If we consider the 50 states having ratified the European Cultural Convention of the Council of Europe or the member states of the European Union, the multiple and divergent nature of the realities, theories, concepts and strategies underlying the expression "youth work" becomes evident. Across Europe, youth work takes place in circumstances presenting enormous differences with regard to opportunities, support, structures, recognition and realities, and how it performs reflects the social, cultural, political and economic context, and the value systems in which it is undertaken. By analysing theories and concepts of youth work and by providing insight from various perspectives and geographical and professional backgrounds, the authors hope to further contribute to finding common ground for - and thus assure the quality of - youth work in general. Presenting its purified and essential concept is not the objective here. The focus rather is on describing how to "provide opportunities for all young people to shape their own futures", as Peter Lauritzen described the fundamental mission of youth work. The best way to do this remains an open question. This Youth Knowledge book tries to find some answers and strives to communicate the strengths, capacities and impact of youth work to those within the youth sector and those beyond, to those familiar with its concepts and those new to this field, all the while sharing practices and insights and encouraging further reflection. Editors: Hanjo Schild, Nuala Connolly, Francine Labadie, Jan Vanhee, Howard Williamson.

If we consider the 50 states having ratified the European Cultural Convention of the Council of Europe or the member states of the European Union, the multiple and divergent nature of the realities, theories, concepts and strategies underlying the expression “youth work” becomes evident. Across Europe, youth work takes place in circumstances presenting enormous differences with regard to opportunities, support, structures, recognition and realities, and how it performs reflects the social, cultural, political and economic context, and the value systems in which it is undertaken. By analysing theories and concepts of youth work and by providing insight from various perspectives and geographical and professional backgrounds, the authors hope to further contribute to finding common ground for – and thus assure the quality of – youth work in general. Presenting its purified and essential concept is not the objective here. The focus rather is on describing how to “provide opportunities for all young people to shape their own futures”, as Peter Lauritzen described the fundamental mission of youth work. The best way to do this remains an open question. This Youth Knowledge book tries to find some answers and strives to communicate the strengths, capacities and impact of youth work to those within the youth sector and those beyond, to those familiar with its concepts and those new to this field, all the while sharing practices and insights and encouraging further reflection.

Youth work, coupled with effective government policies, is invaluable in ensuring that young people are given the opportunity to acquire the knowledge, skills and attitudes they need for civic engagement and social action. Youth work is experiencing a policy momentum at European level. Since the adoption of a resolution on the subject by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe in 2017, youth work is back on the core agenda of the Council of Europe and the European Union youth strategies. This book looks at how youth work practitioners learn their trade, what formal and non-formal education offers exist and how education iscontextualised in the broader picture of youth work recognition. Starting with the premise that formal education entails a series of steps from which youth work practitioners would benefit, this books explores that picture through a mapping study and delves further into its findings through thematic contributions. The results of the research and debates with policy makers, researchers, practitioners, educators and other stakeholders identifies a field of growing opportunities across Europe. The situation of youth workers in different countries varies from advanced practice architectures for youth worker education to those in need of development. Youth worker education, however, is not only about the education and training offers, it is also about financial and organisational resources, legislation, support systems, competence frameworks, quality standards, ethical frameworks and guidance. This book aims to support youth work so that it becomes more visible and evolves into a recognised field of practice among other occupations and professions engaging with young people.

This book is a Festschrift for Emeritus Professor Stephen Kemmis, who has a long and eminent career as an educational researcher and academic spanning over 40 years. His work in curriculum, evaluation, critical practice, action research and practice theory has been influential across all continents of the world. The book examines critical perspectives on educational practice and the participatory nature of action research, including practitioner research particularly as undertaken by teachers in schools. Including vignettes from Kemmis’ colleagues and mentors, it draws on contributions from a range of academics whose scholarship has been inspired, influenced and initiated by his work. The chapters stem from a range of countries, including Australia, Canada, Finland, weden, the United Kingdom, United States of America, and Trinidad and Tobago - a testimony to the enduring and global legacy of Kemmis’ scholarship. Contributing authors include leading educational research scholars, indigenous elders from Australia, and community leaders concerned with environmental sustainability. The concluding focus of this book turns towards practice theory. Kemmis’ later work led to the development of the theory of practice architectures and gave rise to the development of the theory of ecologies of practices in education. Research drawing on the theory of practice architectures and ecologies of practices resulted in the leading text “Changing practices, changing education” (Kemmis, Wilkinson, Edwards-Groves, Hardy, Grootenboer & Bristol, 2014, Springer) that reports on an Australian investigation of the ecological relationship between student learning, teaching, professional learning, leading and researching practices.This theory is now being applied to study practices across a wide range of international contexts, sites and disciplines including early childhood, school education, university education, vocational education and training, community environment, indigenous cultural sustainability and health.

The purpose of this book is to compile and publicize the best current thinking about training and professional development for youth workers. School age youth spend far more of their time outside of school than inside of school. The United States boasts a rich and vibrant ecosystem of Out?of?School Time programs and funders, ranging from grassroots neighborhood centers to national Boys and Girls Clubs. The research community, too, has produced some scientific consensus about defining features of high quality youth development settings and the importance of after?school and informal programs for youth. But we know far less about the people who provide support, guidance, and mentoring to youth in these settings. What do youth workers do? What kinds of training, certification, and job security do they have? Unlike K?12 classroom teaching, a profession with longstanding – if contested – legitimacy and recognition, “youth work” does not call forth familiar imagery or cultural narratives. Ask someone what a youth worker does and they are just as likely to think you are talking about a young person working at her first job as they are to think you mean a young adult who works with youth. This absence of shared archetypes or mental models is matched by a shortage of policies or professional associations that clearly define youth work and assume responsibility for training and preparation. This is a problem because the functions performed by youth workers outside of school are critical for positive youth development, especially in our current context governed by widening income inequality. The US has seen a decline in social mobility and an increase in income inequality and racial segregation. This places a greater premium on the role of OST programs in supporting access and equity to learning opportunities for children, particularly for those growing up in neighborhoods of concentrated poverty. Fortunately, in the past decade there has been an emergence of research and policy arguments about the importance of naming, defining, and attending to the profession of youth work. A report released in 2013 by the DC Children and Youth Investment Corporation suggests employment opportunities for youth workers are growing faster than the national average; and as the workforce increases, so will efforts to professionalize it through specialized training and credentials. Our purpose in this volume is to build on that momentum by bringing together the best scholarship and policy ideas – coming from in and outside of higher education – about conceptions of youth work and optimal types of preparation and professional development.

The Youth Alternatives and Youth Awareness Press tabloid newspapers were published in Tucson, Arizona through the Tucson YWCA, under the direction of Robert E. Zucker from 1978-1981. The newspaper was staffed by high school students and adult advisors and published through various local, states and federal grants and funding sources.