Abstract
In an effort to move the professionalization dialogue in child and youth care toward greater concern with the quality of client service and toward move conceptually-based consideration of the content of the work, the authors propose that the field be viewed as a craft. An initial approximation of such a conceptualization as it might look through the eyes of most current workers is followed by a discussion of possible implications for progress in significant areas of concern in the field.
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This paper is a modified and expanded version of one presented by the senior author at the 41st Annual Meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology, Edinburgh, Scotland, April 1981. The authors wish to acknowledge the support of the Richard Crossman Chair in Social Policy and Planning, School of Social Work, University of Haifa, and the Agricultural Experiment Station of the University of Minnesota (Scientific Journal Series, No. 11,910), as well as the conceptual contributions of Mike Baizerman, F. Herbert Barnes, Rivka Eisikovits, and Henry W. Maier. Since the junior author is also Editor of CCQ, a blind review process was used in which three senior members of the CCQ editorial board evaluated the manuscript and recommended that it be published.
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Eisikovits, Z., Beker, J. Beyond professionalism: The child and youth care worker as craftsman. Child Youth Care Forum 12, 93–112 (1983). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01151597
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01151597