Abstract
Engaging with youth and families in collaborative and respectful ways; taking practical actions to create the conditions for young people to experience meaning, worth and connection; supporting them to imagine hopeful futures for themselves; and bringing oneself fully to the therapeutic relationship are all hallmark characteristics of child and youth care (CYC) practice. Those who do this work and those who prepare practitioners for the field recognize the need for conceptual frameworks that can adequately represent the complexities of everyday CYC practice. By taking up the notion of praxis as knowing, doing and being in context, I hope to plant some fresh seeds to animate and extend current conceptualizations of everyday CYC practice.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
The number of individuals who have made a significant contribution to the CYC field are too numerous to mention and inevitably this is an incomplete list. My apologies for the omissions.
A more recently developed model expands on KSS by making explicit links between the CYC field, the post-secondary curriculum and client outcomes (Stuart and Carty 2006).
Based on consultation with faculty and staff in the School of Child and Youth Care, University of Victoria, these domains have been extended to include community capacity building and social policy.
References
Anglin, J. (1992). What exactly is child and youth care work? The International Child and Youth Care Network, 14, 1–3.
Anglin, J. (1999). The uniqueness of child and youth care: A personal perspective. Child and Youth Care Forum, 28(2), 143–150.
Artz, S. (1994). Feeling as a way of knowing: A practical guide to working with emotional experience. Toronto, ON: Trifolium Books.
Bates, R. (2005). A search for synergy: The child and youth care educated child protection worker. Child and Youth Care Forum, 34(2), 99–110.
Beker, J. (2001). Towards the unification of the child care field as a profession. Child and Youth Care Forum, 40(6), 355–362.
Bohman, J., Hiley, D., & Shusterman, R. (1991). The interpretive turn. In D. Hiley, J. Bohman, & R. Shusterman (Eds.), The interpretive turn: Philosophy, science and culture (pp. 1–14). Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). The ecology of human development. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Carr, W. (1987). What is an educational practice? Journal of Philosophy of Education, 21(2), 163–175.
Corney, T. (2004). Values versus competencies: Implications for the future of professional youth work education. Journal of Youth Studies, 7(4), 513–527.
Dahlberg, G., Moss, P., & Pence, A. (1999). Minority directions in the majority world: Threats, possibilities. In G. Dahlberg, P. Moss, & A. Pence (Eds.), Beyond quality in early childhood education and care: Postmodern perspectives (pp. 159–186). London: Falmer Press.
Denholm, C. (1990). Canadian child and youth care 1979–1989. Youth Studies, 9(2) 51.
Denholm, C. J., Ferguson, R. V., & Pence, A. R. (1983). The scope of professional child care in British Columbia. In C. Denholm, R. Ferguson, & A. Pence (Eds.), The scope of professional child care in British Columbia (pp. 1–7). Victoria, B.C.: University Of Victoria.
Dorazio-Migliore, M., Migliore, S., & Anderson, J. (2005). Crafting a praxis-oriented culture concept in the health disciplines: Conundrums and possibilities. Health: An Interdisciplinary Journal for the Social Study of Health, Illness and Medicine, 9(3), 339–360.
Eisikovits, Z., & Beker, J. (2001). Beyond professionalism: The child and youth care worker as craftsman. Child & Youth Care Forum, 30(6), 415–434.
Ferguson, R. (1991). Umbrellas to onions: The evolution of an interactive model for child and youth care education. Journal of Child and Youth Care, 5(2), 11–23.
Ferguson, R., & Anglin, J. (1985). The child care profession: A vision for the future. Child Care Quarterly, 14, 85–102.
Fewster, G. (1990). Being in child care: A journey into self. Binghampton, NY: The Haworth Press.
Fishman, D. (1999). The case for pragmatic psychology. New York: New York University Press.
Freedman, J. & Combs, G. (1996). Narrative therapy: The social construction of preferred realities. New York: W.W. Norton.
Friere, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York, NY: Seabury.
Garfat, T. (2003). Working with families: Developing a child and youth care approach. Child & Youth Services, 25(1/2), 7–37.
Garfat, T. (2004). Meaning-making and intervention in child and youth care practice. Scottish Journal of Residential Child Care, 3(1), 9–16.
Gergen, K. (2000). An invitation to social construction. London: Sage Publications.
Goldberger N., Tarule J., Clinchy B., & Belenky M. (Eds.). (1996). Knowledge, difference, and power: Essays inspired by women’s ways of knowing. New York: Basic Books.
Greenwood, D., & Levin, M. (2005). Reform of the social sciences and of universities through action research. In N. Denzin, &Y. Lincoln (Eds.), The sage handbook of qualitative research (3rd ed., pp. 43–64). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Hoskins, M. L. (1996). Constructivism and child and youth care practice: Visions for the 21st century. Journal of Child and Youth Care, 11(4), 83–93.
Hoyle, E., & John, P. (1995). Professional knowledge and professional practice. Cambridge, UK: Cassell.
Krueger, M. (1997). Using self, story and intuition to understand child and youth care work. Child & Youth Care Forum, 26(3), 153–161.
Krueger, M. (2004). Youthwork as modern dance. Child & Youth Services, 26(1), 3–24.
Maier, H. (2001). Should child and youth care go the craft or professional route? A comment on the preceding article by Zvi Eiskovits and Jerome Beker. Child and Youth Care Forum, 30(6), 435–440.
McKee Sellick, M., Delaney, R., & Brownlee, K. (2002). The deconstruction of professional knowledge: Accountability without authority. Families in Society: The Journal of Contemporary Human Services, 83(5/6), 493–498.
Mattingly, M. (1995). Developing professional ethics for child and youth care work: Assuming responsibility for the quality of care. Child and Youth Care Forum, 24(6), 379–391.
Mattingly, M. & Stuart, C. (2002). The North American Certification Project: Competencies for professional child and youth work practitioners. Journal of Child and Youth Work, 17, 16–49.
Nakkula, M., & Ravitch, S. (1998). Matters of interpretation: Reciprocal transformation in therapeutic and developmental relationships with youth. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers.
Nelson, G., Poland, B., Murray, M., & Maticka-Tyndale, E. (2004). Building capacity in community health action research: Towards a praxis framework for graduate education. Action Research, 2(4), 389–408.
Nussbaum, M. (1990). Love’s knowledge: Essays on philosophy and literature. New York: Oxford University Press.
Nutley, S., & Davies, H. (2002). Making a reality of evidence-based practice. In H. Davies, S. Nutley, & P. Smith (Eds.), What works? Evidence-based policy and practice in public services (pp. 317–350). Bristol, UK: The Policy Press.
Pence, A. (1987). Child care’s family tree: Toward a history of the child and youth care profession in North America. Child and Youth Care Quarterly, 16(3), 151–161.
Pendlebury, S. (1995). Reason and story in wise practice. In H. McEwan & K. Egan (Eds.), Narrative in teaching, learning, and research (pp. 50–65). New York: Teachers College Press.
Peters, D., & Kelly, C. (1982). Principles and guidelines for child care personnel preparation programs. Child Care Quarterly, 11(3), 37–51.
Phelan, J. (2005). Child and youth care education: The creation of articulate practitioners. Child & Youth Care Forum, 34(5), 347–355.
Polkinghorne, D. (1988). Narrative knowing and the human sciences. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
Ricks, F. (1989). Self-awareness model for training and application in Child and Youth Care. Journal of Child and Youth Care, 4(1), 33–41.
Ricks, F., & Bellefeuille, G. (2003). Knowing: The critical error of ethics in family work. Child & Youth Services, 25(1/2), 117–130.
School of Child and Youth Care. (2005). Values. Retrieved January 26, 2007 from http://www.cyc.uvic.ca/about/values.php#values
Schon, D. A. (1983). The reflective practitioner. How professionals think in action. New York: Basic Books.
Schwandt, T. (2002). Evaluation practice reconsidered. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc.
Skott-Myhre, H. (2003). Radical youthwork: Creating and becoming everyone. In T. Strong, & D. Pare (Eds.), Furthering talk: Advances in the discursive therapies. (pp. 217–232). New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers.
Smith, M. (1999). Praxis: An introduction to the idea plus an annotated notebook. Retrieved January 25, 2007, from http://www.infed.org/biblio/b-praxis.htm#praxis
Stacey, K. (2001). Achieving praxis in youth partnership accountability. Journal of Youth Studies, 4(2), 208–231.
Stuart, C., & Carty, B. (2006). The role of competence in outcomes for children and youth: An approach for mental health. Ontario Ministry for Children and Youth Services. Toronto, ON: Ryerson University.
Tarlier, D. (2005). Mediating the meaning of evidence through epistemological diversity. Nursing Inquiry, 12(2), 126–134.
Taylor, C., & White, S. (2000). Practising reflexivity in health and welfare: Making knowledge. Buckingham, UK: Open University Press.
Ungar, M. (2004). A constructionist discourse on resilience: Multiple contexts, multiple realities among at-risk children and youth. Youth & Society, 35(3), 341–365.
Usher, R., Bryant, I., & Johnston, R. (1997). Adult education and the postmodern challenge: Learning beyond the limits. London: Routledge.
VanderVen, K. (1991). How is child and youth care work unique—and different—from other fields? Journal of Child and Youth Care, 5(1), 15–19.
VanderVen, K. (in press). If theory and practice were the same—then what? A new approach to designing professional education. In S. Ravitch & M. Nakkula (Eds.), Teaching, learning and doing: Interdisciplinary approaches to educational inquiry and professional development.
White, M., & Epston, D. (1990). Narrative means to therapeutic ends. New York: W.W. Norton and Company.
Acknowledgements
The author is grateful to Dr. Roy Ferguson for his helpful comments on an earlier draft.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
White, J. Knowing, Doing and Being in Context: A Praxis-oriented Approach to Child and Youth Care. Child Youth Care Forum 36, 225–244 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10566-007-9043-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10566-007-9043-1