broader forces that structure life chances and experiences.
claimPsychological and sociological theories used in youth work have frequently characterized adolescence as a time of disturbance, storm, and stress.
claimSocial education theory in youth work is criticized for three assumptions: conceptualizing adolescence through problematic notions of 'growing up' and maturity, focusing too heavily on individuals and small groups while ignoring political contexts, and potential ethnocentrism and sexism in how the self is conceptualized.
claimEvans (1965) included a chapter titled 'Social Education' that discussed youth work's contribution to the social development of young people, though Evans did not explicitly define or interpret the term 'social education'.
claimThe term 'social education' in youth work is considered by Mark Smith to be a useless theoretical and practical tool due to the magnitude of its definitional and strategic problems.
claimThe appeal of 'social education' within youth work stems from the linking of the concepts of 'social' and 'educational', though Mark Smith argues that simply joining these words does not constitute a theory or a practice.
claimYouth work practices have often emphasized provision for young people rather than by them, contributing to dependency through age-related expectations.
claimRennie et al. (1974) defined the goal of youth work as providing an enabling process through which children achieve a sense of identification with their community, become sensitive to its shortcomings, and develop methods of participation in activities needed to solve social problems.