Wirkungsnachweis aus der Literatur
facilitating the learning process for youth workers
Erwerb von fach- und bereichsspezifischen Kompetenzen
The youth workers co-created with each other, with facilitators, and with young people their own collective and individual professional learning. In the three cohorts, everyone was (and is) a learner as well as a teacher. The cohort members, including the facilitators, acknowledged, respected, and built on each other’s knowledge, skills, and practice wisdom. The learning focused on needs and issues identified as important by the three cohorts.
Beschreibung der Aktivität
youth work professional development approaches - participatory action research (PAR)
Improvment of community-based youth work practice (mainly out-of-school time programs) by means of professional development approaches; Using participatory action research (PAR) philosophy and methods, this professional-development model engaged youth workers in self-reflective, collective, and collaborative dialogues and discussions about their practice. PAR is a process that ‘‘attempts to help people investigate and change their social and educational realities by changing some of the practices which constitute their lived realities’’ (Kemmis & Wilkinson, 1998, p. 21; Note: This is a secondary source. For more information, please check the bibliography of Ross Sheetak 2011). PAR as professional development model is on-going training that is situated in the learners’ practice contexts and is learner-driven, as well as learner-centered. The model described aimed to help youth workers reframe how they view their practice, their environments (where they live and work), their work, and themselves. This professional-development model is a collaborative project of a public youth serving agency, community organizations, and our university.
USA
18 to 72
PraktikerInnen/ JugendarbeiterInnen/ MentorInnen
Evaluierung der Aktivität
The research design was qualitative and explorative. All participants in the two longest running professional-development groups were interviewed. The evaluation of the professional-development approach was conducted by an external evaluator and all participants were informed of the study intention and signed consent was obtained. Those in the third professional-development group were not interviewed as the evaluation research took place in the beginning phase of this group’s formation. Professional-development participants were individually interviewed and these were tape recorded and transcribed. Interviews were semi-structured (Patton, 2001; Note: This is a secondary source. For more information, please check the bibliography of Ross Sheetak 2011.) and supported a conversation about participant’s experience in the professional-development group and what this experience meant to them and how they have used what they learned in their youth work practice. The site for this study, as noted, was a large youth serving public organization in a large U.S. Midwest city.
four years