Youth Work Ethics
- Howard Sercombe - Professor of Community Education, University of Strathclyde
This definitive text on youth work ethics examines these questions and more and should be on the reading lists of all youth work trainees and practitioners. A wide range of topics are covered, including: confidentiality; sexual propriety; dependence and empowerment; equity of provision; interprofessional working; managing dual relationships; working across cultures; working within an agency.
Referencing professional codes of ethics in youth work, and the theories underpinning them, Howard Sercombe offers readers a framework for how to think about their practice ethically. Each chapter includes:
-Narrative case studies to provide an insight into real life dilemmas.
-Reflective questions and exercises to encourage critical thinking.
-Chapter summaries and further reading.
Youth Work Ethics is the ideal text for undergraduates and postgraduates studying on youth work, youth studies or youth & community work degrees, as well as youth work practitioners.
I would recommend this text to my students. This is a really good and comprehensive resource about youth work ethics.
Some interesting material, a bit too australian in its focus in many places.
It looks too much like a collection of a year's teaching.
A good overview of the field and a welcome addition to introductory texts in this area. Well presented and accessible for students.
Useful book covers new areas
A great read for youth work students, gives a solid grounding in the ethical practice related to youth work.
Sercombe works well through 3 sections in the book: The Youth Work Profession; Method and Theory; and Ethical Issues and Conflicts.
Beginning with an examination of the profession which fits well with current policy/funding debates, helping to form an identity and mandate for youth work despite policy, the second section moves on to an overview of current ethical epistemology, framed within postmodernity.
Sercombe then choses 13 practical topics to work through with an overview of the main themes within each. These topics are for the youth worker and agency rather than young people, for example the pursuit of funding, ethics of power and CPD.
Summary boxes make it easy to dip in and out of (and quote easily in essays!), and occasional worked examples bring it to life - though perhaps more of this would help.
He tries to take a neutral stance on issues, allowing the reader to define their own stance where appropriate.
All in all, a good introductory text to a broad range of theory and issues around the youth work profession.
The text promotes critical thinking around the notion of the professional. The placement of the reader to enable undergraduate thinking in youth and community work is valuable in relation to a developed understanding of self and others.
The value of exploring ethics and thinking approaches to the application to practice sets the stage for youth work students to consider ethical choices and decisions and works towards individual and organisations change with regards to ethically considered socially just responses, provision and interventions.
An excellent book which is key to those studying youth and community work programmes
Recommended to 2nd Year Early Childhood Education students in one module - have also shown this to Children & Young Peoples Workforce FdA.
A fabulously comprehensive read, considering the main issues in youth work ethics and bringing to life the realities in practice.
