Why University Education Matters: Youth Work and the Australian Experience

In many countries youth work education in the university confronts a precarious future. Paradoxically, this takes place as the labor market is unable to meet demands for qualified practitioners. This article makes a case for further investment in university-based youth work education. While presenting labor demand and supply arguments, we also suggest that a good university education is important for producing graduates capable of becoming experts and good practitioners in the Aristotelian sense of the word. This entails the provision of learning opportunities to attain specialist knowledge, technical expertise and ethical capacities of the kind that distinguish youth work practice from other approaches to work with young people. Such an education also promotes the prospect that practitioners are able to develop a professional habitus that advances youth work as a discrete field of professional practice. While the material used in this article is Australian, we suggest there are sufficient commonalities between the Australian experience and many other countries for the arguments, findings and recommendations made here to have more general applicability.     

Creating Settings for Youth Empowerment and Leadership: An Ecological Perspective

Youth development programs are increasingly focusing on youth empowerment and leadership, a shift which often requires adult staff to adopt new roles and practices. This article explores staff practice in the context of a multisite initiative designed to engage marginalized youth in social change through youth-led grants. Interviews with youth workers and managers revealed practices at multiple ecological levels. Individual-level practices supported youths’ capacities to participate. Group-level practices fostered social interactions and activities that actualized the youth-led approach. Setting-level practices created structures that supported and protected group activities while organization-level practices promoted a favorable environment for youth leadership. Analyzed from an ecological and activity settings perspective, these results contribute to understanding the multifaceted and complex nature of youth work in power-sharing practice models. Practice implications include identifying training needs to help practitioners navigate across multiple ecological levels and suggesting reflection questions for practitioners.     

Use of Self in the Context of Youth Work

Used in the education of counselors, nurses, occupational therapists and social workers, “use of self” is a way of understanding how practitioners bring about human change. In this article, the author discusses how use of self can be applied to youth work and is related to “developmentally responsive practice” thereby providing a deep theoretical construct for understanding youth work as relational. The author concludes by presenting the barriers to the use of self paradigm in the current climate of assessment and accountability, designed to measure static inputs and outputs rather than dynamic systems or ecologies and presents a challenge to the field for designing methodologies that are equally dynamic, responsive and relational.     

Not-Knowing or Knowing Naught: Revisiting the Concept of Collaboration and Expertise in Child and Youth Care Practice

This article discusses the complexities associated with adopting a not-knowing stance in Child and Youth Care practice. By highlighting some of the challenges, it also clarifies the distinctions between practitioner lack of knowing how to proceed and an intentional, uncertain attitude when working with children, youth and families. Recommendations or caveats are provided if a practitioner chooses to adopt this kind of orientation to practice.     

新时代的人文关怀：马克思主义社会工作的回顾与前瞻

在马克思主义的影响下,社会工作从20世纪60年代起开始摒弃弗洛伊德的自然人的理论假设,倡导在历史和社会场景中理解人的成长改变要求,给服务对象以真正的人文关怀。尽管马克思主义对社会工作的影响经历了马克思主义社会工作、结构社会工作、反排斥与反歧视社会工作和批判社会工作等不同的发展阶段,但是,它们都认同人是历史社会结构中的人这一马克思主义社会工作的基本观点,主张通过权力关系的分析和平等关系的倡导实现个人成长与社会改变的结合。值得注意的是,20世纪90年代之后,多元价值的倡导使马克思主义社会工作的社会结构视角面临不确定性、多元主义和主体性不足的严峻挑战,需要汲取中国哲学的精神资源,围绕“变化”重新理解历史社会结构中的人,将马克思主义与社会工作的场景实践整合起来,以过程唯物论作为多元社会下社会工作实践的理论基础,真正在新时代的实践中呈现人文关怀,为本土经验的国际化做出自己应有的贡献。     

基于利益相关者理论构建专业教学资源库的应用驱动机制 ——以职业教育法律文秘专业教学资源建设为例

职业教育专业教学资源库建设项目是我国职业教育主动应对科技发展带来挑战的重要举措,对其“能学辅教”功能实现的程度直接反映了项目建设的水平,也反映了院校教育教学信息化改革的程度和热情。基于目前在应用方面存在的问题,本文拟利用利益相关者理论对项目应用主体进行分析,并结合法律文秘专业教学资源库建设情况实证分析,提出包括构建包括政策引导等内容的资源库应用驱动机制。     

An analysis of budget compliance measurement in South African local government best‐practice financial management technical assistance programs, 2001—2003

South Africa's local government financial management best‐practice technical assistance program (known as MFMTAP) was to reform municipal financial management; achieve credible, realistic budgets and prevent financial failure. We consider whether a budget compliance procedure, developed by National Treasury (NT) to measure funding requirements compliance with the Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA) focusing on ‘realistic’ revenue budgeting, improves our understanding of technical assistance effectiveness. We assess a metropolitan municipality's compliance before, during and after advisory assistance. The compliance procedure was robust. Potential exists for wider application to assess best‐practice technical assistance (BPTA) program financial reform effectiveness. The findings from this single, important sample suggest that MFMA funding requirements are not being sustained 4 years after MFMTAP commencement, attributable to either BPTA performance or termination effects. We conclude that MFMA financial performance can be assessed by the procedure, from analysis of the metropolitan municipality performance assisted by a BPTA advisor for approximately 3 years. The analysis raises questions about BPTA program reform sustainability, but we add the caveat that conclusions cannot be drawn from a single sample metropolitan municipality, but a larger sample need be used for further methodology development to confirm its efficacy. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

天然药物化学课程教学方法的探讨

随着当前对天然药物开发研究的不断深入,天然药物化学课程的重要性也越来越受到重视。而传统的天然药物化学教学方式多为教师讲授,学生被动地听、甚至靠死记硬背,学生的学习兴趣没有得到激发,效率不高,普遍反映枯燥难学。因而全面提高天然药物化学的学习水平和教学质量具有重要意义。为此,作者结合自己的教学经验谈一些感受。     

英语文化渗透式教学的实践与探讨

语言与文化具有紧密的联系。英语教学不应以通过考试为目的,而应注重提高实际生活中运用语言能力和交际能力。本文强调教学过程中应加强文化的渗透,利用多种渠道使学生了解中西文化的差异,并对英语教学中应注意的问题进行分析和探讨。