Mark
K. Smith is the Rank Research Fellow and Tutor at the YMCA George Williams
College, London (a college linked to Canterbury Christ Church University)
and has been a visiting professor in community education at the University
of Strathclyde.
Mark K Smith specializes in the fields of informal education, social
pedagogy and community learning, and has worked as a careers officer, youth
and community worker, and project coordinator. He studied economics with
politics at the University of Lancaster, and gained his doctorate in the
philosophy of education from the University of London.
Among his books are Creators not Consumers (1980, 1982),
Organise! (1981), Developing Youth Work (1988), Local
Education (1994), Informal Education (1996, 1999, 2005 with
Tony Jeffs), The Art of Helping Others (2008, with Heather Smith),
Youth Work Practice (2010, edited with Tony Jeffs) and
Journeying Together (2010, edited with Alan Rogers). He writes for, and
edits, infed.org and is on the editorial board of
Youth and Policy.
He is currently working on a new publication on outdoor learning (with Alan
Rogers and a number of practitioners from the Rank Foundation’s yarn
network), and a book on social pedagogy (with Tony Jeffs).
Innovatory, action research is a particular interest. Mark K. Smith’s
projects have focused on social and political education (funded by the
Department of Education and Science and based at the then National
Association of Youth Clubs); youth work (supported by the Rank Foundation);
and community learning and development (also supported by the Rank
Foundation). He also been responsible for large scale evaluatary work – most
recently with Jean Spence for the Big Lottery Fund and Department for
Education (an
evaluation of the English government myplace initiative).
Currently he is also a foundation governor of a Catholic secondary school in
an inner London borough, and was, for a number of years, chair of a nearby
tenants cooperative that ran two tower blocks.
YMCA George Williams College, 199 Freemasons Road, Canning Town, London E16 3PY, United Kingdom. Direct line/voice mail: 020 7540 4929. E-mail: m.smith@ymca.ac.uk
Details of some of books are given below - especially those you can read for free. There are support pages for a number of these publications. If ‘look inside’ is active on Amazon – you can click on the link to access parts of the book.
When people search for someone to help them reflect upon and improve their lives, they tend to be drawn towards those who are compassionate, committed and wise. This book explores the helping processes involved and draws upon the experiences and practice wisdom of helpers such as youth workers, housing support workers, the clergy and those working in a religious setting, and education. Written by Heather Smith and Mark K. Smith
The book’s apparent simplicity belies the complexity of its contents. Rather it acts as a menu of ideas with each chapter providing a brief description of key concepts and how these relate to the role of helper and the helping relationship…Whatever type of helper we are, the authors are clear that to be a helper requires us to be able to occupy equally the position of one who is helped and to commit to developing that capacity to help… This small gem of a book is certainly one to aid that process. Joanne Hensman Dramatherapy 2009
The Art of Helping Others. Being around, being there, being wise was published by Jessica Kingsley in April 2008.
Each of the chapters has a support page with links to relevant articles and resources. Go to infed.org. Look inside the book at Amazon.
This book explored how informal educators encourage conversation, democracy and learning. It also examines evaluation, working with process, living with values and planning.
Each chapter includes a number of questions that help readers to explore their work. Further support is given on a set of linked web pages.
This is a little cracker, an ideal tool for all initial training courses and a must for jaded and stressed-out practitioners. This book offers a timely reminder of all that we value about our work and gives a firm orientation to our profession. Doug Nicholls, Rapport
This book celebrates conversation…. It provides a flavour of the possibilities of informal education [and] should encourage [readers] to probe more deeply into the theory and practice of informal education. Howard Williamson, Young People Now
An excellent introduction…. which may well become a classic.William Clemmey, Youth and Policy.
Written by Tony Jeffs and Mark K Smith. First published 1996; 2nd edition 1999; 3rd edition 2005. Published by Educational Heretics.
Support pages on infed.org. Look inside the book at Amazon.
The book explores a way of working – pioneered and developed over 22 years by the Rank Foundation’s Youth or Adult? initiative. Youth or cover journeying togetherAdult? has ‘grown’ youth work by supporting individuals to train professionally, while working in community-based organizations. Through this investment in people, the work is having a lasting impact within communities.
Grounded in workers’ personal experiences, as well as in relevant theory, Journeying together explores the experiences of community-based organizations, volunteers, part-time and full-time workers, and provides questions for both non-specialists and experts to consider.
Each chapter is rich with theory and real life testimony shared in stories straight from the frontlines of youth work embedded in local communities. Refreshing, inspiring and utterly convincing, Rogers & Smith are calling us to return to long-term investment in local communities where collaboration between funders, trainers and youth work projects enables sustainable, and ultimately, truly transformational youth and community work. Claire Farley in Youthwork (December 2010)
Edited by Alan Rogers and Mark K Smith. First published 2010.
Checkout the supporting film and booklet. Published 2010 by Russell House.
…a landmark book… -Times Educational Supplement
At a time when policy changes require adult and youth work to achieve a greater mutual understanding than in the past,this book offers an invaluable guidebook to the persistent values of democracy common to both. It will be useful reading for policy-makers,managers and trainers at all levels. – Open Learning
Drawing upon the experiences of adult and community educators, youth and community wor kers, I examine the practice of educators who build up ways of working with local networks and cultures. Shops, launderettes, streets, bars, cafes and people’s houses are the settings for much of their work, a nd when they do appear in schools and colleges, they are most likely to be found in corridors, eating areas and s tudent common-rooms. Their work is not organized by subject, syllabi or lessons; it is about conversation and community, a commitment to local democracy and self-organization, and is often unpredictable and risky.
The book offers an analysis of the subtle and difficult activity of intervening in other peoples’ lives, of conversing with purpose, and of engaging with people to broaden opportunity and to effect change in their lives and communities.
Local Education became a fixture on a number of training programme reading lists. There are several areas that practitioners and students wanted further information about – or responses to – and these have been explored on a support page. A paper on the research methodology is also available on infed.org. Look inside the book at Amazon
Written by Mark K Smith. Published by Open University Press 1994.
It is possible to download and view online a number of older books for free (with some Kindle versions to come).
Two main themes run through Creators not Consumers. First, there is a concern to encourage young people to get involved in organizing things for themselves. This flows from a belief in the benefits of associational life both for the happiness and self confidence of individuals, and for the strengthening of community life. Second, there is an invitation to workers to embrace and explore their educational role. These two themes help to explain the sub-title – rediscovering social education.
Clearly things have changed in English youth work since this booklet was written. The space for open, associational work of this kind has been severely limited – at least within state-sponsored settings; and the values of the market and individual consumption have become even more dominant.
Written by Mark K Smith.
Read the second edition from 1982. Originally published by NAYC Publications (now Youth Clubs UK). First published August 1980. Reprinted October 1980. Second Edition January 1982.
So much of what is said about youth work either seeks to conceal or is the product of lazy or rhetorical thinking. The ahistorical, apolitical and anti-intellectual attitude of many in this area has meant that practice is peculiarly prone to influence by moral panics, fads and fashions. As such, the work is further threatened both by the development of very different forms of practice directed at many of the areas that youth workers have claimed as their own, and by the growing diversity of organizational settings in which workers are located. Yet youth work has much to offer and certain strands of practice have the potential to make a developing youth workmajor contribution to the well-being of young people. If youth workers are to make that contribution and retain a unique identity and distinctive forms of working, they must address a number of fundamental philosophical and political questions, and develop the necessary theory. [From the introduction]
Developing Youth Work (1988) was an attempt to construct a coherent and distinctive understanding of youth work. It looked to informal education and association (mutual aid) as the core of the work, and argued that despite appearances, the youth service was starting a process of terminal decline in England and Wales.
Written by Mark K Smith.
Read the book. Originally published by the Open University Press. First published 1988.
Informal education has been an element of practice within casework, schooling, youth work, residential care and the Probation Service for some time. It has been an important part of the activity of community organizations. Yet it has rarely been given sustained attention, though this has changed somewhat in recent years, as the contributors to this book show.
In the late 1980s there was a growing interest in the use of informal education in welfare and schooling. Using Informal Education was the first major exploration.
Edited by Tony Jeffs and Mark K. Smith.
Read the book. Originally published by the Open University Press. First published 1990.
Leadership, for us, is not about influencing groups and communities to follow a particular person’s vision, but rather working so that people may come together, flourish and build better lives.
Born and Bred? explores some key themes for educators about leadership. These include:The idea that leaders are people with special qualities.
Written by Michele Erina Doyle and Mark K. Smith.
Published 1999 by the Rank Foundation/YMCA George Williams College.
