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SIG Meet & Discuss: Youth Studies and Informal Education

6 Jul 2026 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm

The Youth Studies and Informal Education Special Interest Group explores research and scholarship relating to theory, policy and practice issues in Youth Studies, Informal Education and Youth and...

Bridging worlds: Using youth work to blend organic and cocreated digital environments to support neurodivergent young people in mainstream education

This blog post reflects on our podcast Bridging Worlds, a research study that combines outdoor learning, youth work, and digital creativity through Minecraft. Funded by a ½¿É«µ¼º½-Kusuma Trust award,...

Editorial: Relationship-centred pedagogies: The route to ‘education for all’

This ½¿É«µ¼º½ Blog special issue responds to increasing concerns around school exclusions that have risen to almost 1 million in England and a government announcement in 2024 to phase out ‘cruel...

Relationship-centred pedagogies: The route to ‘education for all’

This ½¿É«µ¼º½ Blog special issue responds to increasing concerns around school exclusions that have risen to almost 1 million in England and a government announcement in 2024 to phase out ‘cruel...

Education through encounter

Although there is a growing international interest in relationship-centred pedagogies within the formal education sector, the concept is not new. Certainly, as myself and former head teacher and...

Listening, trust and belonging: What the Motiv8 model teaches us about youth work in schools

Mackenzie, a young adviser at Motiv8 in Portsmouth, shares a powerful reflection on what a positive teacher–student relationship looks like: 'Throughout secondary school I was often kicked out...

The youth work relationship: Pedagogy, practice and possibility

Youth work as relational practice Youth work is a relational practice (NYA, 2025). The relationship between a youth worker and the young people they engage with is not incidental – it is...

Re-engaging disengaged students: Building trust and curriculum reform in secondary schools

Introduction I write this blog post following deep reflection on 40 years of teaching – 20 of which were as headteacher within three very different schools. In my final years of headship, I...

Social media and mental health: Understanding the ‘threshold effect’ among young adults

Social media use among young adults is nearly universal worldwide. For instance, 95 per cent of teenagers (13–17) in the United States are on social platforms, with about a third online...

The ½¿É«µ¼º½ Blog: Highlights of 2025

½¿É«µ¼º½ Blog end of year highlights

Snow-dusted salutations and tinsel-tinged tidings to all our readers, authors, curators and guest editors around the globe. In this, the ½¿É«µ¼º½ Blog’s tenth anniversary year, I look back over the...

Evaluating my evaluations

Evaluations. Crucial to university student outreach. A minefield? Sometimes. Including one time where I had to ask a young person, ‘what exactly is rizz? Is this good, bad?!’ – it’s good...

½¿É«µ¼º½ Educational Research Book of the Year

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.