YES 01: Paradigms & Global Perspectives

Course goals

Upon finishing this course, you will have:

• advanced knowledge and insight into the the main conceptual perspectives and strategies that are useful for examining the field of Youth, Education and Society.
• awareness of and understanding of the consequences of these conceptual perspectives to apply them in practice.
• the ability to argue about and discuss these perspectives.
• become aware of your own epistemological and normative position in the field of Youth, Education & Society
• developed the ability to compose your own written position and argumentation on these perspectives.

Content

Please note: Tests and assignments are in English, unless the course manual explicitly states that a test or assignment may be taken in Dutch.

This founding course for the Master's programme discusses the main conceptual perspectives and strategies that are useful for examining the field of Youth, Education and Society. It offers theoretical perspectives (paradigms) for studying social educational issues and teaches you how to apply those in order to make the connection between scientific research, policy, and practice. In this course, paradigms are defined as theoretical perspectives, a set of coherent ideas or a philosophy of education that helps us to understand the field and informs our professional actions in it. Awareness of and understanding paradigms and understanding the consequences for applying them in practice are key aspects of the course. For instance, you will be familiarized with a community psychology perspective in youth care, which is contrasted with individualistic approaches based on early stage identification of risks. You will learn how a ‘critical pedagogy’ approach differs from a more technocratic approach of education in which efficiency is foregrounded and in which the political and value oriented nature of education is ignored.
In addition, you will learn to develop a global perspective in thinking about these issues. You learn to think and act as a scientist and a professional when dealing with or working with scientific knowledge, intervention programs and policies in (inter)national contexts that are culturally diverse. You will learn to deal with cultural diversity in the context of knowledge transfer between communities that are geographically or culturally (far) apart. We raise the question ‘What is the value of scientific theories that were developed in Western settings for other parts of the world or for situations of migration?’ And  ‘How can we think about pedagogical knowledge from a more global perspective given the increased contact between different regions in the world?’ .
Apart from widening your perspective cross-nationally and cross-culturally, this founding course deals with issues of ethnic and social conflict and inequality on the one hand, and methodologies for inclusion and finding common ground, overcoming problematic aspects difference on the other. Perspectives and methodologies related to inclusion, equity, democratic citizenship and social justice will play an important part in the course. We will pay attention to the analyses of diversity and divergence/polarization, inequality and social justice at a variety of scales. This could range from what the effects of policies, systems and infrastructures are on inequality in education and care to how inequality can be represented in more micro settings such as in learning contexts for literacy, numeracy and multi-lingualism.
In line with the YES program, the course teaches students about the policy context of the aforementioned issues, and teaches you what the afore mentioned issues mean for a policy (making) perspective. In addition, students are stimulated to contribute to and form their opinion about public debates on the afore mentioned issues in a critically reflective. Also, students learn to become reflective of their own normative positions in these matters.
 
Students will choose for one of the 3 following seminars, and their choice for the seminar coincides with their track choice.

The YEP (Youth Policy, Education & Prevention) seminar  you will further analyze key paradigms in the field of Youth, Education & Society in welfare societies, as related to issues of youth wellbeing, youth care and education. Paying attention to the dilemmas of modern parenthood in the context of today’s individualized society, you learn to understand, analyze and discuss policy and programmatic responses to those dilemma’s as well as alternatives for those responses.  Taking knowledge of the community based paradigm, that focuses on the social settings, systems and institutions to optimize the wellbeing of youth, you will learn to contrast this approach to  ‘at risk’ or pathology oriented perspectives. You will analyze and debate the potential of community based programmes, for instance, to prevent child maltreatment or as alternatives for professional care.
Taking knowledge of critical pedagogy perspectives, you will also learn to critically evaluate the position of scientific research in supporting professional practice and policies in the sector. You will analyze different positions in this respect while contrasting more technologically inspired ‘evidence based’ approaches to those that claim youth care and education must be seen as fundamentally moral and political practices that need continuous contestation by all parties involved. An important goal of the seminar is to become aware of your own epistemological and normative position as a researcher and professional in the field of Youth, Education and Society. You will learn to take position in guided discussion groups, and write a position paper.
 
In the PID (Pedagogy & International Development) seminar International Development is a key theme. We will focus on the question how the development of youth and children can be optimized when working cross-culturally from a scientific, professional and policy perspective. Within this general theme, we address themes as health, care and education and work as interrelated but separate subthemes. We study programmatic and policy attempts to improve the living circumstances and educational environments of youth, and analyse the scientific bases that underlies these. Special target groups, such as child soldiers, street children, children with disabilities or children affected by AIDS will be addressed, while also paying attention to the situation of immigrant children and youth in welfare countries. You will examine Western ideas on international development, as well as the need to reshape these ideas. You will consider how local differences between the lives of young people in the Western world and the non-Western world, for example, determine their opportunities, developmental prospects and limitations. In this process, you will learn how to think from multiple perspectives. For example, more instrumental and technological approaches are contrasted with more critical views on international collaboration. An important goal of the seminar is to become aware of your own epistemological and normative position as a researcher and professional in the field of Youth, Education and Society. You will learn to take position in guided discussion groups, and write a position paper.

The EFIS (Education For Inclusive Societies) seminar will thematically zoom into the increasing tension and polarization between different ethno-cultural groups in schools and classrooms as well as into how these operate in other domains or institutions relevant for the socialization of youth such as the family, the neighborhood, youth clubs or mosques. Students gain theoretical insights, analytical tools and learn about hands on methodologies that are relevant for educational settings, youth care, youth welfare, related support services and policy work.
You will learn about facts and figures, theories, models of understanding of (the construction of) difference, in-group, out-group mechanisms, polarization (including radicalization), inequality, disadvantage, stigma and discrimination as well as about theories and models of inclusion, recognition, emancipation of minorities, multiculturalism, overcoming difference, and democratic citizenship as applied to schools, families and neighborhoods and related services and policies. In addition, in the seminar we pay attention to the methodologies and interventions to analyze and optimize concrete practices and issues, such as inter-ethnic learning situations, conflict and diversity management, school identity issues, quality measures in early childhood education for minorities, and/or family and neighborhood based interventions such as parenting programs for minorities. An important goal of the seminar is to become aware of your own epistemological and normative position as a researcher and professional in the field of Youth, Education and Society. You will learn to take position in guided discussion groups, and write a position paper.

Link between purpose and contents
Through your own reading of the literature, attending the lectures, as well as discussing the literature in the seminars, you will gain an advanced knowledge and insight into the main conceptual perspectives and strategies that are useful for the field of Youth, Education and Society (goal 1). In the seminars as well as in the lectures, students will be made aware of the consequences of these conceptual perspectives for policy measures and concrete interventions (goal 2). The seminars will invite and oblige you as students to critically discuss the literature, ask questions and argue for particular positions (goal 3). The position paper, as well as the discussions in the seminar will help you to become aware of your own epistemological and normative position (goal 4) while writing the position paper will enable you to develop a written position and the underlying argumentation (goal 5).
 
Presumed prior knowledge
Not applicable. The course is not open to other students outside the master program.