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的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。身份形成是青少年的主要心理任务之一。但在此期间发生的众多变化会使自我和身份的发展尤其具有挑战性。在苏格兰，RCC的大多数年轻人都是青少年，许多人在被转移到护理中心之前，与虐待或忽视的经历有关，有复杂的、高度的需求。最近，围绕RCC的政策论述一直是负面的，尽管研究表明它可以使年轻人受益，但对家庭护理和历史虐待丑闻的偏好使其被视为最后的护理安排。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，以儿童保护为重点的护理做法占主导地位。关系，关怀的核心，变成了次要的关注。正是在这种背景下，我调查了13名年轻人（YP）和在RCC度过时间的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经验丰富的年轻人寻找自我感觉的事情。这些发现对他们的生活有重大影响，并建议学校和养老院如何帮助经历过RCC的年轻人发展积极的自我意识。这些发现支持以儿童的优势为基础的工作方式，而不是认为他们缺乏什么。研究发现，1)年轻人在护理前、护理内和护理后的经历可以通过增加对自己的了解来理解。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，有助于帮助年轻人理解他们是谁，他们是谁，他们可能成为谁。2) RCC体验，有时学校和休闲活动可以提供丰富的自我发展机会。3)通过创造机会使年轻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，比如他们的出生地或照顾者身份，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，后来能够重新主张并为自己的护理身份感到自豪。5) RCC家庭，有时是学校，能够为社会认可创造条件，这是自主和自我实现发展的先决条件，使年轻人能够成为社区的参与者和积极贡献者。因此，认同是积极认同形成的关键组成部分。奖学金将巩固我的研究，允许我进行一个雄心勃勃，但可实现的活动范围，这将支持我的职业生涯的下一个阶段。我的目标是根据我的博士论文的发现发表三篇文章，我将与教育和RCC社区的一系列利益相关者接触，以确保我的研究对现实世界产生最大的影响。继2020年对苏格兰护理进行“全面”独立审查（ICR, 2020）之后，苏格兰政府正处于制定和实施一项10年计划的第一阶段，该计划旨在对护理部门进行重大改革。我的目标是通过为其广泛而激进的目标增加实质内容来直接促进这一点，即在儿童社会关怀中前景关系实践。总之，这些活动将有助于将当前关于RCC的论述从治疗方法转向基于优势的关系关怀实践。他们也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青少年。

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.