Special Interest Group
The special interest of the SIG is in research and scholarship relating to theory, policy and practice issues in Youth Studies and Youth and Community Work. These include: youth transitions and geographies; youth culture and debates about Youth Voice; Youth Justice; Youth Work as a practice ‘beyond school’ in Community and Neighbourhood contexts. The Special Interest Group aims to provide a forum for academics, practitioners and students with interest in research and scholarship in youth studies and Informal Education to engage in dialogue and debate and to contribute to knowledge transfer / exchange through publications, conferences and seminars. It further aims to strengthen discussion and make connections between BERA members, TAG (the Association of Lecturers in Youth and Community Work) and the BSA Youth Studies network as well as the secondary and post-compulsory education and informal education in adolescence and adult life sector.
This podcast explores music production as a form of youth work and how the benefits have been quantified and reported. Ian McGimpsey speaks to Frances Howard (Nottingham Trent University), Brian...
In this podcast our panel of experts - Tania de St Croix (Kings College London), Sinead McMahon (Limerick Institute of Technology), Bianca Baldridge (University of Madison Wisconsin) and Louise...
Senior Lecturer at St. Marys University
Fin Cullen is a qualified Youth and Community worker and worked for over a decade across the UK in a variety of contexts including youth homeless provision, residential settings, day centres, school-based youth services, centre-based, outreach,...
Senior Lecturer in Applied Social Studies at University of Bedfordshire
Tina is a Senior Lecturer in Applied Social Sciences at the University of Bedfordshire. She is course coordinator for the MA in Childhood, Youth and Family Studies, which also has a JNC youth work pathway. Tina has been teaching youth and...
Professor in youth and community education, professor in critical pedagogy and national officer at Birmingham City University
Operating at the nexus of practice, theory and policy making, I have worked in the multiple disadvantage, homeless and youth and community work sectors and concurrently within higher education for over 35 years My overall aim is to develop an...
This award celebrates the publication of educational research and is awarded to a scholarly book on education deemed to be high quality, engaging and innovative.
In this blog post I reflect on a collaborative research project that explored youth workers’ knowledge, skills and attitudes towards digital practice. Youth work in the UK is a profession guided...
Continue reading blog post2025 marks 10 years of the BERA Blog, and we’re so proud of all that it has accomplished! Thank you to all those who have contributed to the Blog, whether as authors, editors, or readers. The...
In October 2024, the Skills Minister introduced a new bill to the House of Lords to reform the skills system for apprenticeships. Since 2017, apprenticeships were developed and regulated by the...
Continue reading blog postToday, in 2025, as an Earthly community, we face the ongoing triple planetary crises of climate change, nature and biodiversity loss, and pollution and waste. Across the UK, and in many other...
This online event explores the potential overlaps and intersections in services provided to children and young people in the UK, focusing on the perspectives of playworkers and youth workers....
The ‘Dear Researcher’ workshop that I facilitated at the 2024 BERA Conference, had developed through years of research working alongside children and young people as co-researchers. The...
Continue reading blog postThis blog series celebrates one decade of the BERA Blog, as an important and growing space to explore current and varied issues and questions of concern to the education community. To mark this...
