Building Safe Spaces and Small Craft

Authors

  • Shane Theunissen Mount Saint Vincent University

Keywords:

Community, Accessibility, Boat building, Reflective equilibrium, Integrative power

Abstract

J.N. Little (2011) poses the question “what exists between the traditional binary of practice and academia?” (p.3). This question is articulated in response to a general sense that the theorizing of youth care practice has been overly abstracted at the expense of the human contextual elements that make the practice of youth care a profession about young people and their care. Youth care practice is often described as building safe spaces within which to build relationships with youth. This report documents the theoretical and conceptual foundations for a community boatbuilding program, which, in essence, is a medium through which we can create safe spaces and challenge the dynamics of binary models of community.

Author Biography

Shane Theunissen, Mount Saint Vincent University

Shane Theunissen. My interest in epistemology and ontology stem from my childhood and education in South Africa and a six-year teaching tenure in an isolated aboriginal community, where I initiated and implemented an Environmental Education program to challenge the acculturating influences of standardized curricula within the community school‘s classrooms.

References

Bourdieu, P. (1977). Outline of a theory of practice. England: Cambridge University Press.

Bronfenbrenner, U. (1977). Toward an experimental ecology of human development. American Psychologist, 32(7), 513-531.

Freire, P. (2000). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York, NY: Continuum.

Garfat, T. (2008). Who's looking after whom?. Relational Child and Youth Care Practice, 21(1), 63-66.

Ginwright, S., &Cammarota, J. (2002).New terrain in youth development: The promise of a social justice approach. Crime and Social Justice, 29(4), 82-95.

Lave, J., & Wenger, E. (1991). Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation. England: Cambridge University Press.

Little, J.N. (2011). Articulating a child and youth care philosophy: Beyond binary constructs. In A. Pence & J. White (Eds.), Child and Youth Care: Critical Perspectives on Pedagogy, Practice, and Policy (pp. 3-19). Vancouver: UBC Press.

Richardson, B. (2001).Working with challenging youth: Lessons learned along the way. New York: Routledge.

Vygotsky, L.S. (1966). Development of higher mental functions. In A.N. Leontyev, A.R. Luria & A. Smirnov (Eds.), Psychological Research in the USSR (pp. 11-45). Moscow, Russia: Progress Publishers.

Wenger, E. (2003). Communities of Practice: Learning, meaning, and identity. England: Cambridge University Press.

Downloads

Published

2020-10-07

Issue

Vol. 22 (2018)

Section

Articles

License

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
  • Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
  • Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
  • Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).