Lieve Bradt

The Social And Political Construction Of Early Childhood Education

ABSTRACT We analyse two foundational social problems regarding early childhood education. The first, in the late nineteenth century, is infant mortality, a social problem that constituted the historical legitimation for the first crèches. The second, the prevention of school failure, is very topical today. By analysing these examples in their historicity, taking into account social, political, economical and scientific contexts, it becomes clear that early childhood education can contribute to the individualisation and decontextualisation of social problems. Yet acknowledging this also means opening windows of new opportunities, as far as the construction of social problems remains an open debate in which disagreement rather than consensus is fostered.

Victim—offender mediation as a social work practice

English Based on the Flemish practice of victim–offender mediation for adult offenders, this article shows how mediation can be a social work practice that goes beyond being an instrument for the responsibilization of offenders, but instead recognizes social workers as policymakers. French Basé sur la pratique flamande de la médiation entre les victimes et les auteurs adultes de délits, cet article montre comment la médiation peut être une pratique de travail social allant au delà du simple instrument de responsabilisation les auteurs de délits, en reconnaissant plutôt les travailleurs sociaux comme décideurs politiques. Spanish Basándose en la práctica flamenca de mediar entre víctima y ofensor adulto, este artículo muestra cómo la mediación puede ser una práctica de trabajo social que a más de ser un instrumento para responsabilizar a los ofensores, reconoce a los trabajadores sociales como diseñadores de política social.

Relevant Others in Restorative Practices for Minors: For What Purposes?

Abstract This article starts from the finding that (1) in spite of the numerous publications on restorative justice, relevant others have been a limited research topic and (2) when reference is made to relevant others, their presence is almost automatically assumed to be positive. However, the prevailing penal climate that seems to be focusing on the responsibilisation of offenders, makes us question why such importance is attached to these relevant others. Combining the information deduced from restorative justice literature and three studies, the authors conclude that some criticism of restorative justice, such as offender orientation, instrumentalisation and responsibilisation, needs to be examined at the level of relevant others too, and that it is time to breach the obviousness with which they are almost automatically involved, regardless of possible pitfalls.

Learning Democracy in Social Work

At present, an increased feeling of a democratic decline results in a renewed appeal for social work to investigate socialisation for democracy and citizenship. Citizenship as a political concept refers to the citizen as subject with civil, political and social rights. A social conception of citizenship reduces citizenship to civic virtue, defined as the engagement to participate actively in the further development of a model of democracy. Social work has a fundamentally different position in both conceptions of citizenship. It is suggested that in a political conception, social work supports citizens in taking part in the process of democracy, whereas in a social conception, social work becomes a policy instrument focusing on the citizen’s duty to smoothly integrate in the prevailing democratic project and, in doing so, to contribute to social cohesion. In this chapter, we challenge this suggestion. We argue that only in the tension between a political and social conception of citizenship, the educational dimension of social work becomes clear, and it is through this dimension that social work can become a democratic practice. The educational dimension in social work is crucial to conceptualise democracy as an open and ongoing process and not as a predefined project. This argument results from a pedagogical perspective on social work. This perspective enables us to connect rather than oppose social and political conceptions of citizenship. It is in this dialectic tension that we find a meaningful answer to the question of how to relate social work to learning democracy.

If Only They Had a File on Every Pupil: On the Mismatch between Truancy Policy and Practice in Flanders.

Abstract During the past years, combating truancy has been high on the political agenda. However, throughout Europe one can observe that despite the numerous action plans and anti-truancy measures, truancy rates continue to rise. In this article, we focus on Flanders (the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium) as a case study to get a better grip on the mismatch between the general truancy policy and the everyday reality of truancy. Based on the analysis of (1) official registration data and 2013 survey data with pupils from grade 9–12 (N = 4189), (2) survey data from 62 principals of Flemish secondary schools and (3) 28 in-depth interviews with occasional and frequent truants, this article argues that the current emphasis on the registration with the aim of (early) detecting and intervening in truancy cases actually results in a disengagement of teachers and schools to deal with truancy in a responsive manner.

Parent-worker relationships in child welfare social work: a Belgian case study

The involvement of parents within child and family social work has become an important research topic during the past few decades. Within this research, a lot of attention is paid to partnership, which is recognised as a dominant concept in current thinking about the parent–worker relationship in present-day practice. The debate on parent–worker relationships, however, seems to be mainly focussed on the individual relationship between the parent and the social worker. Based on a historical analysis of policy documents on a Belgian child and family welfare service, this article offers a historical and sociopolitical contextualisation of the current debate on the parent–worker relationship. The analysis reveals that sociopolitical ideas about the responsibilities of the state, the community and the private family have induced a continuous reflection on which children and parents should be seen as the most appropriate clients for a particular service, as well as an ongoing development of diagnostic instruments to legitimise inclusion and exclusion of families within child and family social work. Consequences for parent–worker relationships in child and family social work are discussed, as well as some implications for future research on child and family social work practices.

Structural assimilation in young first-, second- and third-generation migrants in Flanders

ABSTRACT Assimilation theory assumes that differences between migrants and non-migrants disappear over generations. We report on a Flemish survey study conducted with young first- (G1), second- (G2) and third- (G3) generation migrants (n = 1,587). The results showed that G1 and G2 had lower chances of being in educational tracks preparing for higher education than non-migrants. Further, G1 and G3 migrants with a background in the oldest fifteen members of the European Union (EU15) and G1 and G2 adolescents of non-EU15 migrants ran a higher risk of being delayed in their educational trajectories. All three generations of non-EU15 migrants had lower expectations of finding a job than non-migrants. Whereas socio-economic status could explain almost all of the differences for EU15 migrants, it could not for non-EU15 migrants. This leads to the hypothesis that visible differences and distinctive names lead to assumptions about ethnic, cultural and religious affiliations that are associated with discrimination.

Parental Expectations of Maternal and Child Health Services

This article reports on survey research (N = 1,418) aimed at examining whether parental expectations of maternal and child health (MCH) services are influenced by group characteristics (e.g., socioeconomic status [SES], ethnicity, at risk of poverty) and/or individual parenting context variables (e.g., received social support) in a context where these services are available to all. The findings reveal that parents have different expectations about the technical and relational expertise of MCH nurses. However, the authors found only very weak associations between family characteristics and parental expectations, suggesting that individual differences matter more than SES and other more traditional distinctions. Implications for MCH services are made.

Victim-offender mediation and social work: Focus groups with mediators in Flanders

The role of social work in the restorative justice field remains largely unexplored. This article reports on the findings of focus groups conducted with mediators of juvenile and adult mediation practices in Flanders (Belgium) to gain more insight into how mediators perceive their professional role and to what extent they refer to individual and structural dimensions of social work practice. Implications for future social work involvement and research are made.

Emergence of social work practice in rural China: A way forward?

Following massive socioeconomic reforms over the past three decades, social work in the People’s Republic of China (hereafter China) has developed at an unprecedented pace. To respond to social issues arising from accelerated economic development, the government has launched a large-scale programme to train a professional social work workforce of 1.45 million by 2020. Social work in mainland China has developed, and continues to develop, rapidly in major urban centres, while rural areas remain largely neglected. This article describes developmental issues in rural China and argues that social work requires indigenised knowledge and interventions to address context-specific problems.