PRACTITIONER REFLECTION INFORMING PEDAGOGY

“The mini project the students did in co-lab (the second intervention phase of the Youth Inc. journey), was about helping a charity and doing some good in the world . . . they (referring to the students) were so energised and so uplifted by the chance to do that. heard comments from the students like, “I’ve always wanted to do something to help, but I’ve never known what to do” and “here I am just being given an opportunity to do it.” There is an inherent wanting to make things better, but sometimes the students just don’t know where to start.” (Deputy Principal, Michelle Richards)

Youth Inc. was developed out of an employment training program that supported young people to gain the skills and attitudes to make a more successful transition to work. It opened as a Specialised Assistance School in 2017 knowing that many of the young people aged 17 to 24 years required more time and deeper learning to make their transitions successful and sustainable.

Over eighteen months, teams of young people move through a five-phase program, from “Unlearn” through to considering their future transitions in “Next”. Youth Inc. has worked on its own set of capabilities; Headware, Heartware and Hardware (HHH) are explicitly taught through the five project phases.

Students have access to “experiential learning” and paid “work ventures”. Learning is project based and can earn accreditation through the South Australian Certificate of Education (SACE). The learning team have engaged in a continuous process of reflection with the Flinders University research team to understand and refine their pedagogical framework. There is an ethic of care that is central to their practice and the knowledge that relational matters are central to young people engaging with them. In developing a more expansive understanding of care, the research discussions have moved towards developing a transformative learning framework.