Aim or purpose
Once we recognize that the nature of people's participation may be the first port of call for local educators, it is then possible to approach the 'larger' purposes in their labours. Here I want to highlight seven themes that have emerged from my conversations with local educators.
Crap detecting
Much of the practice I have heard described has been directed at identifying and challenging assumptions; developing an understanding of the context in which people act and how this has helped to shape their thinking; imagining and exploring alternatives; and developing what Brookfield (1987b: 9) - after McPeck (1981) - describes as a 'reflective scepticism'. In short, it has been concerned with developing the ability to think critically; with the cultivation of wisdom or what Postman and Weingartner (1971) called 'crap detecting'. Some seem to approach this as a skill, but, more accurately, it is a disposition or frame of mind. It also depends on having the necessary knowledge. 'There is no formula for distinguishing fact from opinion, no litmus test of veracity, even for our own ideas, let alone those of others. Everything depends on our knowledge .. .' (F. Smith 1992: 98). One key aspect of this process is then the provision of information, for example, through the publication of a regular neighbourhood newsletter giving details of local developments, housing news and local campaigns.
Opening up new experiences and new opportunities
Overlapping with the desire to foster critical thinking can be a wish to give people a chance to experience new sensations; to do things that they would not normally do. This concern is often linked to a desire to get away from the neighbourhood. This can be eagerly taken up by workers in the forms of residentials, trips and events. The hope is that getting people away from their immediate neighbourhood and doing different things might help them to develop a more critical perspective on their situation and to have some sense of alternative possibilities in their lives.
Promoting mutual respect and fairness
A third key theme concerns the promotion of mutual respect and fairness. Some workers use organized, structured programmes in this area, some look mostly to matters arising out of everyday interactions - someone mouthing off about 'blacks' in the drop-in; young women being pushed off the pool table in the pub by young men; people jumping the queue at the bingo hall; a member of the community association committee getting free drinks in the bar; and so on. One form of intervention made is in the shape of a question: 'Is that fair?'
Wholeness
Some workers have a concern with wholeness, a desire to work for the development of the whole person. This has several dimensions, including such things as valuing yourself; being in touch with your capacities; work- ing to integrate different parts of yourself (see Chapter 2).
education
thinking about others
fifth theme concerns thinking about others - what they might be ex-jriencing, what their needs are. Clearly this overlaps with the wish to ??lltivate mutual respect, but it was also doing something more. Underly-??ig this may be a concern that people should not always put their needs ??rst, that they should think of others.
??yeveloping a sense of community
here is also some talk of the importance of creating an environment in ??hich people feel they belong, and of people being part of something ??reater than the immediate groups to which they belong. This feeling or ??snse may be given many labels - for example, neighbourliness, solidarity, ??isterhood, brotherhood and comradeship.
Colkctive action and mutual aid
The last key theme is that of working with people so that they may work ??ind act together both to organize activities and groups for their own satisfactions, and to understand and act on the institutions and processes hat significantly affect the lives of people in particular neighbourhoods or communities. The orientation is to community development and organization: an emphasis on 'self-help, mutual support, the building up of neighbourhood integration, the development of neighbourhood capaci-lies for problem-solving and self representation, and the promotion of collective action to bring a community's preferences to the attention of political decision-makers' (Thomas 1983: 109). As Barr's (1991: 65-72) study of community work shows, 'community development' is the preferred and dominant model informing practice.
Different workers have different emphases - for example, youth workers may stress the first themes; community workers the last two themes in particular. This 'difference' is not something that should be pushed too far. It is not very clear-cut and, anyway, all these statements of overall aim involve coming to some understanding of what makes for human well-being or human flourishing. They have within them an implicit or explicit view of the good, or what makes for the good life. This is then reflected in the picture workers have of the relationships and processes that they feel characterize a good session or desired state of activity
Modes of work
We can now draw out the key ways in which local educators can organize their interactions to create or define time-space (see Massey 1993: 79). Six modes of work emerged in my conversations. These modes might be described as ways of doing or being. They arise out of the way local educators interpret the interaction between purpose, role, issues and strategies (see Chapter 4). The modes were as follows:
■ being about;
■ being there;
■ working with individuals and groups;
■ doing projects;
■ doing administration and research; and
■ reflecting on practice.
I We will look briefly at each of these in turn.
Being about
'Being about' involved such activities as walking round the estate, visiting local launderettes, cafes, chip shops, pubs and even wandering into the
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school at break id luncMnnes. The aim generally is to be seen, to make and maintain contact with client groups, and to undertake work as it arose.
Walking about the estate, being able to knock on people's doors; making yourself approachable in that way; just like being there, people will nab you. They might nab you when there is a group. But you can often pick up when they want to talk to you.
This can be a moment of difficulty. Are you to approach the group? Should you signal your awareness? How are you to make yourself available for conversation? This is the terrain of Goffman's (1961; 1963) explorations of encounters. It involves the transition from a moment of 'civil inattention' to the opening of an encounter. To this extent local educators have to be highly skilled in handling encounters, in entering or skirting groups and gatherings. They have to be approachable without being pushy. They have to establish themselves in situations that are open to some ambiguity:
Walking around the streets, especially as a woman, there are all sorts of connotations - people can be a bit suspicious of what you are . . . It would have been difficult for me to have done that without introductions. I have been making a lot of visits to different groups and individuals.
Or, as another worker put it:
Initially it was difficult, the suspicion. As time goes on then it is important that people are just used to seeing me. I don't know how it gets them thinking. You are just there, they just take you for granted.
Time is more fluid. Local educators have to be able to stop and talk, but there is also the importance of routine - so that people know where and when they can catch the worker, and, crucially, where the worker can meet people. Again this is a case of workers tuning into local rhythms and habits.
Workers based in buildings have to create and foster environments that allow them to enter into conversations. Within a community education centre, for example, local educators may create spaces where people can just sit and talk, perhaps while other activities are taking place. 'Being about' translates into the time they spend sitting in the bar, coffee lounge or the corner where people can gather after they have dropped their children off in the playgroup. The difficulty with this is that the worker is also identified with the building and with the programme. Administrative and organizational demands - sorting out the bar float, getting a cupboard door mended, arranging cover for an activity - can all too easily take over. However, there are also advantages, as identified by this youth worker:
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As a centre-based worker I could be in the company a young person for nine or ten hours a week, so there was space to be able to develop most things. I can challenge someone in the youth centre on the Monday, knowing that there might be some conflict or rubbing, but also knowing that I have time and space to work with these young people. You haven't got that on the streets. It is residentials and those sorts of experiences that allow us to draw out any long-term work with a group of young people.
'Being about' is seen as a central part of the work - as crucial, in fact yet, as with all the debates over the use of police time on 'walking the beat', its function and significance is often only recognized when it ' skimped on.
Being there
Alongside booking out time or slots for being around, local educators may also set aside time for responding to situations and crises. The range of work involved here is huge. For those involved in the study, it included dealing with people who were homeless; or who were victims or perpetra tors of crimes; or who were having to deal with a personal crisis such pregnancy or the loss of a relative; or who had medical problems associ ated, for example, with substance abuse. It also involved much less dramatic things like accompanying residents to meetings with officials. Much of this work is 'face to face' with 'clients', but it also often involves spending substantial time speaking to various agencies. By its very nature it is unpre dictable and usually requires an immediate response. This mode has elastic relationship with 'being about'. If there were few 'emergencies' then more time could be spent maintaining contact and so on, and vice versa.
The float time and the being-around time gets quite intermingled.; Yesterday if I had got something else booked in I wouldn't have been, able to go to the rights project with this woman. So that was the way that floating time was used. You do need a bit of that. One of the things about the work is accepting, unfortunately or fortunately, depending on the way you want to see it, that you are not going to, get a normal week to some extent because that is the nature of the job.
This type of responding has two linked components: 'being there' for people and 'working with' the individual or group. 'Being there' is essen tially a holding operation. It also involves some element of practical assist ance. In the example above, it involved going with someone to a rigts project. Other examples include attending court, going with someone to the hospital, to a solicitor, or to the social security office or housing office A good deal of 'being there' occurs when people have to deal with distan
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systems and where .ney lac confidence, or believe they do not have the experience or expertise to handle the situation. The local educator may have to handle or guide some of the encounter, but is often present simply so that the client feels he/she has someone to call upon. The other key aspect of being there is where the worker is a 'shoulder to cry on' or is around in moments of great personal crisis or tragedy such as bereavement or serious illness.
Working with individuals and groups
While being there and being around can be seen as working with people, some of the local educators I talked with reserved the idea of 'working with' to more formal encounters. There was a sense in which it was linked into ideas about depth. It involves moving beyond the making and maintenance of contact, or the holding operation that often takes place when being there'. 'Working with' means enabling or helping people to entertain feelings, reflect on their experiences, think about things and make plans.
* You go out on the street, and the rest of your day can be dictated by
the first person you come across or whatever problem they have got
or whatever you are needed for. I try within that unstructured setting
Ho be structured. So whenever I am working with a group or an
individual, I've got structure in my mind, I want a start and a finish.
We can see here that the worker is thinking about this form of encounter a different way. The purpose of the encounter may become more specific
or clearly and openly articulated. It is to sort out a problem, to organize activity, to work on something that has been bothering an individual ■ group. Work such as this often cannot be done in the settings where the worker is 'being around'.
It does inhibit depth. You do need to respond there and then. But the possibility of interruption is there. I am a bit tentative a lot of the time about asking opening questions because it would need 15 or 20 minutes to follow that through. So why open it if I cannot go on? It this frustrating. You are getting into areas which need exploring, which need time, but time is not there in that way. You can't just pop into the office or go into the quiet room for half an hour. It is frustrating.
One ploy is either to find somewhere quiet or out of the way, or to make
an arrangement to meet 'in the office' or another formal setting which
ot be interrupted. Where workers are building-based there often are
rooms that can be used immediately. Thus, local educators may have
clearly advertised 'office hours' where people can come in for 'private'
conversations.
Some 'working with' will be concerned with particular problems or es that have arisen in people's lives, some with more general learning projects they want to pursue. Local educators may devote a significant
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amount of time to working with people's 'enthusiasms' or assisting with self-directed learning projects. This may involve encouraging an individual to take a particular interest a little further - be it in fuchsias, family history or cats. It can mean working with people to develop a more formal programme of self-study - around, perhaps, religious texts, film or car mechanics (see, for example, Cross 1992: 195). Classically, it can mean working with groups to foster mutual aid in leisure. Such 'organizing around enthusiasm' is important not just for the satisfactions it brings to those involved - friendship, the exchange of information and products, and the opportunity for collective activities and projects (Bishop and Hoggett 1986: 33) - but also for the part it plays in fostering democracy. Sports, hobbyist and arts and crafts groups are mutual aid organizations with an associational structure and as such can act as 'nurseries for the feelings of mutual loyalty and trust which hold the wider community together, and where the skills of self government can be learned and practised' (Marquand 1988: 239; see also Hirst 1993).
The move into a 'working with' mode is often accompanied by clear signals or symbols. The worker may sit differently or adopt a different tone of voice; the setting has usually become more private - the door is closed; the room itself may be more formal; and, crucially, there is usually some overt opening discussion about the task: 'What is it that you want to talk about?' There is a clear beginning. As an earlier worker indicated, there also has to be some clear moment of ending. This may be simply achieved by the person leaving and saying goodbye, or it can be with 'ending-type' lines - 'Is that as far as we can go for the moment?', for example.
Doing projects
The fourth mode or element is 'doing projects or activities'. Such exercises were formal interludes, varying in the amount of time and degree of involvement required. The central things to grasp about 'projects' are that they are:
■ planned in advance in terms of when and where they take place, what their aims are and the methods to be used to achieve them, and who will be taking part. However, there will often be a high degree of flexibility concerning actual implementation.
■ time-limited. The commitment made is rarely an open-ended one and most often falls into short intensive pieces of work, such as residentials or day events and workshops; or more involved activities, spread over perhaps a three-month period. Examples of the latter include drama workshops; sessions on organizing skills for community groups; young women's groups and so on (Rogers 1994).
■ characterized by an explicit commitment to encouraging learning.
■ largely driven by the conversations the workers have while 'being about'. They arise out of the work, rather than being imported as 'good ideas'.
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There may be some overlap here with 'working with'. A key dividing line is suggested by the naming of the activities: 'working with' and 'doing projects'. The latter is more likely to be seen as the property and responsibility of the worker. It is likely to derive from an initiative on the part of the educator.
Projects give a structure to the work.
It's about doing ten different things at once all over the place. Now you can see the structure. There are four existing projects set up. They are the main things that happen every week. Then there are the more short-term projects: afternoon at the [centre] on Friday, the trip out, the one-offs. Then the more long-term things, the residentials - although they come before the short term. Then in the middle you have got your street contact, being-around time, whatever.
They are needed by local educators to give focus and depth. They grow out, and connect with the conversations workers have when 'being around'.
It is a balance. We identified the need with this group of young people, I will use the term anti-social behaviour. If we are to help young people to deal with this, with other people's views, you can't do that sucking a can of Coke, chewing a bag of chips. You have to bring something into that. You need to work that. It is about projects. I was talking with another worker about this time-expiry thing. They can't go on, they must change. Projects are about endings. The ongoing bit is this being about - maintaining relationships.
Doing 'admin' and research
Administration may be seen as a burden. For some workers there can be a feeling that it takes them away from the 'real' business: face-to-face work. Within this category fall things such as line-management meetings and team meetings. For some it symbolizes a lot of the things they sought to escape on entering local education: form-filling, doing returns, writing reports, making applications, and filling in forecast sheets. Undoubtedly, such activities are one means by which organizations can exercise some control over the activities of their employees. For this reason alone they would be viewed with some suspicion. However, there are also other elements here. There are perennial problems concerning communication about process-centred work: how is it to be categorized and described? The rise of 'paperwork' has also been associated with shifts in the funding and organization of welfare and, in particular, the rise of the 'contract culture'. This poses problems for local education as it has tended to be a | rather 'oral' culture. However, for most workers it is a necessary and small aspect of their work:
It is a small proportion, yeh. My co-worker puts it at 80 per cent street work, 20 per cent admin. That is probably a fair balance,
98 Local education
although it wouldn't be fair to say it is like that every week. This week I have a meeting this morning, then a residential. But in the average working week we would endeavour to do about 80 per cent face to face. The majority would be on the street, the remainder would be what happened from the street - going to court, the police station or whatever.
Some workers also quite enjoy this side of the work. As one worker put it: 'there is a streak in me. I like to do my own letters. I do enjoy that side of it.'
There has also been a growing appreciation of the research role of the worker (Everitt et al. 1992). Within community work there has been a tradition of workers' undertaking small research projects to inform service development and extension within local authorities and larger non-profit agencies (Thomas 1983: 100-7). It is also seen as simply part of 'getting to know the neighbourhood' (Henderson and Thomas 1987: 54-91). However, it also became legitimated as a 'radical' project. Here the publications coming out of the various Community Development Projects (CDPs) in the 1970s were influential (Loney 1983: 171-88). Research also appears to be growing in youth work with the introduction in some authorities of youth affairs briefs, although there has been a tradition of it within the detached work arena (Goetschius and Tash 1967).
You need to do your research to work out where you are, the kinds of young people, what their needs are, the kinds of history they have, the way they are viewed by other sectors of the community. You need to look at other agencies and their input. In detached youth-work parlance it is referred to as 'reconnaissance'. I heard that word and it has militaristic overtones for me. So I checked out the dictionary definition and I refused to use it. I refer to that period as research because that is really what it was. I wasn't seeking out the enemy. I was seeking to try and understand the area that I was trying to work.
Perhaps the greatest impetus has arisen from the need to target scarce resources and to make cases for funding. An example of this is in English and Welsh community education with the need to redefine provision following the 1992 Further and Higher Education Act.
Reflecting on practice
The sixth and last mode is sometimes included within administration, particularly where it involves writing up recordings of work. However, reflecting on practice is of a different order. Administration can be seen more as an instrumental activity, something that has to be done so that some external event could happen. Recording, and reflecting on practice, on the other hand, may be seen as something rather more personal and intrinsic. It is a 'backroom' activity, work not seen by clients or the outside
Structuring the work 99
world, where ??nts' ca??ie relaxed or at least changed. Three main arenas are worthy of note. First, there is the medium of recording.
The work is so instant. It is happening very much in the present. You never know what is going to happen next. If I didn't take that time to write it down I wouldn't reflect on and analyse my work. Also from the writing down I plan my work. I sort out what I am going to try next. In my diary there are things about time management... It is very much part and parcel of your working routine . . . That's the problem, because my manager doesn't work like that. I have to do them at home or sneak them in. Sitting down and writing is not seen as work. Writing up case notes is only reluctantly seen as work. He will do these crisis interventions as he calls them. Actually they are crises for him rather than for the other person. He can't recognize when he is being manipulated.
Second, there are conversations with colleagues.
I have been able to just go back to the office and just relax and have a chat to my co-worker and then go home, or do what I'm going to do. But, what's slowly and surely coming to me is that I'm not dealing with things the way I should be. I shouldn't be taking my anxiety and frustration home with me. That's maybe a lesson for me, which I have got to start learning to deal with.
Lastly, and often driven by realizations such as this, there is the use of supervision, usually by someone who is outside the situation, who does not have managerial responsibility for what is happening.
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