Profile

Janet Adams, Senior Lecturer in Youth and Community Studies, Award Manager Youth and Community Studies, Field Chair Social Professional Studies

Teaching interests

My teaching practice encompasses all areas of youth and community work and I have a particular interest in the principles and practice of social group work. I am an enthusiastic teacher and enjoy facilitating participatory learning processes which actively engage students in the classroom.

I have a keen interest in the integration of theory and practice on professionally qualifying programmes such as Youth and Community Studies and Social Work.

Research interests

My most recent research interests have been focused on the educational needs of adults who return to learning as mature students following a gap of a number of years.

I have written about the significance of social group work as a key skill in the development of relationships in youth and community work practice.

I spent 6 consecutive years acting as an external examiner across three institutions running youth and community work courses and found that this experience helped me to develop a broad perspective of the ways in which theory and practice can be integrated into the curriculum.

Publications

Chapters

• Adams, J. (2001) 'Group Work' in Factor et al (2001) Companion to Working with Young People Lyme Regis: Russell House
• Adams, J. (1993) 'Group Work in the Youth Service', in Dwivedi, K. N. (1993),Group Work With Children and Adolescents London: Jessica Kingsley

Articles in peer reviewed journals

• Adams, J. (2005) ‘Participant Focussed Questionnaires’ Groupwork: an interdisciplinary journal for working with groups, Vol14, No 3, p11. London: Whiting and Birch
• Adams, J. (1997) 'The Arguments are Academic' Rapport

Book reviews

• Weal (2004) Adolescence: Positive Approaches for working With Young People, in Young
• People Now, Issue No 240, p.21 Randall, Easton, Wickham and West (2003) Therapeutic Work with Sexually Abused Children. Sage.
• Banister and Huntington (2002) Communicating with Children and Adolescents, action for change, in Youth and Policy, the Journal of Critical Analysis, Issue No 80, p.72

Editorship

Youth and Policy, Associate Editor since 2004.

Contact details

E: janet.adams@beds.ac.uk
T: +44 (0)1582 743072