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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal – Vol. 8, No. 4

Publication Date: April 25, 2021

DOI:10.14738/assrj.84.9993. Bellefeuille, A., Monahan, A., & Bellefeuille, G. (2021). What Does Leadership Look Like in Child and Youth Care Practice: A Course- Based Qualitative Inquiry. Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 8(4). 169-177.

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What Does Leadership Look Like in Child and Youth Care Practice:

A Course-Based Qualitative Inquiry

Andrew Bellefeuille

BCYC, MacEwan University, Alberta, Canada

Alyc Monahan

BCYC, MacEwan University, Alberta, Canada

Gerard Bellefeuille

Professor, BCYC, MacEwan University, Alberta, Canada

ABSTRACT

The aim of this course-based research is to explore how child and youth care (CYC)

students understand the concept of leadership within the context of CYC practice.

Data was collected through online interviews and an arts-based activity. From the

data analysis, four main themes were extracted: leadership as relational process,

leadership as authenticity, leadership as complexity, and leadership as praxis. The

findings reveal that CYC students characterize CYC leadership as a way of being

relationally engaged with others that is more a way of being in the world than a

matter of what one knows or does.

Keywords: child and youth care, leadership, research, qualitative

INTRODUCTION

As first-year child and youth care (CYC) students at MacEwan University, we are quickly

introduced to the concept of praxis. It is presented to us as a critical, empowering, and

transformational educational framework to inspire a more personal and holistic learning

experience. Intrinsic to the concept of praxis is the view point that CYC practice is less a matter

of what one knows or does, although these are important, and more a matter of who one is as a

practitioner (White, 2008). As a result, we were constantly encouraged to develop critical

thinking skills and to embrace the idea that learning lies not in the proclaimed outcomes (what

is to be known) but in the process of learning (how we arrive at what we understand). The

quotation cited below is one of many from a course-based research project that explored how

the concept of praxis was expressed and exercised by CYC practitioners in the field:

...it got our heads spinning as we thought about ourselves, others, and the world in

new ways. As first-year university students, relatively new to the application of

critical-thinking skills and abstract reasoning, we were invited to rethink our desire

to “know” and to seek comfort in curiosity, exploration, non-judgmental awareness,

and open mindedness...we were prodded and, at times, thrust from our comfort zone

into unconventional learning that required taking risks, thinking critically and

creatively, and stepping into the unknown...To help inspire us to embrace praxis as a

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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal (ASSRJ) Vol. 8, Issue 4, April-2021

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guiding conceptual framework to promote excellence in CYC practice, we were

encouraged to think of ourselves as artists rather than workers or practitioners.

(Brown, Gautreau, Dhalla, & Bellefeuille, 2018, p. 1)

The course-based research project that yielded this quote concluded that the attention to praxis

not only encouraged risk taking, creative thinking, unconventionality, and interpersonal

awareness, but it also generated inspiration, confidence, competence, and moral courage in

students to participate as transformational leaders in the field.

Child and Youth Care Practice

The field of CYC practice is generally described as a dynamic and challenging one in which CYC

practitioners enter directly into the life space of the children, youth, and families they serve

(vander Ven, 1991). The overriding philosophy of CYC practice is to provide support in the

moment to children, youth, and families as they go about living their lives (Fulcher 2004). As

Garfat and Fulcher (2012) explain:

Whether it is with a family in their home as they are doing dishes or playing soccer

with a young person in the community park, or chatting with a homeless youth on

the streets of a major city; whether it involves hanging out with a mother in jail,

helping a supervisee learn a new skill, pausing at a desk with a student, or

participating with a young person in a church activity; whether it involves being in

the sandbox, on the football field or sitting with a child as she falls asleep after a

difficult day–CYC Practitioners involve themselves in all aspects of the daily life of the

people with whom she or he works (p. 8).

Fostering meaningful relationships is, therefore, the main feature that distinguishes CYC practice

from other helping professions. The challenge, however, for today’s 21st century CYC graduates

is to successfully engage in interpersonal relationships with children, youth, and families at a

time of rapidly changing community needs. For example, Bellefeuille and Berikoff, (2019),

educational leaders in the field, note the following:

Having just crossed the threshold of the 21st century, it is indisputable that the world

today is radically different than it was when we, the authors, began our professional

careers some four decades ago. Although humans are not yet hovering off to work

with our own personal jetpacks, the shift towards global interconnectedness and the

explosion of technological advances have brought about profound and far-reaching

changes that have virtually reshaped every aspect of our daily lives. It is in this world,

that packs more into each day and is changing more rapidly than at any time in

human experience, that child and youth care (CYC) education programs aim to

prepare their students to practice their profession...a globalized, technological, and

diverse world order that has and continues to revolutionize how we communicate,

work, engage in interpersonal relationships, rear families, and perceive the world in

general while we seek meaning in life (p. 14).

Therefore, the expectation today is that CYC practitioners will possess the leadership capabilities

to address a continuously evolving, highly diverse, and complex practice context. Hence, the

primary aim of this course-based research is to explore how CYC students understand the

concept of leadership within the context of CYC practice.

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Bellefeuille, A., Monahan, A., & Bellefeuille, G. (2021). What Does Leadership Look Like in Child and Youth Care Practice: A Course-Based Qualitative

Inquiry. Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 8(4). 169-177.

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/assrj.84.9993

CYC Practitioners as Transformational Leaders

The concept of leadership is complex and multi-dimensional. A quick review of the literature

reveals that although it is commonly studied, no universally accepted definition or theory of

leadership exists. For example, in a survey on leadership Northouse (2004) concluded that “there

are almost as many different definitions of leadership as there are people who have tried to define

it” (p. 2). So, where does CYC education stand when it comes to leadership as a core practice

competency? Which leadership perspective best fits the mission and values of the CYC

profession? How does the style and quality of leadership skills adopted by CYC students affect

outcomes in their work with children, youth, and families? Finally, the age-old adage that leaders

are born and not made suggests that people have innate characteristics and attributes that lend

them to leadership, while others simply do not. The implication being leadership can be taught

but it cannot be learned. Hence, the aim of this course-based research project is to explore the

perceptions of CYC students and faculty regarding the main components of leadership within the

context of CYC practice.

UNDERGRADUATE COURSE-BASED RESEARCH:

A PEDAGOGICAL TOOL TO FOSTER CRITICALITY, REFLECTIVITY, AND PRAXIS

This section begins with a word about course-based research. The Bachelor of Child and Youth

Care program at MacEwan University is continuously searching for new pedagogical approaches

to foster critical thinking, reflection, and praxis as integral components of the overall student

educational experience. As such, a course-based research approach, in contrast to the traditional

didactic approach to research-methods instruction, offers fourth-year undergraduate students

the opportunity to master introductory research skills by conceptualizing, designing,

administering, and showcasing small low-risk research projects under the guidance and

supervision of the course instructor—commonly, a professor with an extensive background in

research and teaching.

The use of course-based research in higher education has increased substantially in recent years

(Allyn, 2013; Bellefeuille, Ekdahl, Kent, & Kluczny, 2014; Harrison, Dunbar, Ratmansky, Boyd, &

Lopatto, 2010). The benefits derived from a course-based approach to teaching research

methods are significant for CYC students. First, there is value in providing students with

authentic learning experiences that enhance the transfer of knowledge learned in traditional

education practice. For example, former students have reported that their engagement in course- based research enabled them to deepen their scientific knowledge by adopting new methods of

creative inquiry. Second, course-based research offers students the opportunity to work with

instructors in a mentoring relationship; one result is that a greater number of student’s express

interest in advancing to graduate studies. Third, results generated through course-based

research can sometimes be published in peer-reviewed journals and online open-access portals

and thereby contribute to the discipline’s knowledge base. The ethical approval required to

permit students to conduct course-based research projects is granted to the course instructor by

the university’s research ethics board (REB). Student research groups are then required to

complete an REB application form for each course-based research project undertaken in the

class; each application is reviewed by the course instructor and an REB committee to ensure that

the project is completed in compliance with the ethics review requirements of the university.