Principles and Practice of Informal Education

Principles and Practice of Informal Education Informal educators work with individuals and groups in the community to promote their learning. They work in ordinary places, rather than formal classrooms, and use informal methods of teaching and learning such as conversation and shared activities. Focusing on ways of working with people, this book builds on the essentially human abilities to query, adapt, rethink, understand or be confused. The book argues that people learn from each other, in social exchanges which rarely involve a professional educator; so any community can be a setting for learning. Principles and Practice of Informal Education provides a much-needed, and accessible, exploration of learning beyond the classroom. Written by practitioners across a wide range of professional fields, this book will be topical and valuable to anyone working in youth and community work, as well as those in health education, careers guidance and social work. Linda Deer Richardson is a freelance educator for the Open University and YMCA George Williams College in London. Mary Wolfe is a tutor in informal and community education at the YMCA George Williams College. Principles and Practice of Informal Education Learning through life Edited by Linda Deer Richardson and Mary Wolfe LONDON AND NEW YORK First published 2001 by RoutledgeFalmer 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by RoutledgeFalmer 270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016 RoutledgeFalmer is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to http://www.ebookstore.tandf.co.uk/. © 2001 Linda Deer Richardson and Mary Wolfe for selection and editorial material; individual contributors for their contribution All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data Principles and practice of informal education : learning through life/ edited by Linda Deer Richardson and Mary Wolfe. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Non-formal education—Great Britain. 2. Community education—Great Britain. 3. Experiential learning—Great Britain. I. Richardson, Linda Deer, 1945–II. Wolfe, Mary, 1952– LC45.8.G7 P75 2001 370′.941–dc21 2001019457 ISBN 0-203-01785-4 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-415-21689-3 (hbk) ISBN 0-415-21690-7 (pbk) Contents Notes on contributors vii Acknowledgements ix Introduction x MARY WOLFE AND LINDA DEER RICHARDSON 1 PART I Exploring education Introduction 1 LINDA DEER RICHARDSON 1 On being an educator 3 MICHELE ERINA DOYLE 2 What is informal education? 17 JOHN MAHONEY 3 First lessons: historical perspectives on informal education 34 TONY JEFFS 51 PART II Working with Introduction 51 LINDA DEER RICHARDSON 4 Working with people as an inf ormal educator 53 MARY CROSBY 5 Professional values in informal education work 61 SARAH BANKS 6 Developing professional practice 73 MARY TYLER 7 Learning from experience 85 HUW BLACKER 8 Relationships and learning 92 GRAEME TIFFANY 9 Working with networks and organisations in the community 105 ALISON GILCHRIST 119 PART III Elements of practice Introduction 119 LINDA DEER RICHARDSON 10 Conversation 121 MARY WOLFE 11 Place, space and informal education 135 MARK K.SMITH 12 Programme planning 145 PAULINE RILEY 13 Activities 155 JEAN SPENCE 14 One-to-one casework 171 ALAN SMITH 15 Doing projects: working with formal groups 183 MALCOLM PAYNE 207 PART IV Developing professional practice Introduction 207 LINDA DEER RICHARDSON 16 Managing work 209 TED MILBURN 17 ‘We become experts’: working with basic education students as 219 researchers ALISON TOMLIN 18 Using line management 233 ANNMARIE TURNBULL 19 Using supervision for professional development 248 JANET WOODS 20 Evaluation in informal education 270 ALAN FRANCE Index 289 Notes on contributors Sarah Banks lectures in Community and Youth Studies at the University of Durham. Her books include: Ethics and Values in Social Work (1995). She recently edited Ethical Issues in Youth Work (1999) London: Routledge. Huw Blacker is a youth worker and researcher, based at Romford YMCA. He is a graduate of YMCA George Williams College and a part-time lecturer there. Mary Crosby is the Principal of the YMCA George Williams College. She has a background in youth and community work practice, tutoring, counselling and management within the voluntary sector. She has a particular interest in supervision. Michele Erina Doyle has worked as a youth and community educator (supported by the Rank Charities). She is currently editing a history of a Christian Settlement in Bermondsey and co-writing a book on Christian youth work. She can be contacted at the informal education homepage—[email protected] Alan France is a Research Fellow in the Department of Law at Sheffield University. He is presently evaluating the Joseph Rowntree Trust Communities That Care Initiative. Prior to this, he was the principal researcher on the national evaluation of the DfEE GEST funded Youth Action Initiative. His publications include: The Youth Action Scheme and the Future of Youth Work (1997); Dangerous Futures: Social Exclusion in Late Modernity and a Role for Youth Work (1997); The National Evaluation of Youth Action Projects (1996) (all joint authored with Wiles, P.). He also writes on youth issues and has published a number of articles on youth and citizenship. These include: ‘Youth and Citizenship in the 1990s’ (1996) and ‘“Why should we care?” Youth, citizenship and questions of social responsibility’ (1998). Alison Gilchrist has worked for many years as a community worker, mainly in inner-city neighbourhoods, and is an active member of the Standing Conference for Community Development. Having taught on the Community and Youth Work course at the University of the West of England, Bristol, she now works for the Community Development Foundation as their Regional Links Manager. Her research interests include the use of informal networking for community empowerment. Tony Jeffs is a member of the Community and Youth Work Studies Unit, Department of Sociology and Social Policy, University of Durham. He is a joint editor of the journal Youth and Policy. John Mahoney is a youth worker based in North London and a graduate of the YMCA George Williams College. Ted Milburn is Professor of Community Education and Director of the Centre for Youth Work Studies, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow. Formerly a youth worker, adult educator, training officer and assistant director of education, he is currently researching street youth work in South Lanarkshire and youth worker ideologies. Malcolm Payne is senior lecturer in youth and community development at De Montfort University, Leicester and Director of the University’s Youth Affairs Unit. Pauline Riley is Senior Worker, Cheshire and Wirral Federation of Youth Clubs. Alan Smith worked mostly with young offenders before being appointed as Senior Lecturer in Youth and Community Work at Havering College of Further and Higher Education, London, in 1994. Since then he has completed his MEd in the Practice of Community Education, based on research into the creation of a National Training Organisation for the sector. Alan is currently Secretary of the Community and Youth Work Training Agencies Group (TAG), the professional association for youth and community work lecturers in the UK and Ireland. In this role he has served on several Government advisory bodies on training and occupational standards. He is a member of the DfEE Youth Service/Connexions Transition Working Group. Mark K.Smith is the Rank Research Fellow and Tutor at the YMCA George Williams College, London. Among his other publications are Developing Youth Work (1988), Local Education (1994) and Informal Education (1999) (with Tony Jeffs). Jean Spence works at the Community and Youth Work Studies Unit of Durham University. She is an editor of the journal Youth and Policy and has particular interests in gender and in the history of community and youth work. Graeme Tiffany has a background in youth, community and adult education. He has worked in environmental and adventure education, detached and centre-based youth projects, regeneration schemes and initiatives to deliver community action training. Graeme is currently working as a freelance consultant in several areas including disaffection from school and voluntary sector development. Alison Tomlin is a researcher in the Leverhulme Numeracy Research Programme at King’s College, University of London. This chapter is based on research undertaken as a PhD student at King’s College London, with a student grant from the Economic and Social Research Council. Annmarie Turnbull is Director of Policy Development for the National Centre for Volunteering. Prior to this, she was senior tutor in community work at Turning Point, a voluntary organisation based at Goldsmiths College, University of London, that trains youth and community workers and provides training and consultancy to statutory and non-statutory agencies working

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