[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":3,"doc-seo-589388-105":59,"doc-detail-589388-en":130},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",[7,13,18,23,28,33,38,43,48,51,55],{"id":8,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":10,"show_sort_weight":11,"slug":12},1,"Document","Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":14,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":15,"show_sort_weight":16,"slug":17},2,"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":19,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":20,"show_sort_weight":21,"slug":22},4,"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":24,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":25,"show_sort_weight":26,"slug":27},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":29,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":30,"show_sort_weight":31,"slug":32},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":34,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":35,"show_sort_weight":36,"slug":37},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":39,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":40,"show_sort_weight":41,"slug":42},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":44,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":45,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":47},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":46,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":49,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":50},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":53,"show_sort_weight":52,"slug":54},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":56,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":57,"show_sort_weight":24,"slug":58},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":60,"data":61},"ok",{"site_id":62,"language":63,"slug":64,"title":65,"keywords":66,"description":67,"schema_data":68,"social_meta":123,"head_meta":125,"extra_data":127,"updated_unix":129},105,"en","professionalising-community-work-and-its-implications-for-radical-community-education","Professionalising Community Work and its implications for Radical Community Education","","This article adopts a radical lens to examine how community development, adult education, and professionalism interact within community-university partnership work. Drawing on a specific partnership and its accredited certificate program, it argues that professionalisation is detrimental to radical practice by encouraging individual vertical progression for learners and by prioritising professional practitioner benefits over collective community gain and social change.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":40,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/professionalising-community-work-and-its-implications-for-radical-community-education/589388/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/professionalising-community-work-and-its-implications-for-radical-community-education/589388.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Đào","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-11-06","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":44},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"What relationship does the article examine among community development, adult education, and professionalism?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"It examines how professionalism shapes community development and adult education through a community-university partnership lens, focusing on its effects on radical practice.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"Why does the article argue that professionalisation can be detrimental to radical community education?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"It claims professionalisation fosters individual vertical progression and privileges professional benefits over collective community gains, thereby distancing grassroots activism and radical praxis.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"What research approach and participant sources does the article use?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"It uses documentary analysis and qualitative interviews with a twenty-five-person research population, largely past certificate students (2005–2008) and additional individuals working within both organisations.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},589388,1792189149,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":44,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":52,"language":139,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":140,"faqs":141,"seo_title":142,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":143,"read_time":144,"preview_page_count":4},1374402968488,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_29158cc5080c5b710cf443261637dec0","Professionalising Community Work and its implications for Radical Community Education.  \ncamilla fitzsimons  \nAbstract  \nThis article adopts a radical lens and examines the relationship between community development, adult education and professionalism. It draws from research on one specific community- university partnership and presents the professionalisation of community work as detrimental to radical practice because of its encouragement of individual vertical progression for learners and a favouring of professional practitioner benefits over collective community gain.  \nIntroduction  \nTwenty years ago, Mary Whelan (1990) wrote an article entitled Training and Professionalisation in Community Work. In it she identified a tension between community workers residing in disadvantaged areas that were affected by poverty and exclusion, and ‘outsider’community workers, people from other areas and usually with middle class origins, also enraged by inequality. She challenged the appropriateness of professionalising community work arguing that to do so would exacerbate tension between these disparate groups. Quoting documentation from a working group within the Community Workers Cooperative (CWC) she refers to their description of professionalisation as an“anathema”to practice and quotes them directly when they state,  \nThe process of professionalisation is about gaining status. It is a search for power, money and control over the practice of community work. It is a process whereby a small group decides on the rules of entry and works to have them accepted and so build up a membership. The profession resulting from this process would be:-exclusive with restricted right of entry;-selfregulating and as such, not answerable to the community.  \n(1990, p. 154)  \nDuring the ensuing years the once marginal suggestion that community development1 can deliver social change towards egalitarianism has been embraced across the political spectrum. Theoretically the dominant discourse is towards pluralism, and the notion of civil society asthe terrain for participatory democracy within which the Community and Voluntary Sector (CVS)2 is a key player would appear virtually uncontested. Despite early objections such as the one that opens this article, the need to professionalise also commonly goes uncontested. Professionalisation is linked to a need to raise standards of practice to ensure a robust, cohesive and effective movement. However the professionalisation debate, although somewhat muted, has not gone away and concerns have been raised about its potential to distance grass-roots activism (Meade & O’Donovan, 2002, p. 8) and of its over-emphasis on technical competence above ideological debate (Thompson, 2007, p. 29) .  \nThis paper contributes to the debate on professionalism with a specific focus on its impact on radical community education. It draws from a case study that examines a partnership arrangement between a Community Development Project (CDP) whose origins are influenced by the writings of Freire, and a University Department openly committed to a critical pedagogy agenda. These organisations have been working together for almost twenty years and the fruit of this partnership is a locally delivered and university accredited Certificate in Community Development and Leadership which is delivered over one academic year. This article focuses on a central finding from this research, namely of a continued tension between ‘outsider’and ‘local’ community workers. It argues current professionalisation trajectories are intrinsically linked to the accreditation of learning, and are exacerbating tensions through the promotion ofindividual practitioner advancement over collective community praxis.  \nFollowing an explanation of research methodology, the piece discusses the analogous relationship between community development and community education when considered at their radical ends. It then outlines core arguments surrounding professionalisation","cbCaiiNqoZZNay1F","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaiiNqoZZNay1F","pdf",111033,"English","# Abstract\n# Introduction\n# Research methodology","[{\"question\":\"What relationship does the article examine among community development, adult education, and professionalism?\",\"answer\":\"It examines how professionalism shapes community development and adult education through a community-university partnership lens, focusing on its effects on radical practice.\"},{\"question\":\"Why does the article argue that professionalisation can be detrimental to radical community education?\",\"answer\":\"It claims professionalisation fosters individual vertical progression and privileges professional benefits over collective community gains, thereby distancing grassroots activism and radical praxis.\"},{\"question\":\"What research approach and participant sources does the article use?\",\"answer\":\"It uses documentary analysis and qualitative interviews with a twenty-five-person research population, largely past certificate students (2005–2008) and additional individuals working within both organisations.\"}]","Professionalising Community Work and its implications for Radical Community Education | PDF",1792067099,25]