Informal education or bureaucrats and spies?

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Permalink Reply by Tania de St Croix on November 25, 2008 at 1:10pm

Hi, a couple of people have asked for the notes from my speech, nice to think anyone wants to read it! So here it is. Any comments gratefully received, whether agreeing / disagreeing / anecdotal / unsure...

I am still in the process of writing up the workshop too, which will give views from a lot more people.

Tania

Attachments:

• bureaucrats and spies speech.doc, 102 KB

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Permalink Reply by Tania de St Croix on December 12, 2008 at 3:17am

Hi,

the following short opinion piece appeared in Youth Work Now on the 'From the Frontline' page in the December 4th edition.

I am still writing up the workshop and will post here when done! (Probably over the New Year break).

Tania

Attachments:

• from the frontline.doc, 67 KB

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Permalink Reply by Tania de St Croix on December 12, 2008 at 2:08pm

Just been told the link for the online version of From The Frontline, it is:

http://www.cypnow.co.uk/Archive/login/866760/

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Permalink Reply by nathan davies on February 7, 2009 at 10:51am

Hi Tania

i am a youth development worker in a communities first area. i am currently in university studying my 2nd degree (youth and community studies) i am working on my dissertation at the momment. The title of my dissertation is "ian investigation on the impacts of paperwork (bureaucracy) in youth work.

i am wondering if you have any useful information that i could use.

look forward to your reply

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Permalink Reply by Tania de St Croix on February 8, 2009 at 2:24pm

Hi Nathan.
Your disseratation sounds really interesting!
I am not sure what info I have that you could use - what are you looking for? Have you read the 2 articles attached to this discussion? (Sorry if you have, but I am not sure how obvious they are!)
This week I am going to be doing a bit of reading myself, so if you tell me more of what you are looking for I might be able to help. Also, if you have found anything, especially on the history of youth work monitoring and bureacracy, I would find this interesting! So, hopefully we can swap references!
bye for now,
tania

nathan davies said:

Hi Tania

i am a youth development worker in a communities first area. i am currently in university studying my 2nd degree (youth and community studies) i am working on my dissertation at the momment. The title of my dissertation is "ian investigation on the impacts of paperwork (bureaucracy) in youth work.

i am wondering if you have any useful information that i could use.

look forward to your reply

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Permalink Reply by nathan davies on February 26, 2009 at 4:09am

HI Tania

thanks for the response much appreciated:

i have started my dissertation and my title is: "an investigation into the impact of Bureaucracy on youth workers in a communities first area"

i have just started my lit review (well behind - love the pressure thou haha)

Here is into to my lit rewview and what i am going to talk about:

Introduction and Literature Review
Through literature and research it examines what Communities First funding is all about and how it makes a difference in areas of high deprivation. It will study how a community uses the Communities first funding in order to promote positive change. The commitments of professionals working with young people in a Communities First area will be looked at in order to systematically highlight how much work is non face to face work with young people. The definition of bureaucracy will be investigated to give a clear view on what it means to professionals working with young people. The types of bureaucratic burdens will be investigated, with preference to administration duties, to give a lucid vision on what impacts the professionals working with young people. The factor of accountability will be looked upon and where it lies in respect to organisational constraints. Views of Surveillance – info gathering will be looked on in regards of a bureaucratic approach when working with young people. The evaluation systems will be reviewed in a bid to understand why a high amount of bureaucracy is administration based. Lastly the study will focus on understanding the specific need of positive bureaucracy


What do you think of this ? i have found a multitude of websites that give me information such as infed / the guardian / communitycare / ugc.org / youth work journals / bbc website / cypnow / telegraph / chairytimes / ber.gov.uk / estyn / parliment.uk / global net / the bolton news / children web mag / generation online / bura-brunel.ac.uk

i have looked at many issues surrounding the baby P case also as alot og bureaucratic burden was blamed within the case, but i am only using whats neccasary.

if you have any insites i would be more than willing to here from you:

my work email is:

n.r.davies@hotmail.co.uk

maybe when i have finished my questionnaire i could send it to you as part of my findings. i could benchmark your views as on outside professional to our Newport City Youth Service views.

would that be ok ?

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Permalink Reply by Graeme Tiffany on March 25, 2009 at 9:38am

Thankfully, there are 'ethical' as well as 'advocacy' researchers out there:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/the-big-question-are-...

Note Terri Dowty's involvement; she spoke at the Fed conf a few years ago.

Graeme

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Permalink Reply by Tania de St Croix on March 25, 2009 at 9:59am

Yes, I saw that story - interesting!

Nathan I am so sorry I have not been back in touch, I have been over-run with bureaucracy myself (as well as fitting in some lovely youth work!) and I've hardly time to think. I will get back to you a.s.a.p., don't be afraid to remind me!

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Permalink Reply by Sean Walsh on June 2, 2009 at 1:11am

Tania de St Croix said:

Hi, a couple of people have asked for the notes from my speech, nice to think anyone wants to read it! So here it is. Any comments gratefully received, whether agreeing / disagreeing / anecdotal / unsure...

I am still in the process of writing up the workshop too, which will give views from a lot more people.

Tania

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Permalink Reply by Sean Walsh on June 2, 2009 at 1:19am

I visted the GDR back in the early '80s and it's getting frighteningly like this. The GDR had a youth organisation called, 'Free German Youth'. Youth they were certainly, German they may have been, but 'Free' they were certainly not. The authorities in the then East Germany realised that young people are the most dynamic and (potentially) rebellious section of the community and sought to bring this to account, with an organisation that monitored them and policed them constantly. It didn't work, of course, because some young people refused to conform. Like the young man who dared to put a CND sticker on his bike and got 18 months' prison for his pains.

I don't know what it is with these people in government. They seem to be obsessed with controlling and policing us. We were all told during the Cold War how nasty and evil the East German regime was - actually a country populated by human beings just like you and me - now the government has learnt from the Stasi and are turning what they have learnt to account.

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Permalink Reply by Sean Walsh on January 1, 2010 at 9:54am

Hello Tania! Happy New Year! =^..^=

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