Alicja Pawluczuk, Hazel Hall, Gemma Webster and Colin Smith (Edinburgh Napier University) Purpose: The aim of this paper is to present empirical research which examines the ways youth workers in the United Kingdom perceive their work in the context of digital literacy project facilitation. There is currently limited research focusing on digital youth workers’ perspectives on opportunities and challenges affecting their interactions with and perceptions of young people’s digital literacy. Thus, this study aims to: (1) contribute to the scholarly discussion on digital youth work and digital youth literacy (2) elicit and analyse youth workers’ perceptions of the opportunities and challenges of youth digital literacy project facilitation Method: Twenty interviews with digital youth workers in the United Kingdom were conducted in 2017. The interviews were based on themes drawn from a literature review that explored the areas of digital literacy, youth information behaviours in the digital age, digital youth work, and digital youth participation. Analysis: Research data analysis was guided by a grounded theory (Charmaz, 2006) methodological approach and conducted using NVivo 10 software. Results show a clear alignment with the existing literature in the areas of youth digital literacy and digital youth work. The analysis presented here focuses on two emerging themes: (1) Digital technologies in youth work: youth workers’ hopes and fears; (2) Digital literacy in youth work: youth worker’s perspectives on the digital skills gap between young people and adult youth work facilitators. Conclusion: The results of this study reveal that youth workers are both excited and sceptical about the digital development in the field. There is an existing anxiety associated with the lack of digital literacy skills in the youth work sector. Thus, it is argued here that further research and practical digital training initiatives should be undertaken to examine youth worker’s digital literacy skills.

1. Digital youth work:
youth worker’s balancing act between the
digital innovation and digital literacy
insecuritiesPawluczuk A., Webster, G., Smith., C & Hall, H. (2018)

2. viewed as a professional practice
with young people based on
certain core values and principles
requiring the establishment of
voluntary relationships with
young people.
(Sapin, 2013)
Youth Work

3. Young people are increasingly engaging with
new technologies and digital media. There is
clearly a role for online youth work practice, in
terms of exploiting a new space for youth work
in a meaningful way, supporting digital literacy
and enabling young people to deal with some
of the associated risks.
(Declaration of the 2nd European Youth Work
Convention, Brussels, April 2015)

4. Digital youth work is an emerging term to
describe the area of youth work that uses
digital media and new technology to
enhance outcome focused youth
development.
(Screenagers, 2017) @alicjapawluczuk

5. The Youth Work
Outcomes Model
(Youth Link Scotland,
2016)
confident, resilient and optimistic
for the future
manage personal, social and
formal relationships
create, describe and apply their
learning and skills
participate safely and effectively
in groups
participate safely and effectively
in groups
express their voice and
demonstrate social commitment
consider risk, make reasoned
decisions and take control
broaden their perspectives
through new experiences and
thinking
@alicjapawluczuk

6. • digital youth work outside school or
traditional teaching environments are
liberated from ‘the oppression of learning
in the formal settings’ (Black et al., 2015,
p. 4)
• young people can influence “health and
growth of civic collective, jointly produced
stories, and real world social change” (Ito
et al., 2013:48)
• urge against ‘romanticizing’ the
empowering potential of youth digital
culture (Buckingham, 2008)
• issues such as online privacy, peer-
pressure, and self-representation have
been examined (Aiken, 2016)
• cyberbullying and sexting o (Bentley et al.,
2016)
VS.
BRIDGES WALLS
Youth work in the digital times?
@alicjapawluczuk

7. There is limited research focusing on
digital youth workers’ perspectives
The aims of this paper:
(1) contribute to the scholarly discussion on youth digital
literacy and digital youth work
(2) elicit and analyse youth workers’ perceptions of the
opportunities and challenges of facilitating digital literacy and
digital youth work projects
@alicjapawluczuk

8. Grounded Theory
(Charmez, 2006)
Thematic Analysis
(Braun & Clarke,
2006)

12. Data Analysis:
Themes
Digital youth
work practice:
hopes and
fears
Digital literacy
in youth work:
learning

13. Digital technologies in youth work: youth workers’ hopes
enable creation
of innovative types of youth work
practice
provide more collaborative and inclusive
alternatives to information exchange and
information creation
easier to ‘keep in touch’
challenge the traditional, top-down
information sharing
digital technologies instead provides
more collaborative and inclusive
alternatives
enable youth information creation
practice I just remember years
back, and you just
couldn’t do that stuff. I
mean it’s hard work
because you’d have to say
as a team 'right, I’m going
to spend the next three
days phoning all of these
people'. Sometimes
knocking on doors.
Jo
@alicjapawluczuk

14. ‘we love
the digital
stuff,
but….’

15. Digital technologies in youth work: youth workers’ fears
online-offline balance
face-to-face contact still crucial in
youth work
messages can be misconstrued or misread
‘And what happens is
the technology takes
over, it becomes an
obsession and then you
forget about the
content, you forget
about the subject
matter (…).’
Alison
@alicjapawluczuk
lack of human contact
‘I modify what I say’

16. Digital literacy in youth work: learning
Information exchange
democratic process
collaborative learning
@alicjapawluczuk
young people in
charge
knowledge co-
creation
an additional
barrier
lack of guidance
and information
Impossible to keep
up to date
digital literacy
insecurity

17. Every time I go to a
different conference, it
seems to be that they’re
using a different [digital]
participatory
engagement tool every
time.
(Jamie)

18. 1.Youth workers’ polarised views on the
impact of digital technologies of youth
work;
2. The digital divide in digital youth work:
youth workers examining the invisible wall.
Discussion  2 narratives:
@alicjapawluczuk

19. There is an existing conflict
in how youth workers
discuss the notion of digital
youth work, and how they
really feel about it.
@alicjapawluczuk

20. 1.Youth workers’
polarised view:
‘we love the
digital stuff,
but…’
@alicjapawluczuk

21. • miscommunication and technological addiction
(Aikien, 2016)
• question the empowering effect of digital media
on young people (Buccieri and Molleson, 2015;
Herring, 2008)
• people's ‘illusionary freedom and autonomy’
online (Herring, 2008, p. 73)
• The sense of ‘hyper-celebration of self’ (Aikien,
2016, p.176)
• young project participants with opportunities
to enhance their information creating and
sharing processes (Black et al., 2015;
Buckingham, 2008; Erstad, 2012; Livingstone
et al., 2012),
• creative expression and empowerment (Black
et al., 2015)
• collaborative experiential learning
environment, and a ‘space for self-making’
for young people (Livingstone and Sefton-
Green, 2016, p. 22)
• to challenge the traditional social hierarchies,
promote equality (Tuominen, 2016 @alicjapawluczuk

22. 2. Digital tech as the
invisible wall – is youth
culture now more
mystified?
@alicjapawluczuk

23. Youth work as a fast-changing
practice of ‘continuous analysis,
choice, judgment decision making’
(Batsleer and Davies, 2010)
Limited information available to the
youth workers in terms of digital
youth policies and online safety
(Wilson and Grant, 2017)
Digital content can be misread or
misconstrued, leading on to
confusion and misunderstanding in
the information exchange ( filter
bubble (ISIC2018) and social media
echo-chambers (Garret, 2009)

24. practical digital training and digital
youth policies in the youth work
sector in the United Kingdom
(European Commission, 2018; Wilson
and Grant, 2017).
additional digital literacy support
should be provided to youth
organisations
*if youth work fails to embrace the use
of technology and social media there
is a risk of becoming outdated and
irrelevant to young people who use
youth work services (Harvey, 2016, p.
13).

25. @alicjapawluczuk
www.alicjapawluczuk.com