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The benefits of applying the lightning talk in child and youth care education
CYC-Online, 2021
Child and youth care instructors often aspire to prepare students for unforeseen circumstances in the field, including circumstances that may require spontaneous advocacy and public speaking skills in various settings, such as an interdisciplinary case conference or a plan of care meeting. We suggest that one way of contributing to these goals is the pedagogy of the lightning talk. A lightning talk can be defined as a short (three minutes), time-limited, oral presentation on a particular subject without the use of supporting materials, such as Power Point slides, notes, an electronic device, or audience engagement, so as to simulate a practice context that was unexpected and for which the practitioner has no opportunity to plan or prepare (Jean-Pierre et al., 2020). It differs from an elevator speech or pitch, which is usually expected to last less than a minute (30 to 60 seconds) and has been employed in the corporate world and other professions to sell an idea, a product, or a service (Cox & Marris, 2011; Pagana, 2013; Simpson, 2016). The lightning talk is longer and shares similarities with the Three Minute Thesis (3MT) contest, which challenges graduate students to present their research projects in a concise and clear fashion (Hu & Liu, 2018). In this article, we will share the main lessons learned from a study that examined the learning experiences and processes of the pedagogy of the lightning talk at a Canadian metropolitan university in two child and youth care undergraduate courses.
An Analysis of Child and Youth Advocacy in 21st Century Contemporary Contexts
This thesis explores how meanings of the concept of advocacy are produced by organizational structural features; how the concept of advocacy is constructed and related to young people's experiences by provincial and territorial child and youth advocate offices; how concepts of advocacy come to have significance in the lives of advocates and how they negotiate these concepts in their daily routines; and how children's rights are operationalized in practice in advocate offices. A total of 26 participants are included in the study. Through semi-structured interviews, I engage primarily with provincial and territorial child and youth advocates from across Canada as well as international children's commissioners from Australia, New Zealand, Belgium, Denmark, Norway and Northern Ireland. Two internationally recognized children's rights advocates are also included in the study. Adopting a qualitative methodology, I draw on organizational theory to make meaning of the data. My research reveals that the concept of advocacy is complex. Effective advocacy centres on challenging and changing decision-making processes by partnering with young people to elevate their perspectives and adopting a rights-based approach to working with children and youth. At the provincial and territorial level, it is important for advocates to navigate the historical, cultural and political factors that inform discourses surrounding childhood as these factors impact the way advocacy is carried out. At the organizational level, collaborative relationships with community organizations, government and interdisciplinary advocate teams help to operationalize rights in advocate offices. Findings point to the importance of thinking critically about the concepts of voice, agency and participation in the context of child and youth advocacy institutions. Understandings about children, voice, agency, participation iii and rights materialize certain groups of children in practice and frequently hinder the viewpoints of young people. Contained within these understandings are processes of exclusion, that may harm some children when considering who gets to have a voice or participate? While the advocates do good things for children, a shift is required in social institutions for children that has a lot to do with a conceptual shift in thinking about these concepts and how advocacy is carried out in 21 st century contexts. v
“Children Have Rights, Right?" Child Advocacy in the Lives of Young People
Youth Voice Journal, 2015
Purpose: This article draws on critical theory, specifically critical pedagogy, to explore the construction of childhood and the work of the Canadian Council of Child and Youth Advocates in rights based discourse. Approach: The article analyzes how childhood is defined by rights based documents and by the Council members. As a subsidiary source of data, I also explore more mainstream images of children's rights advocacy through various media sources. Through a critical discourse analysis of these texts, the article challenges constructions of childhood in the discourse of children's rights advocacy, while at the same time highlighting transformative possibilities that have powerful implications for policy. Findings: This article highlights the importance of the Council Members as they provide opportunities for the betterment of children’s lives. Limitations: Methodologically, findings could be strengthened by interviewing Council members to obtain their understanding of how they perceive young people and believe their work provides them with life-enhancing opportunities. Implications: The article sheds light on the growing opportunities for professional advancement in Canadian Child and Youth Advocacy. Value: The investigation also contributes essential knowledge to academics studying child and youth advocacy, as such scholarship is currently unavailable in Canada.
Child & Youth Services, 2018
In this article, we present the results from a youth-led project on the voices and participation of children in state care in Ontario, Canada. The purpose of this project was for youth to share their voice about what they wish child protection workers and agencies could do to improve their experiences within the child protection system. Many youth in care in Canada and internationally report that their voices are not heard and that they are not involved in decisions involving their care. Seven themes were extracted from this voices of youth project asking child welfare workers and agencies to listen to [them] and believe [them], keep [them] informed and be honest, involve [them] in decisions, support [them], keep [them] connected,; ignite [their] passions, and don't give up on [them]. Suggestions from the youth involved in this project are offered on ways to create true and meaningful change in child welfare. Article 12 of the United Nations' (1989) Convention on the Rights of the Child provides children with the right to form their own views and be included in all matters relating to them (Donnelly, 2010; Vis & Thomas, 2009). According to Freeman, "Article 12 is significant because it recognizes the child as a full human being with integrity, personality and the ability to participate freely in society" (Freeman, 1996, p. 37, in Lundy, McEvoy, & Byrne, 2011). This article has been viewed by some as transformative due to the lack of age limits on the rights of children. In actuality, however, this article seems to have had very little impact on the everyday lives of children involved in the child protection system (Vis & Fossum, 2013). This could be due to the ambiguous language of the Article, which uses words such as "maturity" and "capability" with little or no guidance on who makes the
This paper addresses the relationship between identity and learning and how their integration in adolescence is an important part of short- and long-term developmental dynamics. We discuss how social practice theories can be expanded from a position termed ‘transformative activist stance’ that puts emphasis on collaborative practice aimed at changing the world and enacted by individual activist contributions as the grounding for both identity and learning. We further focus on critical-theoretical knowledge as a tool for identity development and a catalyst for merging identity and learning. The developmental trajectory of an adolescent boy living in a group home and participating in a collaborative transformative project showcases a dramatic personal transformation from a victim of oppressive circumstances to an agent of social change with a meaningful life agenda resulting from a merger of his evolving commitment to contribute to transforming his present community practice and of his growing immersion in critical-theoretical learning.
This paper addresses the relationship between identity and learning and how their integration in adolescence is an important part of short-and long-term developmental dynamics. We discuss how social practice theories can be expanded from a position termed 'transformative activist stance' that puts emphasis on collaborative practice aimed at changing the world and enacted by individual activist contributions as the grounding for both identity and learning. We further focus on critical-theoretical knowledge as a tool for identity development and a catalyst for merging identity and learning. The developmental trajectory of an adolescent boy living in a group home and participating in a collaborative transformative project showcases a dramatic personal transformation from a victim of oppressive circumstances to an agent of social change with a meaningful life agenda resulting from a merger of his evolving commitment to contribute to transforming his present community practice and of his growing immersion in critical-theoretical learning.
Youth Learning to Be Activists: Constructing "Places of Possibility" Together
Critical Questions in Education, 2017
This paper draws from a critical qualitative study that took place in Vancouver, British Columbia and focused on a group of young people learning to be activists through participation at a youth-driven organization, "Think Again" (TA). In this paper, I focus on one aspect of the youths' participation at TA-their creative action projects-and the emergent methodologies employed in this study that generated the conditions for "places of possibility" to emerge. I conceptualize "places of possibility" as literal and metaphorical spaces where people are afforded the tools and resources necessary to imagine alternative realities, identities, and systems than what currently exist, primarily through creative and activist practices. Specifically, I utilize a narrative framework to examine the ways the social relationships and practices at TA enabled some of the young people to take up an activist identity.
International Journal of Child, Youth and Family Studies
This report describes a national lived experience advocacy movement generated by the work of the National Council of Youth in Care Advocates to support equitable transitions to adulthood for youth in care in Canada. The emergence of the National Council at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic is presented, as well as the ongoing progress and achievements in advocacy and best practice efforts at the national and local jurisdiction levels. This article, by three members of the National Council, is the first to provide an account of the process associated with national lived experience advocacy mobilization by and for youth in care.
‘Seen but not heard’- young people's experience of advocacy
International Journal of Social Welfare, 2005
Boylan J, Ing P. 'Seen but not heard' -young people's experience of advocacy Int J Soc Welfare 2005: 14: 2-12 © Blackwell Publishing, 2005 This article draws on two pieces of empirical research undertaken in England with young people in public care. The research examined young people's experiences of a range of advocacy services, and the extent to which the involvement of an advocate facilitated young people's voices being heard in decision-making. The research responded to contemporary concerns about children's participatory rights, citizenship and social inclusion, set in the context of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. This article examines the strengths and limitations of advocacy for young people in public care and compares the different types of advocacy services that are available to young people and considers the extent to which adult perceptions of childhood and youth frame the services that are offered. It provides a comparison of the outcomes for young people who have had an advocate and those who have not. The concluding discussion argues that young people in public care feel excluded and marginalised from decision-making processes, and that advocacy has a pivotal role to play in placing at centre stage the wishes and feelings of young people.