Youth Work in Schools: An investigation of youth work, as a process of informal learning, in formal settings.
This research project from Northern Ireland investigates the thinking behind youth work in schools from a youth work perspective and a school perspective. It discusses theoretical concepts so that youth work can be understood in a formal context. Youth workers, teachers in relevant schools and young people exposed to this intervention were interviewed. The findings were analysed and discussed and the project concludes with a set of recommendations.
Description
While the focus of this research project is on the use of youth work practices in schools it raises some interesting supplementary questions. These questions relate not only to the nature of youth work in schools but to fundamental issues about two domains that are influential on young people, i.e. ‘youth work’ and ‘schools’. Bringing together these two worlds has invariably created an additional third way of viewing work with young people.
The research also raised the issue of whether there is a strategic movement or a ‘drift’ within youth work towards working with young people in places youth workers normally do not access, i.e. the school setting. The answer to this question raises many issues for the youth work profession in terms of autonomy and the delivery of a professional service. For example, what aspects of youth work should take place in schools and what are the ‘unintended consequences’ for youth work principles and practices?