Youth Sector in Schools: Towards Effective Collaboration Mladinski sektor v šolah: na poti k uspešnemu sodelovanju

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University of Ljubljana Faculty of Social Work

Univerza v Ljubljani Fakulteta za socialno delo

Amar Toplić

Youth Sector in Schools: Towards Effective Collaboration Mladinski sektor v šolah: na poti k uspešnemu sodelovanju

Graduation Thesis Diplomsko delo

Ljubljana, 2021

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University of Ljubljana Faculty of Social Work

Amar Toplić

YOUTH SECTOR IN SCHOOLS Towards Effective Collaboration

Graduation Thesis

Supervisor: Assist. Prof. Dr. Miloslav Poštrak

Ljubljana, 2021

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To my dad, who encouraged and supported me in all my endeavours.

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Throughout the writing of this graduation thesis, I have received a great deal of support and assistance.

I would first like to thank my supervisor, Professor Dr. Miloslav Poštrak, whose expertise and insightful feedback pushed me to sharpen my thinking and brought my work to a higher level.

I would like to acknowledge my beloved friends from Institute Bob in Ljubljana for giving me a home and a place to grow. I want to thank you for your support and for all the opportunities I was given. I would particularly like to single out my friend and mentor Matjaž Vodeb, who invited me to join his wonderful endeavours in bringing the youth sector and schools closer.

Your passion and dedication for youth work motivated me to conduct this research.

In addition, I would like to thank my dear friends at the Bosana Foundation, for their

valuable support throughout my studies. You provided me with the tools and financial support I needed to finish my studies and complete my thesis.

Finally, I could not have completed this thesis without the support of my wonderful friends, Dona Mickovska, Merita Sinishtaj, Martin Wonde, and Rijad Cerić, who provided me with endless love and encouragement to continue pursuing my dreams.

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Abstract

Youth workers work with young people to facilitate their personal, social, and political development through non-formal and informal education, counselling, and leisure activities.

Furthermore, they support youth to have a voice in communities. Slovenian youth sector is highly engaged and active in working with young people where they are at. Slovenian youth spend most of the day in schools. Considering the previous facts, having youth work in schools is not only beneficial for young people, but also for schools and communities. “Youth work in Schools” is a concept for delivering informal and non-formal learning in formal settings. For instance, in primary and secondary schools.

With this graduation thesis, I explored the possibilities of cooperation between the youth sector and schools in the Municipality of Ljubljana. First, I explored how youth workers imagine this partnership. Namely, what approaches, activities, and methods would they use when working in and with schools. Later, I focused on possible chances and challenges which the youth sector and schools may deal with in the partnership. Finally, I explored what youth workers think which practices and experiences from abroad could be adopted to Slovenia and why. For instance, practices observed and experiences gained by participating in mobility programmes for youth workers.

Keywords: youth work, young people, youth work in schools, partnership

Povzetek

Mladinske delavke in mladinski delavci podpirajo mlade v njihovem osebnostnem, socialnem in politično-izobraževalnem razvoju skozi informalno in neformalno učenje, svetovanje in prostočasne dejavnosti. Omogočajo mladim, da imajo svoj glas v skupnosti. Mladinski sektor v Sloveniji je visoko angažiran in aktiven v delu z mladimi. Slovenska mladina večino svojega dneva preživi v šolah. Ob upoštevanju naštetega lahko sklepamo, da bo imelo mladinsko delo v šolah pozitiven vpliv ne le na mlade, temveč tudi na šole in skupnost. »Mladinsko delo v šolah« je koncept za aplikacijo formalnega in neformalnega učenja v formalnih okoljih, in sicer v osnovnih in srednjih šolah.

Z diplomskim delom sem raziskoval priložnosti sodelovanja mladinskega sektorja in šol v mestni občini Ljubljana. Raziskoval sem, kako mladinske delavke in mladinski delavci opredeljujejo to partnerstvo, katere pristope, aktivnosti in metode bi radi uporabljali v svojemu delu v šolah in s šolami. Osredotočil sem se na priložnosti in izzive, s katerimi bi se mladinski sektor in šole soočali v okviru svojega partnerstva. Raziskoval sem, katere prakse in izkušnje iz tujine bi, po mnenju mladinskih delavk in delavcev, lahko aplicirali v Sloveniji, na primer ogledane prakse in pridobljene izkušnje iz tujine skozi udeležbo na programih mobilnosti za mladinske delavke in delavce.

Ključne besede: mladinsko delo, mladi, mladinsko delo v šolah, partnerstvo

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LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1 Intersecting dimensions of youth ... 2

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1 Notions of youth and adult... 4

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1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 YOUTH

This chapter explores and explains the different views to understanding the concept of youth as well as the term youth and youth age group. In the first part, we focus on explaining Spence's (Spence, as cited in Hine, 2009) intersecting approach to understanding the concept of youth, which consists of four inter-related dimensions that impact the youth. In the second part, we focus on defining the term youth and the youth age group. Besides this, we also discuss youth in Slovenia, their life-worlds and subcultures.

1.1.1 The Concept of Youth

The field of youth studies has developed rapidly since the 1940s as young people became the subject of enormous research (Wyn and White, 1997, p. 8). As a result, researchers and practitioners in the field of youth studies and youth work (e.g., social workers, social pedagogues, psychologists, and others working in non-governmental youth organisations) are not always precise about the theories they use (Cieslik and Simpson, 2013, see also Wyn and White, 1997; Kehily, 2013). However, all of them agree that young people, as non-adults, are a separate category of people (Wyn and White, 1997, p. 8; Kehily, 2013). Mannheim (as cited in Cieslik and Simpson, 2013) argues that researchers and practitioners have different understandings about the concept of youth and that those understandings are very often different from the understandings the young people have about themselves. Therefore, we need to theorise the concept of youth so that we know what and whom we are researching.

To do that we will use a concept developed by Spence (2005) as it offers a more holistic view to understanding youth. Spence developed a concept of youth that consists of four intersecting dimensions, namely historical, social, spatial, and biological as illustrated in Figure 1 (Spence, 2005; Spence as cited in Hine, 2009, p. 30).

The Historical dimension addresses the reality that during history young people have been understood differently by societies (Spence, 2005; Hine, 2009). To illustrate this, child labour was widely spread in preindustrial societies, during the nineteenth and early twentieth century (Spence, 2005; Kehily, 2013). Later, with the prohibition of child labour and the introduction of obligatory education, children and young people became separated from the adult world and were understood as a distinct group (Spence, 2005; Kehily, 2013; Cieslik and Simpson, 2013).

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Today, in postmodern societies, young people may complete secondary education at the age of eighteen and higher education between the ages of twenty-one or twenty-two (Cieslik and Simpson, 2013).

The social and economic position of young people relates to the opportunities and chances they will have in life with regards to accessing information, resources, and support (Hine, 2009, p.

31). Hine (2009, p. 31) argues that "the social dimension is the most important" in shaping a young person's life. Moreover, Hine (2009, p 31) highlights that young people's lives "are substantially shaped by key social structures and institutions around them (e.g., family, school, employment) and in the accompanying economic position".

Figure 1 Intersecting dimensions of youth Based on Spence, 2005, as in Hine, 2009, p. 30

Note. Reprinted from Young People’s Lives: Taking a Different View by J. Hine, 2009 (p. 30), in J. Wood & J.

The physical appearance and inherited personal characteristics of the individual are addressed by the biological dimension (Hine, 2009, p. 30). Hine (2009, p 30) highlighted that "there are certain expectations of what young people will look like at particular ages". For instance, Hine (2009, p. 30) argues that key characteristics as gender, height, and stages of puberty will have a great influence on how some individuals experience youth, especially on those who do not fit into the general expectations. In fact, "psychological theories contain expectations of the

Historical

Social

Spatial Biological

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acquisition of particular cognitive and emotional abilities within specific age binds" (Hine, 2009, p. 30).

The Spatial dimension relates to the fact that the youth as a concept is understood differently in different places and cultures as it is a social construct that is made and shaped by the society we live in (Hine, 2009, p. 30; Kehily, 2013). Moreover, Hine (2009, p. 30) and Kehily (2013) argue that in various countries and cultures, young people become "young" at different moments in their lives, and thus they undergo this period differently. Besides, Kehily (2013) argues that this "can have a powerful influence on how we look at young people and interpret their behaviour".

Wood & Hine (2013) argue that young people in postmodern societies lead complicated lives that are influenced by things that were not experienced by all previous generations (e.g., globalization, technological innovations, gender, race, disability, sexuality, and so on). Hine (2009, p. 31) points out that the utmost importance of this holistic, cross-dimensional approach to understanding young people is the necessity of considering each of the four dimensions factors within them, as well as how they are interrelated and how, as such, they impact the youth.

1.1.2 Defining Youth

Defining the term "youth" is still extremely complex as there is no universally accepted definition of the term youth and the youth age group. In everyday language, the term "youth"

refers to the transition period between the dependency of childhood and the responsibilities of adulthood (Wyn and White, 1997). However, the youth age group is defined differently. So, who are the youth?

In dictionaries, the term youth is defined similarly. The online Oxford Learner's Dictionary (n.d.) defines youth as "the time of life when a person is young, especially the time before a child becomes an adult" and "young people considered as a group". Likewise, the online Cambridge Dictionary (n.d.) defines youth as "the period of your life when you are young, or the state of being young" and "young people, both male and female, considered as a group".

Wyn and White (1997, pp. 11-12) argue that the youth is a transition period between childhood and adulthood, where being a child is the starting point and being an adult is the ending point of the transition. They point out that this transition period relates to different beliefs and ideas

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about youth which emerge into a social construct (Table 1). Other researchers name this transition period as adolescence (Patterson, 2008).

Youth Adult

Not adult / Adolescent Adult / Grown up

Becoming Arrived

Pre social self that will emerge under the right

conditions Identity is fixed

Powerless & Vulnerable Powerful & Strong

Less responsible Responsible

Dependent Independent

Ignorant Knowledgeable

Risky behaviours Considered behaviour

Rebellious Conformist

Reliant Autonomous

Table 1 Notions of youth and adult

On the other hand, Cohen and Ainley (as cited in Cieslik and Simpson, 2013) point out that in postmodern societies the boundaries between childhood and adulthood became unclear.

Therefore, many researchers and practitioners are questioning the use of the concept of youth as a transition period (Cohen and Ainley, as cited in Cieslik and Simpson, 2013). Social workers in Slovenia see young people as experts of their own life who have unique experiences and social worker's responsibility is to consider those when exploring young people's life-worlds and subcultures (Šugman et al., 2007 as cited in Poštrak, 2015, pp. 270-271).

The youth age group is, as mentioned before, defined differently by countries and international organizations. For instance, the United Nations (World Youth Report, 2018) define youth as persons aged from 15 to 24 years, while Slovenia (Public Interest in Youth Sector Act, 2010) defines youth as persons aged 15 to 29.

During the transition period or adolescence young people will experience broad physical and psychological changes (Patterson, 2018; Wyn and White 1997, p. 12). The transition period or adolescence itself is divided into three distinct phases: early adolescence which begins at the age of 11 or 12 and continues to the age of 14, middle adolescence which happens between the ages of 14 and 16, and late adolescence which happens between the ages of 16 and 18

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(Patterson, 2018). Each of these phases is connected to certain changes that happen in a young person's life. For instance, in early adolescence young people experience fast changes in their physical appearance due to puberty. Besides this, they also experience emotional changes in a way that they are becoming more independent from parents and start relying on peers when it comes to social and emotional support. In middle adolescence young people start to develop an interest in romantic and sexual relationships. Puberty ends in late adolescence and young people have developed a more stable sense of self-identity (Patterson, 2018).

1.1.3 Youth in Slovenia

Youth is a vibrant social group that is fast in following trends. Young people have different lifestyles and are part of many subcultures. In this chapter, we reflect on the position of young people in Slovenia.

After a sharp decline in the youth population from 1990 to 2020, recent demographic development shows stabilization of the youth population in Slovenia (Lavrič et al, 2020). Cupar et al. (2019, p. 3) argue that the "aging of [the] Slovenian society will continue and by 2050 the ratio between young and old will reach 1:2". Slovenia is experiencing a brain drain. The number of young people leaving the country has increased drastically in the period from 2010 to 2016 (Ibid). Youth Study Slovenia (Cupar et al., 2019, p. 41) found that "young Slovenians strongly invest in preparation for emigration, the most competent individuals are the most likely to emigrate, their emigration is well thought out (e.g., language acquisition, postponed departure, longer preparation period), and their emigration often includes plans to return home."

Leisure time is one of the most important factors which determines young people's lifestyle. In leisure time young people follow their interests and socialize with peers. Most youth work activities happen during their free time. Therefore, we need to answer the question of which leisure time activities young people in Slovenia enjoy the most. For young people in Slovenia family and friends are very important. Hence, spending time with them is among their top 5 leisure time activities (Cupar et al., 2019). Music and movies are important factors that influence the building of subcultures and the development of values and specific personality traits. Listening to music, closely followed by watching movies are the most enjoyable free time activities for young people in Slovenia. Young people in Slovenia practice sports very often as well (Ibid.).

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Young people born between 1996 and 2012 or Generation Z are often referred to as digital natives because they never experienced the world without the internet. Consequently, online interactions with friends are increasing as young people nowadays are more technologically advanced and use smartphones, tablets, and computers daily from an early age (Cupar et al., 2019). Moreover, they are also using technologies to support their learning in the sense of researching the internet for data, watching tutorials, reading blogs, and doing homework.

Furthermore, they tend to use social networks and instant messaging apps rather than email and calls to stay connected with the teaching staff and their fellow peers. They organize themselves in closed groups and chats on Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Viber, where they share various information. Although internet use is drastically increasing, less than half of the young people stated that they can differentiate trustworthy from fake content on the internet (Lavrič et al., 2020). Some may say that they are screen addicts, but I say that they are investing time in self-branding and self-promotion, which became very important in the age of social media.

Young people in Slovenia practice more environment-friendly and healthy lifestyles than the young people from previous generations Y and X. Cupar et al. (2019) found that practicing sports increased during the last decade. A small fraction of them is also not afraid to practice activism, do volunteering work or engage in politics for achieving social change (Ibid.).

This generation is keen to protect nature and the environment. Subsequently, we may witness an unusual development in the field of youth subcultures. Many argue that youth subcultures are developing back to youth scenes, because the influence of mainstream and fast-changing trends put some subcultures close to extinction in the Western Balkans.

The fear of unemployment after finishing education increased dramatically among young people in Slovenia (Cupar et al., 2019). Moreover, job security has dropped as young people work in more precarious conditions as compared to their parents. Connections, acquaintances, and luck are considered as one of the key factors for a successful job search (Ibid.). Safe employment, independence in the working environment, interesting working tasks, and clear goals are important factors for young people's job search (Lavrič et al., 2020).

To conclude, we may say that the lives of youth in Slovenia changed dramatically with the introduction of new information and communication technologies. Young people are spending increasingly more time online with friends. However, they are still active in public spaces where they do sports and meet friends in cafes. The demographic changes regarding aging and brain

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drain will pose a great risk for Slovenia and adequate public policies are necessary to combat these emerging social problems. The interest in politics is decreasing among young people while the readiness to participate in elections has increased. Slovenian youth still have precarious work conditions with irregular income which makes it harder to leave parents' home sooner.

1.1.4 Life-worlds and Subcultures of Youth

Poštrak (2015, p. 271) stated that the "lifeworld of a youngster is a complex symbolic world in which the youngster attempts to cope with it as best as they can. They try to survive. Therefore, they develop various forms of behaviours, namely life strategies or survival strategies." Young people nowadays lead complicated lives, and their upbringing is influenced by many factors, amongst which are family, peers, gender, race, disability, sexuality, values, globalization, and technological innovation (Wood & Hine, 2013; Poštrak, n.d.).

Our present world has become globally connected and the information flow is enormous. Young people in postmodern societies must deal with this amount of information available to them as well as the appearance of new media and the emerging of social media like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube, and others. Interactions with peers and family members moved to the online world (Lavrič et al., 2020; Cupar et al., 2019). Generation Z is the first generation that has not seen the world without the internet, and they had to cope with these changes alone as their parents were also occupied in mastering the changes in this segment of life.

In puberty, young people search for independence from parents and join other peers in groups or cliques (Patterson, 2018). Some of those join diverse subcultures and scenes in the attempt to distinguish themselves from the predominant culture, namely the culture of their parents (Poštrak, 1994a). Sociologists recognize many subcultures, such as: the raving scene, techno scene, rock, metal, emo, punk, hip-hopers, skaters, and "čefurji" (Prešeren, 2010). "Čefurji" is a distinct subculture in Slovenia (Prešeren, 2010), whose members are mainly migrants from former Yugoslavia living in the country. They have a specific language, namely a mixture of Slovene and any other language spoken on the territory of former Yugoslavia, distinct clothing style, that is, sports shoes and trousers, and music, namely Balkan turbo-folk (Prešeren, 2010;

Fran, n.d.). Young people join subcultures and scenes with different ambitions. Some identify themselves with the music, clothes, and values of the culture or scene, others are simply curious and want to explore (Prešeren, 2010).

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Values are cultural constructs and interpretations of acceptable and appropriate behaviours and traits in a society (Poštrak, n.d.). Youngsters may develop values distinct from their peer group, subculture, and religious beliefs. Equally important is gender, which as well a social construct about how girls and boys should grow up. For example, in many cultures, it is acceptable if boys fight among themselves. On the contrary, girls must be nice and talk about problems. The values influence their transition from childhood to adulthood as it bears specific personal traits and habits (Ibid.).

How the family spends time with the youngsters has a great impact on their early development and experience of growing up (Poštrak, n.d.). Parents may be good guidance and emotional support to their children. On the contrary, abusive parents may cause distress and harm to the young person. This experience shapes youngsters' view of the world and their life strategies (Ibid.).

In brief, young people must cope with many factors and try to define and find themselves in a very complex society filled with expectations and various social constructs which shape youngsters' traits, behavioural traits, social and sexual identities and values.

1.2 YOUTH WORK

In this chapter we define youth work as a professional practice. We discuss youth work’s aims and the importance of ethics for delivering high quality activities and producing positive outcomes. Moreover, we explore community youth work as one of the fundamental methods used in youth work.

1.2.1 Defining Youth Work

Youth work is professional and pedagogical work with young people which is carried out in their free time and in whose activities young people join voluntarily (Rečnik omladinske politike, 2015). Youth work contributes to young people's learning and development. The key purpose of youth work is to "enable young people to develop holistically, working with them to facilitate their personal, social and educational development, to enable them to develop their voice, influence, and place in society and to reach their full potential" (National Occupational Standards, 2008). The key purpose is achieved through long-term programmes, which can be different by topics and the location where the programme activities are carried out, for example,

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street-based youth work, centre-based youth work, and school-based youth work (Rečnik omladinske politike, 2015). This graduation thesis will focus on school-based youth work.

Garača et al. (2017, p. 46) highlight the importance of co-creating youth work programmes and activities together with young people, as such a bottom-up approach assures that young people's needs are met in the best possible way. These authors also point out that youth work is based on humanistic and constructivist approaches to working with young people. In other words, young people are seen holistically and as the "masters" of their own life.

In the National Occupational Standards (2008) it is recognized that the heart of all youth work programmes and activities is a young person-led approach. Therefore, in the National Occupational Standards (2008) a set of values were agreed upon. These values also illustrate how youth work is involved in the holistic development of young people, and are as follows:

➢ Promoting and empowering young people's active participation and involvement in the decision-making processes,

➢ Promoting equity, diversity, and inclusion,

➢ Partnership with young people and others and

➢ Personal, social, and political development.

In other words, youth work empowers young people's abilities of critical thinking and offers them safe spaces for social and cultural exchange with other young people. By using the methods and tools of non-formal education youth work allows young people the opportunity to self-reflect upon their lives, develop new skills, and gain new knowledge which they will be able to use later in life. In the next chapter we will explore the ethics of youth work more detailed.

1.2.2 Youth Work Ethics

What is right and what is wrong is determined by professions ethics. (NYCI, n.d.). They support practitioners develop quality youth work and good practices in working with young people (Ibid.). Nevertheless, the ethical principles in youth work are diverse as youth work is not the same in every country. Therefore, in this chapter we will make an overview of ethical principles and values in use by practitioners (AGJF, n.d.; NYCI, n.d.; YACWA & WAAYW, 2014).

Highlighting this is important for youth work in schools as it is possible that some ethical issues arise when we start with the implementation of the concept.

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Youth workers are there for the young people. They are their primary clients. Namely, youth workers collaborate with various social services and stakeholders who have different interests.

Hence, youth workers must keep in mind and advocate in the best interest of the young people they work with and not the agencies they are cooperating with. This way young people always have an accountable ally they can rely on.

On the other hand, youth workers have a holistic approach to young people. Namely, they work with young people in their social contexts i.e., family, peers, education, culture, community, and society. They have great influence on a youngster’s life. Hence, youth workers facilitate positive system changes and community actions targeted into strengthening the wellbeing of young people.

Youth workers promote anti-discrimination and protect the rights young people have. Nobody can be discriminated based on their religion, social class, occupation, colour, economic status, or political views. All young people are equal and youth workers respect and value diversity.

The aim of youth work is to strengthen young people’s independence, social and political participation. Young people are competent to make own decisions independently. Nevertheless, youth workers support them by giving information and guidance on possible ways for young people’s desired outcomes. Furthermore, youth work helps youngsters identify and further develop their strengths and talents.

Establishing and maintaining trustful relationships with young people is another crucial ethical principle in youth work. Everything shared by the young person with the youth worker must be kept confidential. The confidentiality may be broken only with the informed consent of the young person and in cases of suspected danger of self-harm or harm to others.

Commitment to maintain a high level of competence by keeping track on latest professional and practical developments in youth work and youth policy is important for quality youth work.

Furthermore, youth workers commit to engage in professional training to further develop skills and knowledge needed in working with young people.

Youth worker’s self-awareness of personal experiences, believes, values, ideology and sexual identity is important, because youth workers work with various young people who often do not share the same identity as they. Therefore, it is crucial to be aware of one own identity and respect that no human is the same.

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In professional life youth workers witness many distressing situations. Therefore, it is important that they join take part in supervision and collegial meetings to discuss burning topics. Self- care ensures a high quality of services and the protection of youth workers.

The relationships youth workers establish with young people are deep, trustful, and strong.

Nevertheless, these relationships have boundaries and limits which need to be clearly communicated. Codes of conduct, professional standards and laws further define the boundaries and limits of relationships.

Youth workers are representing social services and are in most cases contracted by state and local authorities to work with young people in the communities. With this comes great responsibility. Youth workers need to protect the integrity of youth work practice by maintaining high quality service and refrain from behaviours which may cause harm to the recognition of youth work as a valuable and effective social service.

To conclude, we may say that the ethics of youth work act as a guide for youth workers to maintaining a high quality of their services and activities. Nevertheless, it provides a framework for working with young people in their social contexts by establishing trustful relationships.

1.2.3 Community Youth Work

Community work is one of the fundamental methods used in youth work when working with communities. Young people's "base" are their communities. Hence, working with them directly where they are at is the ambition of many youth workers and other stakeholders. As such, youth work activities and programmes have been ever since focused on building strong communities and developing social services which will suit its members the best. In youth work, the most common approach to community work is community development. Community development is trying to offer different services to empower, mobilize and motivate young people and adults to co-create their communities through social action (Dragoš, n.d.). We may see that community development is not only delivering more people-oriented services, but it is also enabling people from the community to have an active influence in shaping them.

Before we continue, it is important to answer the question about what communities are. In dictionaries, they are defined similarly. Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary (n.d.b) defines community as "all the people who live in a particular area" and as "the feeling of sharing things and belonging to a group in the place where you live". Likewise, the online Cambridge

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Dictionary (n.d.b) defines community as "all the people who live in a particular area, or a group of people who are considered as a unit because of their shared interests or background" and a

"group of people who have similar interests or who want to achieve something together".

Goel, Francis and Pulla (2014, p. 5). Say that "community development has been identified as a core social work approach or method to work with communities who are disenfranchised, marginalised and faced with broad social issues resulting from unjust policies and planning at global, national, state and local level." Community youth work benefits communities and young people on many levels. We will take a moment to explore some of the benefits.

Some of the benefits for the communities are (Centar za omladinski rad, n.d):

➢ Building and empowering active citizenship among young people who are ready to tackle challenges in their communities and build a more open and democratic society,

➢ Holistic approach to young people's education by complementing formal education with informal methods,

➢ Promoting diversity among young people and

➢ Helping young people reach their full potentials.

➢ Some of the benefits for young people are (Centar za omladinski rad, n.d.):

➢ Holistic approach to young people's personal and social development,

➢ Empowerment and opportunities for young people to develop their competencies,

➢ Young people know where to search for help and support if needed and

➢ A wider offer of educational and recreational activities and programmes for young people.

Schools are as well a type of micro-communities where young people spend most of their time.

Therefore, youth welfare services need to have developed methods in community work.

1.3 YOUTH WORK IN SCHOOLS

“Youth work in schools” is a relatively new concept in youth work about working with young people where they are at, namely at schools. In this chapter we try to define youth work in schools and describe a step-by-step guide on how to build effective partnerships between the youth sector and schools for those who are interested in the implementation of this concept in their own communities.

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A unified definition of youth work in schools does not exist as the discussion is still ongoing.

However, we may define youth work in schools "as a process of non-formal learning in a formal setting" (Davies et al., n.d., p. 9). Traditionally, these two services were working separately as their methods and concepts are very different. However, many research studies have shown that students benefit when schools and youth workers work together. Both youth work and school have the same goal: to support youngsters in their transition from childhood to adulthood.

Ekonoja (n.d.) said that "this model improves cooperation between schools and youth services and therefore makes it possible to improve youth wellbeing as a whole".

A research (Arad Research, 2015) found that young people, schools, as well as communities’

benefit from youth work in schools. This research found that youth work in schools offers young people alternative support which complements formal education in schools and aims to enrich and add value to the school's curriculum. Furthermore, the research found that youth workers have a more informal approach to support than teachers do. Youth workers focus on social and emotional issues while working on skills development and rising aspirations. Thus, youth work plugs a gap in formal education as youth work is based on voluntary engagement and is flexible in that young people can direct their learning. The research also found that youth workers have an alternative approach to youth. The youth workers have the skills, flexibility, and time required to build good relationships with young people, which teachers often do not have.

Besides having the time and the skills, youth workers are often able to utilize resources that schools do not have access to. For example, youth workers have contacts with other organizations that can provide specific support that a young person may need. The research found that youth work in schools had a direct positive impact on attendance, attainment, and behaviour (Arad Research, 2015).

Morgan, Morgan, and O'Kelly (2008, p. 2) also state that "there is no doubt that new practice involving informal approaches to learning, through youth work in schools, has something to offer young people in terms of maximizing their learning potential". However, the authors also highlight the possible issues of bringing youth work into the domain of the formal education system. These might include, for example, the nature of relationships youth workers builds with young people, the issues of measuring outcomes of youth work, the power relationship between young people and adults in the context of the school, short-term interventions, issues associated with time and timetabling and the nature of personal and social development in a school setting.

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You may ask yourself why is there a need for youth workers in schools when we have teachers?

To answer this question, we will analyse the differences between them. Davies et al. (n.d.) highlight that "teachers are experts in a specific subject area and that they help students learn their subject in the classroom through the curriculum-based programs and extra-curricular activities". Therefore, teachers can do their jobs effectively only when the students attend classes regularly, the classrooms are properly equipped, and their lessons are free from disruptions. However, some teachers see their jobs more widely than the mere delivery of skills and knowledge. Those teachers care passionately about the welfare of their students. However, teachers often lack counselling skills and knowledge about the problems young people face outside of school. According to Davies et al. (n.d.), the school's counselling team can support teachers in their work and reduce the risk of exclusion of the at-risk youth.

On the other hand, youth workers work with young people to facilitate their personal, social, and educational development through non-formal and informal education, counselling, and leisure activities and enable them to have a voice, impact place in their communities and society. Youth work is conducted according to a set of values which include a commitment to equal opportunity, involving young people as partners in learning and decision making, and helping young people develop their own sets of values. Youth workers have the skills, flexibility, and time required to build personal relationships with young people, which teachers often do not have. Besides having the time and skills, youth workers are often able to utilize resources that schools do not have access to.

1.3.2 The Cycle of Cooperation Between Schools and Youth Sector

For the cooperation between the youth sector and schools to be effective, everything needs to be planned in detail. Moreover, a holistic multisectoral approach ensures that young people's needs are better met. Therefore, different stakeholders in the community must collaborate. This collaboration is represented by a cycle of cooperation, which is divided into different phases.

These phases are (RAN, 2021; Youth Work in Schools, n.d.):

1. Mapping potential cooperation partners and establishment of the first contact. For effective multisectoral cooperation, it is needed to establish cooperation with different stakeholders in the community, besides schools and youth work. Hence, in this phase, we pinpoint all the potential cooperation partners in our interest. They do not need to be working directly with young people. However, young people are either spending their

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free time there or the cooperation partners can contribute to the young people's wellbeing. The partners can be public services and institutions such as schools, police, social work centres, health institutions, and local municipality offices, non- governmental organizations or associations working with young people such as youth centres, youth clubs, and other NGOs and associations such as sports clubs or religious clubs, other potential partners present in the community where young people spend their free time such as night clubs, cafes, shopping centres, etc. After the initial mapping, a first attempt of establishing contact is made.

2. Getting to know the cooperation partners. After the initial contact is successfully made the cooperation partners should exchange practices and information about target groups, mission, vision, work culture, aims of work, financing as well as the different projects and programmes they run. This helps the cooperation partners reach common grounds easier and work on the further concept development for cooperation.

3. Towards a shared vision and pedagogical language. To make the cooperation effective the cooperation partners must agree on a shared pedagogical vision and common language to be used by all of them. This way the partners understand where the added value of their cooperation is and what they want to achieve in the future through it.

Moreover, possible errors and misunderstandings are avoided by agreeing on the terminology used by all parties. From this phase on regular group supervision meetings are held to ensure high quality of work and that all partners follow the agreement on the shared vision and pedagogical language.

4. Defining the needs of the school and discussing joint activities. After the partners have a shared vision and language used by all parties they can work on the conceptualisation of joint programmes, projects, and activities based on their shared vision, the identified needs of the school, and the resources available. Fundraising is a crucial part of this phase. In this phase, a coordinator party can be named to ensure higher effectiveness in managing the cooperation.

5. Sharing information and setting standards. After implementing several joint activities, the cooperation partners have a better understanding of each other's scope of work.

Hence, in this phase, the different parties agree on the quality standards, policies, and mechanisms of evaluation. The quality standards ensure that the activities in the network of partners hold their high quality. Policies ensure that the employees and voluntary staff know how to react in certain situations. These policies are for example Codes of Conduct, action planes for certain situations which could develop during the

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implementation of activities i.e., drug overdose by a youngster, suspicion of self-harm, etc. Developing an evaluation mechanism allows the cooperating parties to self-evaluate and work on weak spots. Every cooperation network lives from the shared information among partners. Hence, the parties must discuss and make a contract about the information flow. This includes the scope of shared information and agreeing on one organization that would collect and store them.

6. Evaluation. It is important to assess the implementation of the activities both from the side of the cooperation partners as well as from the young people. After the evaluation, we modify the framework accordingly.

7. Allowing other interested parties to join. In this phase, the cycle ends, and the cooperation partners move to phase 1 of the cycle to allow other interested parties to join.

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2 PROBLEM

2.1 OVERVIEW

Since September 2019 Institute Bob has been working on developing a new concept of youth work in Slovenia based on the model of school-based youth work. I had the chance to contribute to the facilitation of this process during my practical training at Bob.

Institute Bob, as mentioned above, has already developed a fundamental concept for this model.

Moreover, they want to develop it further with the experiences which youth workers gathered abroad by participating in mobility projects for youth workers in the Netherlands and Czechia.

Institute Bob and their youth workers expressed the need for this new practice to be grounded in research. Therefore, I took it upon myself to explore the expectation of youth workers about this model, possible challenges, and chances of its implementation and to identify some core theoretical and practical approaches youth workers would use.

2.2 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

In this research we will answer the following research question and sub-questions:

➢ What expectations do youth workers and other practitioners in the field of youth have about the application of the model in Ljubljana's primary and secondary schools?

➢ What chances do youth workers and other practitioners see in the implementation of this model?

➢ What kind of challenges can youth workers and other practitioners in the field of youth face while working on implementing this model?

➢ What approaches and methods would youth workers and other practitioners in the field of youth use in this model?

➢ What experiences from abroad could the Slovene youth sector adapt and why?

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3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1 TYPE OF RESEARCH

My research was based on the methods of qualitative and exploratory research and the theories of youth studies. Qualitative research focuses on "the researcher's experiences and specific observations" (Alston & Bowles, 2013, p. 12). Qualitative research has an inductive approach as it moves from specific observations or interactions to general ideas and theories (Alston &

Bowles, 2013). Therefore, qualitative research is of specific relevance to the study of social relations (Flick, 2018). "Exploratory research is undertaken when little is known about an area"

(Alston & Bowles, 2013, p. 38). In other words, exploratory research focuses on setting grounds for a more detailed study (Alston & Bowles, 2013).

The research topics are:

➢ Youth Work in Schools,

➢ Chances of Cooperation,

➢ Challenges of Cooperation,

➢ Youth Work Practice,

➢ Similarities and Differences Between Youth Workers and Teachers,

➢ Characteristics of Youth Workers and

➢ Experiences from Abroad.

3.2 RESEARCH POPULATION AND SAMPLE

The population of my research were youth workers and other practitioners in the field of youth who participated in one of the two study visits organized by Institute Bob, namely to the Netherlands and Czechia, which were conducted in October 2019 and February 2020. I used purposive sampling. Hence, I interviewed six youth workers or other practitioners who participated in one of the two study visits as they got an insight into the practices from abroad, and some of them are already working on the development of the concept.

3.3 RESEARCH INSTRUMENT

The research instrument was a semi-structured interview guide. The interview guide may be found in the appendix section under Appendix II: Interview Guide.

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To collect data, I conducted semi-structured expert interviews in the time between the 15th and the 25th of March 2021. Expert interviews are conducted with different aims, among which is exploring a new field and model of work (Flick, 2018). The interview questions were sent to the interviewees per email at least one week before the interview was held so that the interviewees could properly prepare themselves. The interviews were held online with the support of video conferencing software¹ and were recorded, in agreement with the interviewees.

All interviewees signed a consent form for participation in the research. The Informed Consent Form may be found in the appendix section under Appendix I: Informed Consent Form.

3.5 DATA ANALYSIS

The collected verbal data were analysed using the Strauss and Corbin's approach to coding (Flick, 2018). In other words, I analysed the data using open, axial, and selective coding.

I started by transcribing the audio files. After I was done with transcribing, I have sent the interviewees the transcripts to be sure I did not make any mistakes. After all, interviewees confirmed that no mistakes were made. Following this, I saved the interview transcripts under research codes to ensure the complete anonymity of the interviewees. Hence, I named the transcripts A, B, C, D, E, and F. The transcripts may be found in the appendix section under Appendix V: Interview Transcripts. Lastly, I used MAXQDA 2020 to analyse my data. I started with open coding of the transcripts by marking all relevant statements considering my research questions and topics. After the initial open coding, I conducted axial coding using the Creative Coding feature in MAXQDA 2020, which means that I grouped the individual codes into categories and later assigned them topics. The code system and the coded segment may be found in the appendix section under Appendix III: Code System and Appendix IV: Coded Segments.

1 Slovenia declared an epidemic of the novel SARS-CoV-2 virus in March 2021. Slovenia's government banned all forms of public gatherings. Thus, the interviews could not be held in person and were instead held online.

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4 RESEARCH FINDINGS

In this part of my graduation thesis, I will summarize the research findings and collected verbal data from interviewed youth workers. Some of their statements will also be added.

4.1 YOUTH WORK PRACTICE

Youth work is present for decades in Europe. During this time the practice and profession of youth work have developed significantly. This chapter covers the research findings of the youth work practice in Ljubljana. To be more precise I will write about aims, purpose, approaches, methods, models, and target groups of youth work. Moreover, I will also write about evaluation, networking, quality standards, and recognition of youth work in Ljubljana.

Youth work practice and profession concentrates on young people's personal development and strengthening the communities they live in. On the one hand, youth work aims to empower and strengthen young people to be active and responsible members of society. Moreover, youth work helps young people reach their full potential through different supporting programmes.

On the other hand, youth work focuses on supporting community change in which young people would be appreciated and supported through different services.

The asset-based and the needs-based approaches to youth work practice are the most dominant in Ljubljana. Both strive to support young people's personal development and strengthen their position in society. However, they have two different starting points. The asset-based approach builds on the experiences, skills, and talents young people have and works towards supporting youngsters in identifying and further developing them. In the needs-based approach, youth workers first conduct a needs assessment where they try to identify specific needs of individuals, groups of young people, or communities and later try to offer activities to respond to these.

Youth work organizations in Ljubljana are organized in specialized networks where they meet and exchange experiences, implement educational and qualification programmes for youth workers as well as collegial meetings.

Evaluation and self-reflection are important aspects for ensuring quality youth work. When working on streets youth workers experience challenges with the evaluation of their activities

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mainly because of the principle of voluntary participation, where young people participate in activities only if they want to.

"Just because young people come and go as they want. So, it's hard to have an activity and then when somebody decides "OK, now I will not participate in this activity anymore; I will go there and talk to my parents" at that moment you cannot just stop the complete processes to ask him about what he thinks could be better." (A, 191-195)

However, youth workers organize team evaluations after activities or projects have been concluded. They see evaluation as an important part of their job which is crucial for ensuring higher quality in activities and strengthening the personal and professional growth of the staff.

"... we had the evaluation in different periods of the year, we do this all the time. It's part of the job. It's essential for improvement, better work, personal growth and everything." (B, 338-340)

One of the indicators is the frequency of young people's visits to different activities.

Team building is as important as evaluation, so youth workers from Ljubljana organize team- building trips. The focus of these trips is enhancing team communication and cohesion, education, and skills development as well as evaluation of activities.

"We have usually this weekend, it's like training and team building. Besides gaining some additional skills, one goal is also to evaluate the work you have done in the previous year and maybe what you want to do in the next year." (D, 182-185)

Youth workers apply different methods when working with individuals and groups of young people. These methods may vary from organization to organization. Some youth workers also have personal preferences about methods they tend to use. Young people in Ljubljana visit youth centres to spend quality free time or to get individual guidance and counselling as well as infrastructural support to organize events and meetings on their own.

When working with young people in public spaces, youth workers make use of their equipment to animate and motivate young people to participate in activities or to simply start conversations. This ranges from different balls to board games. Moreover, on some occasions, youth workers may use special concepts to transmit knowledge and skills. Youth workers in Ljubljana use Fotball3, a concept for a football game, where the focus is rather on fair play than

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on competition. The players discuss their own rules and award the opposing team with fair-play points.

"Football 3 is an activity with football, where the young ones who are playing are setting the rules. So, before we start playing, they discuss the rules, and then you stop the game and do the reflection. Oh, they also establish the punishment for not following the rules. I was there just standing and listening and being like, OK. They had to agree about everything." (B, 223-227)

One of the authentic methods to the practice of youth work is working with young people in a big circle i.e., sitting in a seminar room in a chair circle. This is predominantly used to ensure a high level of participation and communication among participants.

Youth work methods must be appealing to a broad spectrum of young people. Therefore, the used methods and activities are chosen based on the preferences and needs of the participants the youth workers work with. Hence, they approach youngsters very differently on the streets of Ljubljana.

Youth workers normally work outside of institutions based on different models. The first model is outreach youth work, where the main aim is to invite young people to visit the youth centre:

"... we also do a little bit of outreach, so we invite them to come to our youth centres."

(B, 11-12)

The second model is detached youth work where the main aim is to support young people in organizing events and activities in their local communities:

"... we were not working around our youth centre, but farther away from it, the model we used was detached youth work. Hence, we were implementing sports activities or different free-time activities or helping help people learn and organise events with the young people at their local primary school playground." (B, 7-11)

With the help of mobile youth centres (in form of bicycles, vans, or buses) youth workers visit communities in the suburbs of Ljubljana, where young people experience a lack of infrastructure and activities.

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The purpose of youth work is to support young people's personal development by giving them support and guidance in becoming independent adults and help them become active members of society. Moreover, youth work ensures that the wellbeing of youth is put in the centre of political discussions.

"Core principle in youth work is to plan activities with young people and for young people." (F, 65-66)

and

"As a youth worker, it's essential that you give the space, in the way that they are proactive; that they get self-initiated. You know, and I don't do the job instead of them."

(B, 90-92)

Another purpose of youth work is to support the development of young people's ability to critically analyse recent political events and developments. In this process youth workers also transfer democratic values to the youngsters. Equally important is simply "being there" for young people, which is understood as being available for the youngsters in their local communities when they need support or guidance.

"You as a kid were there, in your own environment. And you didn't have to go somewhere else, you know, like, really, because it can be sometimes tricky for kids to go somewhere." (D, 125-128)

Besides this, ensuring that young people have opportunities for spending free quality time is also one of the purposes of youth work. Youth workers in Ljubljana focus as much on the suburbs as on the city centre. In the suburbs, they implement detached-youth work activities.

They visit the suburbs by walking, cycling, or with the mobile youth centre.

"We are not promoting but encouraging young people to behave responsibly in public spaces." (D, 15-16)

For youth workers, an important purpose they identify themselves with is establishing trusting relationships with young people which they later use as a resource for transformative processes in their local communities.

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"... youth worker can be somebody who gives advice, who is a mentor, who guides young people through the challenges in their life. But on the other hand, it can be simply somebody who listens." (F, 183-186)

Youth work organizations in Slovenia need to agree on a definition of youth work to be able to distinguish what is and what is not youth work. Accordingly, they would use different approaches.

"Competencies of youth work are part of the quality standards in youth work. We have to establish what is youth work and what is not. For me, a ten-year-old and an eighteen- year-old are very different, so the approaches are also very different. So, the target groups are very important to define." (B, 597-600).

The recognition of youth work is very poor and youth workers feel that their work is not valued enough. The public has a wrong perception of youth works practice and purpose:

"If you ask the public, they think that youth workers play only games with children, which is not true." (B, 319-320)

Part of the responsibility for this poor recognition is also on youth workers because the professionals are not working enough on its recognition and value in the public.

"I think a part of the responsibility is on youth workers, too. We don't work enough on recognition of youth work and the value of youth work so that it would be considered differently." (B, 319-320)

The main target group of youth work in Ljubljana are young people aged from 15 to 29 years of age. They also work more intensively with some specific groups of young people. Besides young people who are in education, pupils, and university students, youth workers recognize vulnerable youngsters and immigrants as one of the specific target groups they work with.

"The area where we were working is inhibited by immigrants, maybe the second generation of immigrants from parents who came to Slovenia" (B, 217-221)

4.2 CHARACTERISTICS OF YOUTH WORKERS

Before I write about the differences between youth workers and teachers, I wish to elaborate more about youth workers personalities, with a focus on competencies and personality traits

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which are important for successful work. I would like to proceed with that because throughout the interview, the interviewees highlighted on several occasions that many activities in youth work depend on the youth workers who are leading them.

Youth workers have some distinct professional characteristics. One of them for sure is eye-level communication. They understand young people as allies and themselves as experienced adults.

As most activities in youth work depend on the youth worker leading them well and trustful relationships are important:

"Because they got used to me, my face, doing street work with them, they also started coming to learn Slovene or going to the daily centre. It was easier." (B, 297-299)

My interviewees are youth workers who worked in youth centres and outside on the streets:

"I worked (...) primarily as a street-based youth worker and I also worked in the youth centre." (A, 3-4)

Youth workers have more experience than young people, but they try to hold the responsibility on collaboration at equal levels: "... we can't be equal because I still have more knowledge. I still have more skills, I'm still older than them, but the collaboration should be on the same level ..." (C, 290-292).

Youth workers mainly finish university degrees in social work, social pedagogy, or psychology.

Many had contact with youth work during their education in their teenage years before deciding to become professional youth workers.

"I started with the youth work when I was still in high school. First, I participated in a youth exchange." (E, 7-9)

In Slovenia, it is possible to obtain a national qualification in youth work.

4.3 SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES BETWEEN YOUTH WORKERS AND TEACHERS

One of the aims of this graduation thesis is to provide an insight into the differences between youth workers and teachers from the perspective of the youth workers. I am doing this intending to provide support in mutual understanding of both, historically seen, very different yet very similar professions.

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Youth workers have an informal clothing style when compared to teachers. Therefore, young people are keener to approach a youth worker than a teacher because they feel more connected.

"I think that a youth worker has a more non-formal style – you feel that you can approach a youth worker easier than a teacher. You can almost say that teachers have their own dress code, and when somebody is dressed like a teacher you tell them "you are dressed like a teacher". This quite polished look." (A, 217-220)

Furthermore, youth work has a person-oriented approach, while teachers have a subject- oriented approach:

"I think it is more individualised learning because in youth work you learn what you want to learn. You think about your learning wishes, you plan your learning. And in the schools, they have to learn what is prescribed in the learning plan. I think this is the biggest advantage." (A, 264-268)

and

"The teachers also have to work the subject trough, to give homework and give grades."

(B, 387-388)

Both, teachers and youth workers, do group work with young people. However, youth workers believe that they offer more individual support. Moreover, they believe that youth work is more flexible and can easier adapt to changes in young people's needs. The constant evaluation of the activities helps in this process.

"The method of evaluation between youth workers and teachers is also different. Youth workers want to get feedback in every activity and their work on the feedback they get.

Therefore, youth workers are used to adjusting while the school is not so much flexible."

(A, 521-524)

The education system and teachers are focused on transmitting knowledge. Youth work and youth workers are focused on establishing safe spaces and supporting environments that support young people's personal development. Based on this we may conclude that the purpose of youth work and education are slightly different.

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"Teachers are the ones who like to teach the children something, but the youth worker would like to establish a surrounding that would be stimulative for the children to be aware of their own learning process, to recognize them as an actor, that they have the influence on the learning process." (F, 212-217)

Youth workers try to establish activities and programmes for young people with young people.

They co-create the activities and programmes with them.

"I see a youth worker as a person who is simply hanging out there and the kids can approach them and share their ideas and what they want to do, like organize events and this kind of stuff." (D, 272-276)

In Slovenia, youth work is unknown by most people, while education is traditionally seen as one of the carrying pillars of young people's socialization. Nevertheless, teachers receive a higher level of respect in society. However, it is noted that this respect is dropping and that the positive influence of teachers on the young people is decreasing. Consequently, youth workers are often mistaken for teachers since the profession of youth work is widely unknown:

"I think in Slovenia youth work is not well known. In my bubble, people know what youth work is, but outside of its people do not know much about youth work. Some of them are asking me "Are you something like a teacher?". They are constantly trying to connect us with the teachers – like we are teachers working outside of schools." (A, 237-241)

Teachers establish relationships with young people based on authority. On the other hand, youth workers see young people as the experts of their own life and equals to adults.

"In the case of youth workers, the young persons have a role of a participant. I think we are openly challenging this. The relationship between participants and youth workers is equal. In this relationship, they both have the power – the youth worker and the participant. While in school the teacher has more power than the pupil." (A, 257-261)

Youth workers receive special training on how to establish trustful relationships and maintain equal positions in them. The focus is on creating a safe space for young people. Nevertheless, they have the tools to achieve successful group dynamics.

Youth Sector in Schools: Towards Effective Collaboration Mladinski sektor v šolah: na poti k uspešnemu sodelovanju

Amar Toplić

Youth Sector in Schools: Towards Effective Collaboration Mladinski sektor v šolah: na poti k uspešnemu sodelovanju

Graduation Thesis Diplomsko delo

Amar Toplić

YOUTH SECTOR IN SCHOOLS Towards Effective Collaboration

Graduation Thesis

Supervisor: Assist. Prof. Dr. Miloslav Poštrak

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF FIGURES

LIST OF TABLES

1 INTRODUCTION

2 PROBLEM

3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

4 RESEARCH FINDINGS