Initial Professional Education for Youth and Community Workers: Exploring Academic’s Experiences

Abstract

This paper reflects on a small-scale piece of research into the experience of academics involved in the initial professional education of youth and community workers in England during the period 2015–2016, when multiple factors were affecting degree-qualifying youth and community worker education. Interviews with six academics identify the influences of funding issues, changing contexts for fieldwork settings, varied perceptions of professional youth work to ongoing pressures within higher education which inform their experience. This research draws on Bourdieu’s thinking tools of habitus and illusio as a theoretical lens to explore academics’ ongoing commitment to professional youth and community worker education. The actions and messages from the research participants offer an insight into the varied situations academics are navigating at this point in time, and resonate with a contemporary, post-pandemic context. The paper concludes with areas for further research into the ongoing development of initial professional youth and community worker education.