BERA Youth Studies

July 11^th Brathay Hall Ambleside 10.00am for 10.30 start. 4.00pm end.

The celebration, analysis and critique of the specific pedagogies associated with youth and community work in the UK has received far too little attention.

Recent focus on ‘social pedagogy’ in the European context has revived interest in the theory and practice of social education; the work of John Dewey and Paolo Freire is routinely invoked : but how far have we engaged with wider discussions and critiques of reflective learning; experiential learning and even ‘critical pedagogy’ itself. Models of ‘anti-oppressive practice’ and ‘global education’ routinely make claims to link the local and the global but what are the constraints,possibilities and contradictions in this in practice?

Traditions of experiential learning have informed contradictory political tendencies: forming the basis of neo-liberal models of ‘plan,do,review’ as well as offering a source for claims to counter-knowledge in feminist pedagogies. Outdoor education strategies have been mobilised both for management training and for engagement with fundamental issues of life and death, including issues of faith. In detached youth work, ‘low threshold practices’ might be seen as aspects of welfare and access to services, but they have also been seen as enabling ‘street philosophy’ grounded in relationship. Some practices see ‘identities’ as a core basis for association and learning; other practices, such as ‘queer pedagogies’ seek to unsettle identities in order to provoke learning.

You are warmly invited to the BERA Seminar which will conclude the TAG Conference this year at Brathay Hall to explore some of these themes.

The following papers have been confirmed:

Janet Batsleer,Manchester Metropolitan University: ‘What Do we learn from experience: experience and knowing in feminist practice.’

Annette Coburn, Strathclyde University Border-Crossings and Border Pedagogy in Youth Work

Finn Cullen,Brunel University ‘It’s only a joke’: Laughter, humour and teenage girls’ performance of gender and sexual agency

Helen Gatenby, University of Durham Locating Informal Education Teaching without Ties?

Jean Hatton,Frankie Williams and Ann Chapman, Huddersfield and Sunderland Universities Queering Inside Out. Insights from Youth and Community Work teaching.

Richard McHugh Manchester Metropolitan University Outdoor education, anarchistic curriculum and street philosophies: From Plato to 50 Cent in a Bothy

Jon Ord,Marjon John Dewey and Experiential Learning. Developing the theory of youth work

Nigel Pimlott,Staffordshire Univeristy The need for a considered pedagogy in faith based youth work

Kaz Stuart and Lucy Maynard ,Brathay Brathay’s Model of Youth Development

Graeme Tiffany,Institute of Education Detached Youth Work and the Practice of Street Philosophy

If you are a member of BERA this is a free event. You are also welcome to come if you are not a member of either BERA or TAG .

Please contact Janet Batsleer (Convenor BERA Youth Studies SIG) if you plan to attend and are not already going to be at the TAG Conference at Brathay. J.Batsleer@mmu.ac.uk. Cost for the day will be £45 for non-BERA folk.