Professional Education in Youth Justice: Mirror or Motor
| Author | Richard Hester, Dr Stephen Case |
| Pages | 45-56 |
PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION IN YOUTH
JUSTICE: MIRROR OR MOTOR?
Richard Hester, Head of the Department of Health and Social Care, Faulty of
Hea lth a nd Socia l Care, T he Open Universit y & Dr Stephen Cas e, Senior Lecturer
in Criminal Justice and Criminology, Centre for Criminal Justice and Criminology,
School of L a w, Sw ansea Unive rsi ty.
Abstract
This paper explores the current training of youth justice practitioners and suggests that there
is now a polarisation between the teaching of youth justice in England and Wales into an
unhelpful vocational-academic dichotomy. The paper traces the development of the youth
justice foundation degree and identifies a need to balance criticality with ‘underpinning
knowledge’ by taking seriously the process of developing learning within the work setting.
The paper concludes by recommending a ‘synthesised curriculum’ which would facilitate
both employer engagement and ‘academic integrity’. This curriculum, in turn, may
contribute to the development of ‘informed practitioners’ capable of addressing the very
pressing needs of youth crime and antisocial behaviour.
Introduction
Dealing with youth crime and antisocial behaviour remains the subject of considerable
concern in the UK and beyond. Furthermore, the degree of social construction, moral
panic, stigmatisation and ‘knee-jerk’ retribution that surrounds the political and media
representations of these issues has been fostered in the context of a globalised society. This,
in turn, has accelerated the need for ‘modernised’ and productive practice delivered by
informed, skilled and educated youth justice practitioners. There is thus a pressing need to
provide an effective framework for the teaching of these ‘informed practitioners’, yet the
urgency implied by such a rapidly changing environment may itself be counterproductive.
This is because the development of higher order skills and the engagement in deep or even
profound learning (Hay, 2007) takes time, both from the point of view of teaching and just
as importantly, from the perspective of learning. The cluster of thinking skills such as
evaluation, analysis, and understanding go well beyond the acquisition of simple knowledge.
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Professional Education in Youth Justice: Mirror or Motor?
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