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儿童保育（RCC）中度过时间的儿童和年轻人的经历。身份形成是青春期的主要心理任务之一。但在这一时期发生的许多变化可能使自我和身份的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，许多人在被转移到护理之前有着与虐待或忽视经历有关的复杂、高水平的需求。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虐待丑闻有助于其作为最后手段的护理安置的看法，尽管研究表明，它可以使年轻人受益。在寻求管理儿童、减少短期风险和改善可衡量成果的政治文化中，注重儿童保护的照料做法占主导地位。关系，护理的核心，成为次要的关注。正是在这种情况下，我调查的方式，其中13个年轻人（YP）和成年人谁花了时间在RCC承担的自我和身份发展的任务。我发现了一些事情，有助于使RCC的意义经历了年轻人的搜索他们是谁的感觉。这些发现对他们的生活和护理之外的生活有重大影响，并建议学校和护理院如何帮助有经验的RCC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式，即建立在他们的优势上，而不是认为他们缺乏什么。研究结果发现：1）青少年在接受照护前、照护中及照护后的经验，都可以借由增进对自己的了解而变得有意义。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)区域合作中心的经验，有时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，使青年人能够探索新的身份，帮助他们建立积极的自我形象，从而支持自我发展。4)年轻人表现出他们管理其他身份，如他们的出生地或照顾身份，但虽然这是复杂的，这是一些重要的自我意识的连贯性。经历过污名化的年轻人，在得到适当的支持后，后来能够重新要求照顾，并为自己的照顾身份感到自豪。5)区域合作理事会之家，有时还有学校，能够为社会承认创造条件，这是发展自主权和自我实现的先决条件，使年轻人能够参与社区并为社区作出积极贡献。因此，认可是积极身份形成的关键组成部分。奖学金将巩固我的研究，使我能够开展一系列雄心勃勃但可实现的活动，以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的研究结果发表三篇文章，我将与教育和RCC社区的一系列利益相关者进行接触，以确保我的研究在现实世界中产生最大的影响。继2020年对苏格兰护理进行“根和分支”独立审查（ICR，2020年）后，苏格兰政府正处于制定和实施一项对护理部门进行重大改革的十年计划的第一阶段。我的目标是通过增加实质内容，其广泛和激进的目标，前景关系的做法，在儿童社会care.Together，这些活动将有助于转移目前的话语RCC远离治疗方法对优势为基础的，关系的照顾做法。他们还将帮助我在获得研究赠款方面更具竞争力，使我能够进一步研究有效的教育和护理有经验的儿童和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.