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This paper presents findings from an investigation of nature-based practices, from the perspectives of 10 academics/educators from six nations. Participants engaged in a focus group exploring the prevalence and inclusion of nature in social work practice and education. While the study focused on individual members' experiences and perspectives, the findings highlight important context-specific factors for including nature within social work to reconnect humans with nature for health, well-being, healing, and justice. An Integrative Environmental Model for social work is proposed to assist future practice and education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers gendered accounts of girls' schooling and childhood from urban India. It challenges global 'girl effect' narratives by grappling with the interplay of poverty and caste patriarchy and how it shapes families' struggles and concerns and girls' (re)productive labour, (un)freedoms and classroom experiences. Moving beyond the notion of 'multiple childhoods' it develops a conceptual framework that accounts for the way the state, the market, economic inequalities and local patriarchies inscribe poor girls' schooling and work. Drawing upon ethnographic work with Class VIII students in a state school it also unpacks girls' negotiation of classed and casted patriarchies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children across the globe have been implicated in armed conflict as both victims and participants. During Sierra Leone’s decade-long civil war, thousands of children, both boys and girls, participated directly in armed conflict or were recruited for labour or sexual exploitation in armed groups. Drawing upon in-depth interviews with 80 children formerly associated with Sierra Leone’s Revolutionary United Front, this paper explores children’s experiences of violence during the armed conflict, traces the realities that children faced in the aftermath of the war, and examines the ways in which participants attempted to cope with the war’s profound after-effects. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications for social work. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Children in care have consistently lower educational attainment than peers who live with their birth families. However, metrics often define 'education' narrowly, focusing on traditional in-school achievements with which this population typically struggles. In this study, interviews with current and former children in care (n = 7, ages: 11–59) revealed that they perceive education in a much broader way, occurring across their life experiences and encompassing both life and social skills. Regardless of their performance in school, participants storied themselves as achievers in the context of this broader concept of 'education' and described positive outcomes such as independence, agency, development of authentic identities and capacity to strive for and achieve goals. These reflections have implications for the provision of social support services and the evaluation of outcomes for children who are taken into the care of the state. For example, it may be valuable to redefine 'education' to include a wider range of activities and to therefore encompass a variety of potential interventions to support development and success. Additionally, there seems to be scope for working more closely with children in care when making decisions, centring their lived experiences and drawing on their insights so as to achieve a better balance of support for both formal and informal educational opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

National monitoring data and research suggest that British adopted children achieve poorer educational outcomes and experience higher levels of emotional, social and learning difficulties in school, compared to the general population. However, few studies have elicited the perspectives of adopted children and adoptive parents in relation to school experiences. The current study used a qualitative design to explore the lived educational experiences of adopted children through semi-structured interviews with 11 secondary-aged adoptees and a focus group with six adopters. Thematic analysis identified five themes within the narratives of the adoptees and adopters: inner turmoil; social disconnection; unsupportive school contexts; relational repair; and misperceptions and prejudice. These findings were presented to 20 Designated Teachers (DTs) within a workshop to explore how the experiences of the adoptees and adopters can be used to inform their role. Three themes were found, which illustrate broad implications for DTs' practice with adopted children and adoptive parents in schools: raising awareness; developing relationships; and supporting emotional needs. Key implications for schools, post-adoption support services and policymakers are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides the results of a literature review on the use of practical, hands-on training experiences in evaluation course work and training programs. The review spans the years 1965–2003. I identified 18 articles that encompass four basic approaches for practical evaluation training: simulation, role-play, single course projects, and practicum experiences. The articles are summarized, documenting strengths, challenges, and unique features for each strategy. Findings from this review indicate substantial resources are often needed for effective practical training experiences. Authors of articles in this review illustrate a variety of options for incorporating methodology and or evaluation theory into the training experiences. The few articles that adhere to a pedagogical framework employ learning models that are consonant with the adult education literature and structure the practical experience accordingly. The literature reveals a lack of formal research on practical evaluation training. Faculty and students consistently speak to the benefits of these training experiences. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The implementation of the National Transfer Scheme, whereby local authorities across the UK are encouraged to voluntarily receive unaccompanied young asylum seekers, has prompted a necessary focus on the training needs of those caring for this population. As agencies consider how to build their capacity to support unaccompanied young people, this study set out to learn from the experiences and views of foster carers, in order to inform the development of effective carer training and support. Eight semi-structured interviews were undertaken with foster carers who have cared for unaccompanied young people in one county in the South West of England. The findings draw attention not only to the potential benefits of training focused specifically on fostering unaccompanied young people, but also reveal aspects of the impact that limited access to training and support can have upon carers. The findings shed light on the carers' experiences of encountering 'unknown' factors and allow new insight into the networks they had developed over time to enhance their ability to access information and support as new challenges arise. Possible implications for local authorities and fostering agencies are considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When facing the prospect of moving to a new country to join their migrant parents, children’s expectations and imaginings revolve around entering a new school environment. While prospective young migrants show awareness of the challenges that learning a language may entail, the possibility of facing discrimination is seldom entertained. However, children who have recently moved relate that episodes of discrimination and even racism within the school walls are not rare, nor are they confined to other pupils. This article highlights the importance of non-verbal communication in shaping young migrants’ perceptions, and argues that children’s outward adaptation to school demands may mask sustained feelings of marginalisation and exclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

From their personal experience in the European organizations of trade unions and employers in the education sector, the authors discuss the process which resulted in the creation of a Sectoral Dialogue Committee. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article traces the fundamental incoherency that structured the Danish Missionary Society’s work at a boarding school for low-caste ‘heathen’ children in South India in the 1860s and 1870s. Through elaborate disciplinary methods, the missionaries set out to Christianize and civilize the Indian children’s morality, social behaviour and bodily comportment. Yet, the missionaries’ perceptions of ‘the Indian child’ also reflected the contemporary bolstering of racial thinking in Indian colonial society, resulting in doubts whether Indian children could in fact become true Christians. This paradoxical endeavour shows how children became a site for the production of difference that sustained colonialism. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article looks at the remembered experiences of children who went to school in the late colonial period and examines the extent to which these memories relate to the official literature of the time and the historiographical debates surrounding education. The precise focus is memories of formal elementary education in the Madras Presidency 1882—1947 as described in autobiographies. This includes a study of how children regarded the space of the classroom, what they did and what was important enough to be remembered. In other words this article attempts to find fragments of the experiences of children, rather than just the history of education. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Looked after children continue to perform poorly at school compared to their peers and care leavers are at increased risk of unemployment and poverty. Although there is a growing body of research on their education and recent studies have identified the factors associated with successful educational outcomes, less attention has been paid to whether, and if so how, the majority of children finishing Key Stage 41 with disappointing qualifications may be supported to make up any educational deficit beyond compulsory school-leaving age (currently 16 in the UK). Care leavers can exhibit remarkable resilience and leaving care may be an opportunity for positive change. Jennifer Driscoll reports on a small pilot study which explored young people's own accounts and explanations in relation to their educational experiences and attainment, together with their attitudes to and engagement with education, particularly with regard to their aspirations and motivation to persevere with it. The challenges for schools in providing support to young people who are notoriously self-reliant and resistant to accepting help are considered in the context of current tensions in educational policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Educational workshops are a common approach to addressing racism and homophobia in institutional and organizational settings. One underlying rationale of these efforts is that more knowledge of “the other” — non-white and queer participants — will lead to greater equity. This article investigates this premise through empirical research into anti-racist and anti-homophobic workshops in a variety of settings. In particular, our analysis focuses on the uses of “storytelling” and other workshop strategies commonly employed to encourage the disclosure of personal stories by and about the “other.” We argue that, particularly in anti-racist contexts, these strategies have exacted a heavy toll on the tellers, reinforced the exclusionary notions of identity that underlie a racist culture, and had only a limited effect in fostering organizational change. While many of these same problems are present in anti-homophobia educational workshops, differences in the relations of power between the “tellers” and the “listeners,” between who is solicited to tell stories and how, and in the nature of sexual versus racial identity also suggest important distinctions between these different forms of educational practice. Within this context however, queer youth of color and transgender youth continue to report that storytelling can exact a heavier toll on them than others. There is little empirical literature analyzing anti-oppression workshops and their effects in both schools and community organizations. Our study addresses this gap in the sociological literature. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]