Education in its broadest sense: developing a socio-educational paradigm for children in care

我的博士论文探讨了在苏格兰寄宿学校和寄宿托儿所(RCC)度过一段时间的儿童和年轻人的经历。认同形成是青春期的主要心理任务之一。但在此期间发生的许多变化可能会使自我和身份发展特别具有挑战性。在苏格兰，RCC中的大多数年轻人都是青少年，其中许多人在被转移到托儿所之前有与虐待或忽视经历有关的复杂、高度的需求。最近，围绕RCC的政策话语一直是负面的，倾向于以家庭为基础的护理和历史上的虐待丑闻导致其被认为是最后的照料场所，尽管研究表明它可以使年轻人受益。注重儿童保护的照料做法在寻求管理儿童、减少短期风险和改善可衡量结果的政治文化中盛行。在这种背景下，我调查了13名在RCC度过一段时间的年轻人(YP)和成年人承担自我和身份发展任务的方式。我发现了一些有助于理解RCC的事情，年轻人经历了对他们是谁的感觉的寻找。这些发现对他们在托儿所内外的生活都有重大影响，并表明学校和疗养院如何帮助有RCC经验的年轻人发展积极的自我意识。这些发现支持了与儿童合作的方法，这种方法建立在他们优势的基础上，而不是认为他们缺乏什么。研究发现：1)年轻人在护理之前、护理中和护理之外的经历都可以从对自己不断增长的理解中得到理解。与至少一个关键人物的关系，通常是学校或RCC家中的成年人，有助于帮助年轻人了解他们是谁，他们是谁，以及他们可能成为谁。2)RCC的经历，有时还有学校和休闲活动，可以提供丰富的自我发展机会。3)通过创造机会，使年轻人能够探索新的身份，帮助他们发展积极的自我形象，从而支持自我发展。4)年轻人表现出了他们处理其他身份的能力，比如他们的出生地或照料身份，但尽管这很复杂，但对一些人来说，这对连贯的自我意识很重要。经历过耻辱的年轻人，在正确的支持下，后来能够重新获得并为自己的关怀身份感到自豪。5)农村信用社之家，有时还有学校，能够为社会认同创造条件，这是发展自主性和自我实现的先决条件，使年轻人能够成为社区的参与者和积极贡献者。因此，认可是形成积极身份的关键组成部分。奖学金将通过允许我开展一系列雄心勃勃但可实现的活动来巩固我的研究，这些活动将支持我职业生涯的下一阶段。我的目标是根据我的博士论文发表三篇文章，我将与教育和RCC社区的一系列利益相关者接触，以确保我的研究产生最大的现实影响。苏格兰政府在2020年对苏格兰医疗服务进行了“根深蒂固”的独立审查(ICR，2020)，目前正处于制定和实施一项对医疗保健部门进行重大改革的十年计划的第一阶段。我的目标是直接对此做出贡献，为其广泛而激进的目标增加实质内容，即在儿童社交护理中展望关系实践。同时，这些活动将有助于将RCC当前的话语从治疗方法转向基于力量的关系关怀实践。它们还将帮助我在获得研究资助方面更具竞争力，使我能够进一步研究有效的教育和照顾有经验的儿童和YP。

My PhD thesis explored the experiences of children and young people who have spent time in residential schools and residential child care (RCC) in Scotland. Identity formation is one of the primary psychological tasks of adolescence. But the numerous changes that occur during this period can make self and identity development particularly challenging. In Scotland, most young people in RCC are teenagers, many with complex, high levels of need relating to experiences of abuse or neglect prior to being moved into care. Recently, policy discourses around RCC have been negative, with a preference for family-based care and historical abuse scandals contributing to its perception as a care placement of last resort, despite research that suggests it can benefit young people. Care practices that focussed on child protection prevailed in a political culture that sought to manage children, reduce short term risk and improve measurable outcomes. Relationships, the core of care,became a secondary concern.It is within this context that I investigated the ways in which 13 young people (YP) and adults who had spent time in RCC undertook the task of self and identity development.I found a number of things that help make sense of RCC experienced young people's search for a sense of who they are. These findings have major implications for their life in and beyond care and suggest how schools and care homes can help RCC experienced young people develop positive senses of self. These findings support ways of working with children that build on their strengths, rather than seeing them as lacking something. The findings are, 1) Young people's experiences prior to care, within care and beyond can be made sense of in terms of anincreasing understanding of themselves. Relationships with at least one key person, most often an adult at school or in the RCC home, were instrumental in helping young people make sense of who they were, who they are, and who they might become. 2) The RCC experience, and sometimes school and leisure activities could provide rich opportunities for self-development. 3) Self-development was supported by creating opportunities that enabled young people to explore new identities that helped them develop a positive self-image. 4) Young people demonstrated that they managed other identities such as their place of birth or care identity, but whilst this was complex, it was for some important to a coherent sense of self. Young people who experienced stigma, with the right support, were later able to re-claim and take pride in their care identity. 5) RCC homes, and sometimes schools, were able to create the conditions for social recognition, a pre-requisite to the developmentof autonomy and self-realisation that enabled young people to be both participants in and active contributors to their communities. Recognition is therefore a key component of positive identity formation.The fellowship will consolidate my research by allowing me to conduct an ambitious, but achievable range of activities that will support the next phase of my career. I aim to publish three articles based on the findings of my PhD thesis and I will engage with a range of stakeholders in education and RCC communities to ensure maximum real-world impact of my research. Following the "root and branch" independent review of Scottish care in 2020 (ICR, 2020), the Scottish Government is in the first phase of a developing and implementing a 10 year plan to make big changes to the care sector. I aim to contribute directly to this by adding substance to its broad and radical aim to foreground relational practices in child social care.Together, these activities will help shift the current discourse in RCC away from treatment approaches towards strengths based, relational caring practices. They will also help me to be more competitive in securing research grants, enabling my further research into effective education and care for care experienced children and YP.