Contesting ‘youth work’: can young people’s expectations

marry with those of other ‘stakeholders’?

“a progressive response to crime”

Ed Miliband, 2011.

Open:

• exposed & vulnerable• accessible & approachable; honest• to unlock; to begin

If there are genuine uncertainties in life, philosophies must reflect that uncertainty.

Dewey, J. (1916) Democracy and Education, New York: The Free Press, p. 160.

‘Outcomes’, by Tim Leunig

Revealed: plan to make civil servants work longer hours

Syal, R. The Guardian, 11 October 2012

“A Cabinet Office spokesperson said that the civil service was being reformed to make it faster, more unified, focussed on outcomes not process, and ultimately more enjoyable to work for.”

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/oct/10/leaked-documents-public-sector-hours

Ref. Pohl, A. Disadvantaged Urban Youth and Youth Work,

IRIS e.V., Tübingen www.iris-egris.de

Youth Work Activation agenda

Work Principle Participation Activation

Meaning of citizenship Democratic rights

and civic engagement

Being part of workforce

Aims Citizenship,

Empowerment

Employability,

Adaptation

Means Non-formal learning, shared decision-making

Pressure & control of training and job search

Motivation for activity Intrinsic motivation Extrinsic motivation

Demonstrations in Washington DC after the decision not to prosecute police officer Darren Wilson, who shot dead Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. Photograph: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Contesting:

• Disputing• Challenging• Questioning• Opposing• Querying• Arguing

The big issue is around changing the perception of what engineering is about. Every time we do a survey of attitudes to jobs, we get horrifying remarks back from people not realising just how exciting and creative engineering is today. Engineers create the world we live in.

Steve Holliday, Chief Executive of the UK National Grid, 2015.

Smith, M. K. (1980) Creators not Consumers: rediscovering social education, Leicester, NAYC Publications (now Youth Clubs UK)http://infed.org/archives/creators/index.htm (pdf download).

Play is what children and young people do when they themselves choose what to do.

The Dobson Report, 2004.

The Cineroleum http://www.domusweb.it/en/architecture/young-architects-in-action-3assemble/

I think this new crowd have found ways of producing, ways of finding spaces and turning them into theatres that is unprecedented. They’ve got lots of things to say, they say it in all sorts of different ways, and they find all sorts of ways of saying it.

Nicholas Hytner, artistic director of the National Theatre, quoted in “Do not blame arts for problems with social mobility, says Hytner”, Guardian newspaper, 30 January 2015.

http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/jan/30/arts-elitism-social-diversity-nicholas-hytner

9.4 Risky Business adopted an outreach approach, based on community development principles. That is, it started where the young person was; it concerned itself with the whole person and addressed issues that the young person brought to the relationship; it did not prescribe or direct. Its methods were complementary to those of the statutory services. Its success depended upon the skills of the individual worker and the level of trust which young people were willing to commit to it. Its operations could be volatile, unpredictable, and even ‘risky’. Nevertheless, it was performing a function which services with statutory responsibilities could not fully replicate. Any semblance of the statutory worker had to be set aside in order to create and retain trust.

Independent Enquiry into Child Sexual Exploitation in Rotherham, 1997 –2013. The Jay Report: http://www.rotherham.gov.uk/downloads/file/1407/independent_inquiry_cse_in_rotherham

67. The Munro Review: Part One: ‘A Systems Analysis’ was published in October 2010. This paper outlined the actions which were being taken to improve management, co-ordination and practice. It recognised the problems caused by widespread restructuring and financial cuts. It called for local authorities to have the confidence to develop their own approaches to child protection. A degree of uncertainty and risk must be accepted.

Referenced in the Jay Report

The best way for schools to instil such values in pupils is to reflect them in the way the institution is run. Schools have to embody it [democracy] in the way they work and within the ethos and culture of the school –within a framework of rules, regulations which are there for the benefit of everyone. It’s not just a question of sitting and teaching children about it.

Malcolm Trobe, of the Association of School and College Leaders (ACSL), 2015.

Childism is the automatic presumption of superiority of any adult over any child; it results in adult’s needs, desires, hopes, and fears taking unquestioned precedence over those of the child. It goes beyond the biologic necessity that requires adults to sustain the species by means of authoritative, unilateral decisions.

Pierce, C.M. & Allen, G.B. (1975) Childism, Psychiatric Annals; Jul 1975; 5, 7; ProQuest Research Library, p. 266.

We can conclude that ‘political education’ – the cultivation of the virtues, knowledge and skills necessary for political participation - has moral primacy over other purposes of public education in a democratic society.

Gutmann, A. (1987) Democratic Education, Princeton: Princeton University Press

… from ‘either / or’ to ‘and / also’ …

Beck, U. (1997) The Reinvention of Politics: Rethinking Modernity in the Global Social Order, Cambridge, Polity Press.

Web: http://www.graemetiffany.co.uk/

Twitter: @GraemeTiffany