“Played like a deck of cards” Youth workers’ accounts of Adverse Childhood Experiences and engaging in Trauma Informed Practice. Analysing discourse and its impact on professional identity

Abstract

Through engagement in in critical and social constructionist research this thesis demonstrates prevailing discourses about youth work, its identity as a profession, and the way Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) have come to be understood within, and to inform, contemporary youth work practice. Initially the historical, theoretical, and practical underpinnings of youth work in England and Wales is considered and its evolution is situated within broader socio-political and economic contexts. Competing paradigms framing youth work are noted. The tensions between those paradigms, one focussed on empowerment and social justice, the other on personal development within existing structures, are explored. Historical shifts in youth work are analysed, from its philanthropic beginnings and the "golden age" following the Albemarle Report to its neo-liberal reframing under austerity policies. Particular attention is given to how ACEs have recently emerged as a construct shaping youth work discourse, often pathologising young people while obscuring structural inequalities. The methodology for the thesis is then explained. It is noted that the thesis draws on insights from critical and constructivist research and that a critical discourse analysis approach, examining youth workers’ account of contemporary practice, is undertaken. The choice of methodological framework is justified on the basis that it facilitates a critical understanding of how a concern for ACEs is applied when youth workers engage with young people. Also, on the basis that it facilitates an exploration of how power, knowledge, and identity are constructed and contested as youth workers give account of their profession and work. The findings address issues of fragmentation in youth work's professional identity, exacerbated by competing definitions and models of practice. While ACEs is presented as providing a lens for understanding individual trauma, its uncritical adoption is shown to depoliticise youth work, steering it away from structural critiques towards individualised and therapeutic interventions. Youth workers are shown to articulate a desire for greater clarity and coherence in professional standards, emphasising the importance of voluntary engagement, relational work, and empowerment. However, medicalised and neo-liberal discourses are shown to 5 constrain these ideals, leading to prioritisation of targeted interventions over universal provision. The findings, however, also address the potential for a reinvigorated form of youth working focussed on transformative conversations. Transformative conversations are relational, dialogic exchanges that can foster critical reflection, empowerment, and subject re-positioning. Spaces for such conversations, which have the potential to challenge dominant discourses, are identified to enable youth workers to question societal norms and their positioning within power structures. An interface between transformative conversations and the discourse analytic approach to the research is noted. This is because both are founded on deconstructing language and power dynamics to reveal how meanings, albeit shaped by broader societal discourses, are also co-constructed. Accordingly, it is shown how insights from discourse analysis can be used to inform transformative conversations to potentially resist oppressive narratives, aligning with a youth work agenda focused on social justice and empowerment. The discussion situates the findings within the broader context of social justice, arguing for a reinvigoration of youth work’s emancipatory ethos through transformative conversations and dialogue. The need for a renewed commitment to addressing systemic inequalities through collective, rights-based approaches is emphasised. The thesis concludes with a call for a reimagining of youth work as a radical, transformative practice that resists neo-liberal commodification. The thesis contributes to the academic and practical understanding of youth work by offering a critical lens through which contemporary and future challenges may be viewed.