Socially Just, Radical Alternatives for Education and Youth Work Practice Re-Imagining Ways of Working with Young People

by Cooper, Charlie; Gormally, Sinéad; Hughes, Gill

• ISBN13: 9781137393586
• ISBN10: 1137393580
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2015-10-12
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

Challenging dominant neoliberal discourses about ways of working with 'disconnected' young people, this book sets out ideas for generating radically different ways of thinking about such practices. Drawing on contemporary and historical material, the book argues that alternative approaches to formal and informal education are necessary to challenge repressive practices, and to help build a more equal, socially-just society. The book achieves this by re-imagining - with the aid of utopian studies - how formal and informal ways of working with young people might be made more empowering. Each chapter contributes to addressing the heterogeneity of experience of diverse life-worlds - in contrast to the homogenous one-size fits all approach to education and youth work that has become the dominant mode in neoliberal societies. Whilst many young people do make successful transitions to adulthood, a substantial minority are failed by an increasingly marketized social system  - particularly education where young people are expected to achieve specified outcomes in a structure that does not speak to them, and leaves them wondering on the relevance of academic qualifications that seem to be out of their reach.

Author Biography

Charlie Cooper is Lecturer in Community and Youth Work at the University of Hull, UK. He is a professionally-qualified housing manager and a community development and youth worker. He has previously published Community, Conflict and the State.
 
Sinéad Gormally is Lecturer in Youth Work and Community Development at the University of Hull, UK, and is also a trained practitioner.
 
Gill Hughes is Lecturer in Community Learning at the University of Hull, UK.

Table of Contents

1. The Case for Re-Imagining the Ways of Working with Young People in Education and Youth Work; Charlie Cooper, Sinéad Gormally and Gill Hughes
2. Challenging The Order Of Things: Independent Working-Class Education As A Model For Contemporary Praxis; John Grayson
3. Critical Pedagogy in Higher Education; Charlie Cooper
4. Emancipatory Praxis; A Social-Justice Approach to Equality Work; Annette Coburn and Sinéad Gormally
5. Social Justice and Social Pedagogy; Pat Petrie
6. Alternative Provision Free Schools: Educational Fireworks Or Sparks Of Optimism For Excluded Young People?; Max Hope
7. In Pursuit Of A Common Values Base For Working With Young People In Formal, Informal And Social Learning; Julie Rippingale
8. Feminist Agendas in Informal Education; Janet Batsleer
9. 'Race', Ethnicity and Young People; Momodou Sallah and Richard Kennedy
10. Inclusive And Accessible Citizenry: Making Spaces For Working With Young People With (Dis)Abilities; Susan Cullen
11. 'Imagining Otherwise' or Tinkering with the System?; Gill Hughes
12. Re-Imagining Ways Of Working With Young People In Education And Youth Work; Charlie Cooper, Sinéad Gormally and Gill Hughes