Critical Social Education in Youth Work

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This is to support youth workers to reconnect and explore critical social education as a core practice in youth work. 
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This session will be held over 2 days and facilitated by Joyce Brennan (In Sync), Tracey McArdle (Our Generation) and Claire (WSTCYS). 
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Day 1: will focus on deepening learning
Day 2: will feature creative, interactive, and arts-based approaches to showcase and celebrate our work.
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Background to Critical Social Education:
Historically, Youth Work Ireland has been one of the most active proponents of critical social education in Youth Work and published the seminal text on this topic in our Irish Youth Work Press.  Youth Work Ireland has been an active and vocal proponent of civil society and defending the space for civil society organisations as a means of supporting democracy. Our CEO, Dr. Patrick Burke has frequently spoken on this topic in his public engagements. In Youth Work Ireland Youth work is therefore aligned with democratic values and supportive of democracy, we are not silent about injustice in the lives of young people and, we address the root causes of inequalities in the lives of young people we work with. 
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Awareness of critical social education as a practice in Youth Work Ireland is not as extensive as it could be. The ongoing challenges in recruiting qualified youth workers has eroded the awareness of, attitudes supportive of and time for the practice of core youth work methods, including critical social education. The multiple, extreme challenges that many young people bring to our services has brought about a focus on the individual challenges of young people, rather than the social context which gives rise to these challenges.
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Further, in Youth Work Ireland, our language and practice principles often explicitly reference a rights-based way of working; we less often reference critical social education. This is not because we disavow critical social education, but rather because rights based language is more readily understood by policy makers and funders and links directly with Irish and European policy and funding objectives. Certainly, consistent use of rights based language has assisted in situating Youth Work Ireland as taking a leading role in Ireland and Ireland in terms of the rights of young people. 
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However, the need for critical social education as a model of practice is real and urgent. Currently, critical thinking, democratic values and ideals are in decline  in Ireland and in Europe and this is exacerbated by AI, mis-information and disinformation. Youth work has a key role to play in supporting young people to become critical thinkers,  and democratic actors who are conscious of issues and democratic values - see  the upcoming conference Democracy in Action - Youth Work Matters ﻿
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At the same time, rights violations at the global and domestic levels are too many to be named. Young people are aware of these, they are affected by these issues, they ask questions about these and often want to be involved and have their say. Critical Social Education offers a path for young people to follow to meaningfully engage with issues they identify as important to them.
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Re-visiting critical social education helps us to strengthen our youth work practice in response to these issues. It also allows us to clearly communicate the valuable role of a youth worker in society. 
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Critical Social Education in Youth Work

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#Supporting learners in developing critical thinking

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#Is comfortable with addressing and applying the principles of non-formal learning when designing a programme with a particular focus on ‘learner-centeredness’, ‘transparency’, ‘democratic values’, ‘participation’ and ‘social transformation’

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