It is not just the way in which the social pedagogues work that is different to that of many homes within the United Kingdom. Their whole outlook on childcare as a profession and inside a workplace is different. There is a huge emphasis on reflection and learning from experiences for working with young people.
“More time was said to be needed for reflection during handovers in order to help staff relate theory to practice.” (Cameron et al, 2011: 9)
To help this they have longer handovers than that of typical British children’s homes. They pick apart their days and discuss what went right or wrong and look into why it went wrong or right.
They also share their experiences with other practitioners in their workforce and build their skills as a team. My setting is incorporating this in a different sense – after an incident or crisis and using TCI life space interviews we either as a team or in individual supervision talk about what could maybe have been done differently and discuss reasons why things were done. To begin with this was a very uncomfortable discussion as to many I work with (myself included) it felt like they were being criticized or undermined by someone who was not there in the incident at the time and wasn’t feeling the same emotions or making decisions under pressure. We were not very good and handling criticism even though it was meant as positive or developmental criticism. I think this comes down to the fact that we hadn’t been doing this before and it was a new experience. Staff in my setting were always very sympathetic and understanding and this new way of discussing practice took a while to get used to. When researching for this essay I spoke to a colleague of mine and asked her how she felt after we had this ‘supervision’ after an incident. She told me she felt like she was being interrogated or judged. I think that the best way to overcome this uncomfortable feeling within the team is to sit down together and briefly explain what we are trying to achieve and explain that this is done in a non-judgemental and productive way that will ultimately help achieve better outcomes for the young people.
Social pedagogues have a very broad knowledge of children's rights and all attend university to study and develop before they can work with young people. That being said pedagogues are also very practical and are very involved in day to day things such as activities and education. There is emphasis on specific carer’s roles for example taking a child to an activity; they believe that it should be the same carer to take the same young person to a regular activity such as football training. They should also stay and support and encourage the child as this will help build an attachment and a positive relationship. In a way social pedagogy is much like a therapeutic practice environment such as the one I work in. As an organisation we do many of these things and encourage many of the values I have pointed out. However I do not feel that childcare as a whole in the UK is like this. My organisation is therapeutic minded and is constantly looking for ways to improve practice and achieve better outcomes for children, however other agencies involved may not understand the importance of the environment we try to create. For example, schools which many of our young people attend are not therapeutic and their aims are not the same as ours or that of a social pedagogue. Instead of trying to develop young people into well developed, educated and socially successful adults they may be focused on achieving a certain number of pass marks on exams for example. A major part of the social pedagogy ethos is education.
“Although there is an emphasis on education, for social pedagogy education must be seen in its broadest sense” (Cameron et al, 2011: 14).
By this I think that Cameron was trying to say that education is viewed differently by pedagogues than it is to the traditional British educational system. Social pedagogues believe that education is key to societal development in young people. Children in schools that use the social pedagogical ethos are not just taught to pass exams in order to gain qualifications and be able to get a job further on in life which is how I view the educational system in the united kingdom; they are taught life skills and better ways to develop as an overall person alongside academia. This is both in the school environment and also in the home setting. Social pedagogy has also been described as “where education and care meet” (Cameron and Moss, 2011).
This is because the work done by Social Pedagogue’s in the home environment is also education based. They focus on communication and have a high emphasis on listening skills. They focus on developing the child or young person as a whole. In schools they believe in smaller classes so that the communications skills can be enhanced to a greater potential than that of a larger class. Smaller classes also give greater opportunities to build relationships from teacher to pupil. They also have a higher emphasis on PSHE lessons (personal, social, health and economical education) as stated earlier this is to focus on personal development or ‘the human condition’ as described in some cases.
It is easy to say that these points could easily be transferred into our educational system here in Britain but to what extent? For example many schools in the country have been crying out for smaller class sizes and more work one to one in the classroom. However due to school funding and budget cuts this has not been achieved.
“UK state primaries have 24.5 pupils per class - the fourth largest of the 30 Western countries which make up the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).” (Shepherd, 2008)
If schools with in the UK cannot afford to employ more teaching staff during school hours then it is unlikely to be able to completely revamp the ethos of British education and integrate the ways of social pedagogues and this I think is where the problem lies education-wise.
In summary I believe that the outlook and principles that a social pedagogue possesses and tries to promote would be a valuable asset to British childcare as a whole. However I do believe that the whole childcare system would have to be re-designed or revamped from the bottom up. Starting with nursery or preschool and working up to college. Also from foster care through to residential homes and the way that staff are trained would have to change to incorporate and teach the views and principles of social pedagogy. I do have doubts over whether the country as a whole could realistically afford to implement the ways that social pedagogy is applied throughout the educational system in mainstream schools within the United Kingdom - taking into account how much it is struggling financially at the moment. Thus said I do believe that residential care throughout the United Kingdom could hugely benefit from some of the notions and principles behind social pedagogy.
Part 2 Relational Practice - Hennessey (2011: 20) summarises “relationship based practice skills” as follows:
“A commitment and growing ability to know the self…..
- A commitment to try and know the other person – their life’s influences, their ways of thinking and feeling and behaving
- Purposefully raising these knowledge’s about self and others to consciousness – thinking and reflecting on them…..
- Using this conscious awareness where possible and appropriate to relate in deeper ways with the client, for the benefit of the client
- Offering and using the self in the relationship”
Discuss what this means for you/in your practice setting and identify the supports and constraints to practising in this way. (2000 words)
In this second part of my essay I am going to focus particularly on Hennessey’s first bullet point which is about being committed to knowing the person. One way of knowing the person is through the lens of attachment theory which is employed extensively in my own work place. I will discuss my views on the importance of building relationships with the young people I work with in my setting - a residential children's home. I will use examples from the young people I work with (one in particular) and explain some of the difficulties I have had to face while trying to build and maintain positive relationships. I will research Attachment theory and relate it to a young person currently in my care. During my time researching and writing this essay my practice has developed and I will discuss these and ways of developing them further.
The first of Hennessey’s points about relationship based practice skills is: “A commitment to try and know the other person – their life’s influences, their ways of thinking and feeling and behaving” I completely agree with this statement in terms of relationship building. We cannot begin to help a young person unless we show willing to them that we are committed. To begin to build a relationship, first you must try to understand how the young person acts and why they show these emotive behaviours. I believe that building positive relationships with the young people placed in my care is fundamental to helping them heal or develop themselves. A Relationship between carer and young person can provide the solid foundations to help the young person overcome transitions they may face. They allow young people to develop trust in a carer thus giving the carer the ability to advise and support them throughout their time in care. Building relationships with young people while in care as children or adolescents also teaches the young person how to trust people and also gives them the skills they will need further on in life to build relationships of their own.
Building relationships with young people can be challenging and sometimes relentless. There are many variables or things that could influence the way a relationship is built. For example the security of the child's self-worth, past experiences with adults (or other people as a whole) and the breakdown of previous relationships. The reasons behind these factors will all have a bearing on how a child deals with building relationships or attaching to a person.
“Attachment is the deep and enduring connection established between a child and caregiver in the first several years of life. It profoundly influences every component of the human condition – mind, body, emotions, relationships and values” (Levy and Orlans, 1998:322)
Attachment theory is something I have a base knowledge about from working in my setting. My organisation provides all staff with a two day course on understanding and working with young people with attachment disorder. I believe that all children in care will have some variation of attachment problems because of the nature of their upbringing and even the fact that they do not live with their birth parents. I am currently key worker for a young person to which we as a team of carers within my setting believe to be insecurely attached. He shows signs of Ambivalent/Resistant and of disorganised/disorientated attachment which are two of the 4 recognised stages of attachment. This means that the young person will be abusive, fearful, lacking coherent and can easily disassociate. He will more than likely have been neglected or abused in some way. This is very relevant to this particular young person and their history. Because of these things he finds it hard to build or maintain any sort of positive attachment or relationship. We have found that he will try to jeopardise a relationship when he feels he is getting too close. He generally has cycles of positive relationships with certain people. For example within his peers – he may make friends with a group of 5 other teens, after a week or two he will leave or be cast out of the group because he cannot deal with positive relationships. This is because he has not experienced a stable, positive relationship with anybody throughout his whole life. He will then move on to another group of peers or spend more time around the home building relationships with adults who provide care for him. This cycle also applies for the adults who work with him. Over time he will get close, he will attach to them before trying to disassociate or do something to try and ruin the bond.
I have a very positive relationship with him overall; however we do have hard times when after a few months he feels I am getting too close to his emotions. He begins to feel unsafe at the fact that he and I can talk openly and honestly about sensitive subjects and he becomes scared by the fact that he begins to trust me. And why wouldn’t he? He has been rejected throughout his whole life - he has been moved from carer to carer. From his point of view once he shows negative behaviours a carer will disown him and he finds it hard to believe that neither I nor any of my colleagues are going to repeat this common pattern for him. When it gets to this stage he goes into crisis and commonly says that he doesn’t need our help. He becomes both verbally and physically aggressive towards us as carers and towards the house and its furniture. This can sometimes be hard to understand but is explained well in this statement by Howe.
Many maltreated children do not feel safe when they allow the carer to be in charge of the relationship. After all, this is the relationship associated with hurt and danger, fear and pain… controlling strategies empower children. They help them disown representations of the self as hopeless, vulnerable and needing comfort. (Howe, 2005:107)
Howe hits the nail on the head here and really puts this into perspective. As his primary carers it is the job of myself and my colleagues to re-stabilise his view of relationships and adults. To try and build his trust up to a point where he can believe and accept that some adults are safe, can help him and can protect him. This means that we have to ‘weather the storm’ as such and stick with him throughout these crisis outburst or cries for help as it may be seen. We must show him that there are trustable people in this world and that he can relax his defences and develop into a young adult while with us. This will take time and we will go through many periods of crisis behaviour before he begins to understand. As we are trying to rewire his whole outlook on relationships which he has built up throughout his whole life.
“Attachment is not something that parents do to their children; rather, it is an on-going, reciprocal relationship” (Levy and Orlans, 1998:1)
On going work will have to be done with a young person that suffers from any version of attachment disorder. They will need clear and consistent boundaries along with love and care to build on their attachment problems and develop into a trusting adult. If a child with attachment disorder is not given these things on a regular and consistent basis they will not develop further and it could also have a detrimental effect on their emotional state of wellbeing in the long term. Recently links have been made to attachment disorder and the actual development of certain parts of the brain.
“Disrupted and anxious attachment leads not only to emotional distress and social problems, but also results in biochemical consequences in the developing brain.” (Banowsky Arrington, 2007:44)
Attachment disorder is becoming widely recognised as a medical condition due to the research being provided by many experts across the field. In summary I feel it is important that anybody working with young people in care should be aware of attachment disorder and how to work with it. They should be aware of the behaviours and trust issues caused by attachment disorder and work continuously and consistently to help the young person overcome this and heal past traumas. Without being aware of attachment disorder the common majority may be too quick to judge the young person or react in a detrimental way to the young person’s overall development. Within my setting every member of staff has the opportunity to be trained on attachment theory, this is spread over 3 half days of training with a psychologist. This gives myself and my colleagues a different perspective on some of the challenging behaviours we face day to day and opens our eyes to the bigger more long term picture. By being aware of attachment disorder and the developmental problems it can cause to the emotional wellbeing of the young person we are better equip to be helping these young people in healing through past traumas. It gives us a chance to restore or repair some of the trust that that they have lost in adults and relationships in general. The young person will be totally unaware of the fact that they behave in a challenging way because of attachment disorder and the only long term solution is for adults not to give up, to show love and care and be positive role models. This powerful quote by Richard L. Evans reiterates the importance of the constant work we do to help young people overcome their problems.
“Children will not remember you for the material things you provided but for the feeling that you cherished them.” (Delaflor and LaHaye, 2006:124)
On the other hand attachment theory may not be viewed as an overall positive way to view a young person’s development. Attachment theory tends to be used with people who have already been labelled or even potentially Pathologised as disadvantaged or ‘damaged’. It is also important to remember, as Hennessey emphasises in terms of being self-aware, that ‘attachment’ as an idea might also relate to the worker and their working practices. Hennessey’s initial statement about relationship based practice is: “A commitment and growing ability to know the self”. This is a very valid point and an interesting way of viewing the other side of attachment and also relationships as a whole. How can we expect to build a relationship with the child if we do not fully understand our own self? We must be aware of our emotions and also how we are to be perceived by a potentially vulnerable young person.
In summary I believe that Hennessey’s points about relationship based practice are valid. In particular the first bullet, as it relates highly to my job role and also my views on attachment theory fit well alongside his notions. Building relationships with young people and especially vulnerable or disadvantaged young people placed in care can be tough and challenging but we must keep the child at the fore and ‘soldier on’. By noting Hennessey’s theory and being aware of the points he makes about ‘knowing the self’ and ‘knowing the other person’ we can all begin to build positive relationships and in time achieve better outcomes.
References
Arrington, D. (2007) Art, angst, and trauma: right brain interventions with developmental issues. (Illustrated ed.) Illinois: Charles C Thomas .
Brown, A. (1992) Groupwork. London: Heinemann. In Smith, M. K. (2009) 'Social pedagogy' in the encyclopaedia of informal education, [].
Cameron, C., Petrie, P, Wigfall, V., Kleipoedszus, S. and Jasper, A (2011) Final Report of the Social Pedagogy Pilot Programme: development and implementation. London: Thomas Coram Research Unit. (available online)
Cameron, C and Moss, P. (2011) Social Pedagogy: current understandings and opportunities. In Cameron, C and Moss, P. (eds) (2011) ibid : 7-32
Delaflor, I. and LaHaye, P. (2006) Sacred Messages: For the Parents of the World. Online: iUniverse.
Howe, D. (2005) Child abuse and neglect: Attachment, development and intervention. In Cameron, C. and Moss, P. (eds) (2011) Social Pedagogy and Working with Children and Young People: Where Care and Education Meet . London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers: 42-44 Banowsky
Levy, T. and Orlans, M. (1998) Attachment, Trauma, and Healing: Understanding and Treating Attachment Disorder in Children and Families. Washington DC: CWLA Press.
Shepherd, J. (2008) British class sizes among highest in world. [Online] Available from: http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2008/sep/09/class.sizes [accessed 2 January 2012]
Zeller, J. (Date unknown) Early childhood education and beyond: Teacher-child relationships and learning. [Online] Available from: http://www.uknow.gse.harvard.edu/teaching/TC101-207.html [accessed 2 January 2012]
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