The Short Guide to Working with Children and Young People

Conradie, Liesl, Golding, Tyrrell

• Publisher: Policy Press
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781447309598
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Scienze sociali
• Subtopic: Studi sull'infanzia in sociologia

Childhood and youth have become increasingly important key concepts across a range of disciplines, professions and studies. The short guide to working with children and young people is an accessible introduction into the main concepts, developments and policy related to this exciting area of work. Divided into two parts, the opening chapters prepare readers to think about work with children and young people by providing an overview of key theoretical perspectives related to the field. The second part focuses on work with children and young people by exploring the roles of some of the key practitioners at each stage and developing an understanding of what they do. This unique book provides a clear, concise and accessible overview of the subject and allows readers to make more informed choices in their career pathway. It provides a key starting point for relevant undergraduate degree courses as well as for people considering working in this field, and a valuable reference point for existing practitioners and volunteers.

1

Introduction to working with children and young people

In this first chapter of The short guide to working with children and young people we will give you a brief overview of why work with children and young people is needed. We will introduce you to the nature of working with children and young people, including identifying the different age groups that professionals work with; for example you may already be asking yourself when does a child become a young person? We will also begin to identify the different professionals who work with children and young people, perhaps challenging some of your assumptions. For example, youth workers are not a type of social worker. All the aspects of working with children and young people that we introduce you to in this chapter we will develop further in later chapters.

How to use this book

This book is intended to be a concise presentation of the key factors and facets that professionals face. We have written this book hoping that it will be clear and understandable to anyone who picks it up and flicks through the pages. However, we have specifically tried to make it useful and applicable to readers who may wish to enter the working with children and young people field, whether they are a young person researching and planning for their future career or someone ready to retrain and face fresh challenges. This book might also be one of the first books you are introduced to in your studies after you have made a decision to work with children and young people.

Whoever you are, we recognise that there is a dizzying array of professionals working in the sector. We hope that by reading this book and undertaking some of the activities we suggest, you will find your path to the right future career.

All the way through the book you will find key words and phrases within the text in bold. You will find a plain, user-friendly definition of these key terms in the glossary on pages ix to xxvi. We have tried to ensure that this glossary is easy to understand and includes all the key terms used by practitioners who work with children and young people, including some terms not referred to directly by us. In fact, we feel that this is almost a chapter in its own right. This is because a key aspect of becoming part of a community of practice (Wenger, 1999) is understanding and adopting the language used by the practitioners and professionals within it. We hope that we have written in a style that is easy to read and follow, but we have not ‘dumbed down’ in our identification of the concepts to include. We suggest that you keep your own record of any words or phrases that you do not recognise when you first come across them in the course of your wider reading or research.

Pause for thought and reflection

Throughout this short guide to working with children and young people, we will include brief activities in each of the chapters. These will usually be an opportunity for you to pause and reflect on the topic or theme being discussed. These activities are not compulsory and will not prevent you from continuing with your reading and understanding of the chapter. However, if you are using this book to support you to consider a possible future career working with children and young people, these activities will guide you through the process. The activities will also aid you to make sense of the theories covered and introduce you to the idea of putting theory into practice (using theory in real situations).

Pen pictures

In some of the chapters we will also be using pen pictures. A pen picture is a way of trying to create a picture with words instead of a drawing. In this book we will be using pen pictures of some of the main practitioners who work with children and young people. Hopefully, these will give you some good examples of real working situations, which we have drawn from our own experiences and the experiences of colleagues.

Reflective journal

Most students studying to work with children and young people are advised to keep a reflective journal. This might also be called a reflective diary, learning journal or practice recording, but it often involves students undertaking similar processes.

Reflect: to think carefully, especially about possibilities and opinions. (Cambridge Dictionaries Online, 2011)

The purpose of keeping a diary or log of your reflections is to enable you to identify your thoughts and feelings about things that you read, theories that you come across or something that happens while at work. There is really no right or wrong when it comes to what to write about. However, as a general guide, we suggest that if there is something that you find yourself thinking about after work or a theory or news item you read or hear about really makes you think or feel something, it might be worth writing about it.

Reflection, especially with regard to practitioners working with children and young people, has been written about a lot. This is because, essentially, reflection is a process that aims to support us to think about things that have happened and identify what we can learn from these events. For example, if I pick up a hot pan from the cooker and burn my hand, I may reflect on this and realise that I should use a tea towel or wait for the pan to cool. If I don’t think about the event at all, I may not identify the cause and effect between the hot pan and my burnt hand and I might make the same mistake again. It is important to also reflect on things that go well to ensure that you can try to replicate them. If you are interested in learning more about reflective practice then we suggest that you do an online search. Alternatively, we have included some key texts on various topics in the ‘Further reading’ section at the end of each chapter.

While we will introduce a different reflective model in Chapter Five, a particular favourite model of the authors of this book was produced by Gibbs (1988). His model is of particular interest for us as he identifies the role of feelings in our evaluation and interpretation of a situation (see Figure 1.1).

Figure 1.1: Gibbs’ reflective cycle

Source: Gibbs (1988)

Gibbs’ (1988) reflective cycle provides us with a structure for our reflection and provides prompts for us to think through the facets of an issue or event. Starting at description, you can address each question, writing as little or as much as you think relevant to the topic of your reflections. Whether you choose to write this process up or not, you can use it to think through most things. For example, you could employ it as usefully to think through a meeting at work as you could to support a young person to think through an argument with a friend.

One of the most important points on the cycle is the point at which you action plan. For reflection to be a useful process you need to think about what will change and what you can do next. Without this aspect, nothing will change. It is the difference between a circle and a cycle: a circle goes round and round, staying on the same course in the same space; a cycle is more like a spiral, which has a similar pattern but moves forward at the end of each rotation.

Pen picture – Lucy

Lucy was a new youth worker. She was having trouble building a positive relationship with a group of young men in an evening youth club. As part of the course she was studying she had to keep a learning journal. Using Gibbs’ (1988) model as a structure for her journal, she started to work through the issue. She identified that as she was 21 years old and the young men were 16 to 17 years old, she felt that she didn’t present herself as a confident member of staff and the young people took advantage of her being so near their age.

Completing the process she identified an action plan for her next session. She decided on leading a part of the session to support the young people to look at the youth club rules on behaviour again. She felt that this would give her a role while allowing her to address the issues around the young people’s behaviour towards her.

After the session, Lucy completed another learning journal entry. She described the session and completed each aspect of Gibbs’ cycle. Again she identified an action plan for her next session with the young men, which was to continue to build on the good practice she had now started.

In the pen picture above you can see Lucy using a reflective cycle to develop her work. She is also using a theory to inform her practice. As Lewin (1951, p 169) is famous for saying, ‘there is nothing more practical than a good theory’.

If you do decide to undertake any of the ‘pause for thought and reflection’ activities, we suggest that you make notes in your reflective journal. You can make your notes in any form that works for you, for example on a notes app on your smart p...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of tables and figures
• Acknowledgements
• List of abbreviations
• Glossary
• Part One: Contextualising work with children and young people
• Part Two: Working with children and young people
• References