Michael Emslie

Toward a Youth Work Profession

There is growing interest in the professionalization of the youth work field in Australia and the United States. In this article I draw on relevant literature from the sociology of professions to explore the appeal of professionalization for youth work. The interest in professionalism is examined along with the strategies youth work practitioners could build on and use to progress professionalization. The tactics proposed are for proponents to concurrently use lessons from other professionalization projects, garner support in the youth sector, lead a project that has broad appeal, utilize existing institutional arrangements, and establish an international movement.

Practise what you teach

The importance of giving young people a say in casework has received much attention in recent years. Little attention, however, has been given to the question of how to educate youth workers as a way of ensuring young peoples involvement in such professional practices. This paper reports on a model for preparing youth workers for participatory casework practice. It is a curriculum grounded in a collaborative-based pedagogy. Such educative frameworks that invite students participation align with effective theories and models on youth participation. Educators interested in developing youth work students’ capacities to engage in direct practice that encourages young peoples involvement in decision making need to ‘practise what they teach’ and teach in ways that encourage students’ active participation. The teaching and learning activities engage students with rationales of youth participation and what we know about young people being given a say in casework. The possible influence of personal experiences and broader social and economic arrangements are explored. And a scenario-based activity invites students to assess the implications of current knowledge, biography and context, to identify challenges and opportunities for practice.

Counting Queers on Campus: Collecting Data on Queerly Identifying Students

Demographic data on students are now routinely collected in universities. However, these data do not include information on sexual orientation and gender identity. In Australia there has been public resistance to tracking the enrollment and retention of gay, lesbian, and transgender people in tertiary education. This article interrogates this absence and refusal. We suggest that not counting queerly identifying university students is an undesirable effect of “power knowledge” as well as a discriminatory practice unjustifiably supported by an assemblage of ideas, activities, systems, discourses, and affectivities. We make a case for collecting such data and argue that doing so is an equity innovation that aligns with diversity work and enhances social justice outcomes in higher education.

Youth Housing Workers and Housing Affordability: Living on Struggle Street

Abstract This article argues that youth housing workers in Victoria, Australia, are vulnerable to housing affordability problems and one reason for this is inadequate pay. A survey of 10 youth housing workers explained the ways in which they had struggled to afford housing. Some paid more than 30% of their wage on housing costs. Others relied on income other than their youth housing worker salary to afford rental accommodation, which included pay from a second job, drawing on credit, and financial support from partners, family, and friends. Most reported that they did not have sufficient income to save to purchase a home. These findings resonate with secondary source aggregate data, which identified that for almost a decade the pay of youth homelessness service workers in Victoria has not kept pace with average wage growth and rises in rents and house prices. Improving youth housing workers pay is recommended as a way to address their housing affordability concerns.

Supporting students who are sexually harassed on placement: A case study from youth work field education

This paper argues that if higher education institutions are going to place students at risk of sexual harassment by requiring they complete a component of their formal study on work-place based placements, then university educators have a responsibility to adequately equip and appropriately support students so they can effectively identify and respond to sexual harassment. A model from youth work field education is presented that aims to prepare graduates, agency supervisors and university-based field education staff who are capable and motivated to prevent and respond to sexual harassment in the practicum. The systemic and integrated framework recognises students fundamental right to safety in the workplace and attends to the constraints on students disclosing, the deleterious effects of experiencing unwanted sexual conduct, and the importance of good practices in care and support. The various components of the approach also take account of the influence of environmental factors as well as issues of educational merit. The model has general applicability to other professional practice domains and can be adapted for use by educators who appreciate the value of equipping students to effectively deal with unwelcome sexual conduct while on placement.

Reading Aloud as Generative

In Chap. 6, we examine the generative potential of multiplicity for the reader of a story. This chapter offers a methodology that is not so much to do with interpretation of text as it is to do with the facilitation of connection and catharsis. In particular, we suggest ‘reading aloud’ as a strategy that may incite an experience of the awareness of multisubjectivity, and that in turn might support change. We argue that this reading-aloud strategy generates a space where subjects might stall identifications and foreclosures and may support change.

Analysis to Identify Contradictions

In Chap. 5, we explore the idea that multiplicity may not always be a comfortable experience. We pay particular attention here to the identification of moments of discursively produced contradictions, conflicts and resultant tensions.

Assemblage as Analysis

In Chap. 4, we explore the notion of assemblage, focusing on the idea that identities and contexts are complex—that they consist of a multiplicity of different elements. We also explore the idea that these complex entities are relational; that is, they are composed of a diverse range of interdependent elements, which in turn exist in relationship with ‘what they are not’.

Using allegory to think about youth work in rich countries that fail some young people

ABSTRACT This article explores the opportunities afforded by Ursula Le Guin’s allegory ‘The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas’ for thinking about the role of youth work in modern cities and societies that are deemed to be successful but at the same time fail some young people. Using Melbourne and Australia as examples and following Le Guin the case is made that the prosperity of ‘liveable’ cities and ‘lucky’ countries coincides with the neglect and mistreatment of some young people. The same cultural, economic and political practices and processes that produce the beauty and abundance also produce the inequalities and hardships, and these include policies inspired by neoliberalism, processes of individualisation, and utilitarianism. Unlike the ones who walk away from Omelas youth workers can stay and fight adversity and injustice, however alleviating problems young people experience is more complex than it is often thought to be. One reason this is the case is because youth work is entangled with the same range of ethical, emotional, intellectual, political, and economic circumstances that generate thriving places and disadvantaged young lives, and inadvertently youth workers can reproduce the challenging and limiting conditions faced by some young people.

On Technology and the Prospects for Good Practice in the Human Services: Donald Schön, Martin Heidegger, and the Case for Phronesis and Praxis

Technology is fundamental to and embedded in the way practice is conceptualized and institutionalized in social service work. Many scholars assume and expect that good practices of care are achieved with the correct application of theory produced by rigorous scientific research. However, there are significant critiques of this viewpoint. We examine the work of Donald Schön and Martin Heidegger and agree with these authors’ suggestions that technical rationality and modern technology are not the way to achieve good practice in the human services. At the same time, we are not convinced that the alternatives offered by Schön (artistry) and Heidegger (techne) provide what good practice requires. We draw on Aristotle’s account of the intellectual virtues and make the case for phronesis and praxis as other possibilities for inspiring new kinds of social welfare practice in the twenty-first century.