U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government, Department of Justice.

NCJRS Virtual Library

The Virtual Library houses over 235,000 criminal justice resources, including all known OJP works.
Click here to search the NCJRS Virtual Library

Quest for (Higher) Professional Status: Second Thoughts

NCJ Number
244181
Journal
Child & Youth Services Volume: 34 Issue: 2 Dated: April-June 2013 Pages: 186-195
Author(s)
Michael Baizerman
Date Published
June 2013
Length
10 pages
Annotation
The sociopolitical movement to enhance youth workers' occupational status and related emoluments strategically links this goal to competency-based assessment.
Abstract
The sociopolitical movement to enhance youth workers' occupational status and related emoluments strategically links this goal to competency-based assessment. While the goals of improved conditions, remuneration, and career opportunities for workers is supported, the joining of those goals to both professionalization and in turn competency-based worker assessments is not. Brief analyses of the logic and practice of competency-based assessments, of the medieval guilds as a historical source of these and of worker and market control, of youth work as a social agency-based semi-profession, the current status of profession as a symbol of social status and authority, and a quick overview of Aristotle's phronesis and its relevance to youth work practice provide sources for the author's second thoughts about the ideational frame and argument for this sociopolitical and sociolegal movement. Abstract published by arrangement with Taylor and Francis.