Are some people just born for this work? Is time on the job what it takes to eventually “get it”? Is there a role for higher education to prepare youth workers to resolve complex dilemmas of practice? (Ross, 2016, p.109)

I open this paper with an epigraph that captures my current questioning as I attempt to locate myself within the youth work profession. Like Ross (2016), I query whether certain individuals are naturally suited for youth work, if practical experience will enable me to become effective in the role, and whether higher education can prepare me for the complexities of practice. In this paper, I critically analyse and reflect on the development of my professional identity as a youth work ‘actitioner’, a term I use herein to capture my dual academic and practitioner identity. I also acknowledge the competing values within higher education, youth work practice, and my personal values aligned with youth work. While the academic literature across diverse disciplines offers various definitions of ‘professional identity’, there is broad agreement that it is shaped by both lived experience and the professional values one holds (Fitzpatrick and Queenan, 2020). In youth and community work, the defining of professional identity is further complicated by the de-professionalisation of the field, as youth work roles become increasingly standardised, regulated, and commodified (Dowling, 2020; Turner, 2024). This paper is structured as follows. I first outline my evolving identity as a youth work ‘actitioner’, discussing my use of this term over the typically used phrase ‘pracademic’. I then consider the tensions between neoliberal academia and youth work’s social justice values. Having deliberated the tensions and possibilities of being a youth work actitioner, I conclude by arguing for the importance of ongoing reflection to fully integrate my dual roles of academic and practitioner.

I graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Fashion Brand Management in 2011 and proceeded directly to study for a master’s degree in Marketing Management. Interestingly, for my master’s dissertation, I explored young people’s creation of spoofs and parodies on YouTube, with key themes explored being creativity and fun in the production of these digital artifacts. I was unaware at the time that ‘creativity and fun’ is a key youth work theme identified by the National Youth Agency (NYA, 2024). I then completed my doctorate in Environmental Sciences; my project explored how young people not in education, employment, or training, use community radio as a bridge to further education and employment (see Wilkinson, 2015). Again, whilst I was not aware then, this project aligns with the youth work themes of ‘skills development’ and ‘economic and financial wellbeing’ (NYA, 2024). After undertaking a postdoctoral research associate post, followed by a lectureship and senior lectureship, I am now a Reader in Childhood and Youth Studies at a post-1992 public research university which has a strong history of vocational and professional education. Previously (Wilkinson, 2020), I have described myself as an accidental academic, who has taken a haphazard and unintentional journey to becoming an interdisciplinary academic. Whilst my work over the last decade has traversed several disciplines, a commitment to social justice and empowerment of young people has been a continuous thread. In 2025, I assumed the role of Programme Leader for a new Youth Work Degree Apprenticeship beginning at my institution. I am currently undertaking a master’s degree in Youth Work and Community Development to gain subject knowledge of youth work, practical experience, and ultimately the Joint Negotiating Committee qualification required to lead the Youth Work Degree Apprenticeship. It is worth noting that I put myself forward for the role of Programme Leader, realising that some of my existing research experience with young people, as outlined above, connected with the NYA’s (2024) key youth work themes, values, and curriculum.

Considering the practice placements I will be undertaking and my active role as an academic, my professional identity may be conceptualised as a youth work pracademic. A pracademic is an individual who is both an academic and a practitioner in an area (Gormally, Howard and Seal, 2024). Youth work pracademics are most often university lecturers who have entered higher education with professional youth work experience and qualifications (Purcell, Cantali and Colville, 2024), as such the ‘prac’ precedes the ‘academic’. My experience differs in that my academic background, including the completion of my doctorate and an established publication record, has long preceded my work as a practitioner. I am, therefore, now arguably putting the ‘prac’ in pracademic. With this paper, I propose a new term, ‘actitioner’, to more accurately reflect the experiences of myself and others who enter academia before securing practice experience. The conceptualisation of an actitioner can usefully challenge the description of youth work pracademics by some authors as reluctant academics (see Gormally, Maquire and Seal, 2025), who are eager to emphasise their practice experience, but less driven to undertake doctorates, other research, and publishing. Central to the success of being a good actitioner will be my ability to ‘liquify boundaries’ (Gormally, Maquire and Seal, 2025) between theory and practice. By adopting a more fluid and flexible approach and enabling the free flow of ideas and methods between my roles, I can seamlessly integrate theory and practice. This will allow me to leverage my dual identity as an academic and a practitioner to foster deeper insights and more impactful outcomes, both for young people in the youth work settings I will engage with, and the youth work students I will teach.

Many youth workers refer to youth work as an “aspirational calling” (Colvin and White, 2022, p.125), with practitioners being drawn to the field due to an innate desire to support and empower young people. Others (e.g. Purcell, 2022; 2024) use the language of ‘professional love’ concerning youth work practice, stating that it embodies humility, hope and empathy. Meanwhile, Young (2006) talks about youth work as an ‘art’, referring to youth workers as possessing special skills in creating relationships with young people, and likening youth work to a craft. This idealisation of the profession in some literature I have engaged with has led me to experience feelings of imposter syndrome (Clance and Imes, 1978). Specifically, it has made me question whether my more practical, opportunistic, career-oriented entry into the field will undermine my legitimacy as a youth worker. I found it reassuring to read a reflection from Martin, a qualified youth worker in Noonan’s (2020) inquiry into youth worker’s perspectives on professional youth work. Martin refers to his presence in youth work settings as an “adult somebody”, recalling that it was only through becoming a youth worker that he understood what the role entails (See Noonan, 2020, p.95). To me, this idea of being an ‘adult somebody’ feels attainable, drawing on my professional experience as a researcher and lecturer working with young people as an ‘adult somebody’ in both roles, also aligning with the NYA’s (2024) Values of Youth Work A: ‘Work with young people and others’. This also connects to the epigraph with which I opened this paper, in which Ross (2016, p.109) questions whether practical experience is required to “get” youth work.  Whilst I have undertaken wider reading regarding skills and preparation for youth work practice (e.g. Sapin, 2013; Wood, Westwood and Thompson, 2014), I am reassured to read that much of the learning will be ‘on the job’, or as Dewey (1938) would describe it ‘experiential’, characterised by ‘trying’ and ‘undergoing’. Here it is helpful to consider Shor’s (1979) critical approach to teaching, referred to as ‘re-experiencing the ordinary’ (see also Ledwith, 2012). This approach recognises how familiar situations (common, routine aspects of life) can be examined in an unfamiliar way (from new, critical perspectives). Referred to by Shor (1979, p.123; p.93) as “looking at terrain I never saw before, through windows I never knew existed”, this can be an empowering process which enables the “re-perception of reality”. I have found myself re-experiencing the ordinary in relation to my own practical experience of researching with young people, considering key aspects of research such as consent, youth voice, participation, and empowerment, and how these translate to youth work. I can also see how this would be of value in my teaching practice, creating an inquiry-based learning environment for students and I, where together we are able to reflect on our everyday practice experiences in youth work settings and view this through different theories, resulting in collaborative learning.

Being a youth work actitioner, just like a youth work pracademic (Dickinson and Griffiths, 2023; Seal and Smith, 2019), brings both tensions and possibilities. Tensions exist as I will be delivering a Degree Apprenticeship in Youth Work, which by its very nature is rooted in informal learning (Williams and Richardson, 2024; NYA, 2024), within the constraints of a formal academic higher education environment (Purcell, Cantali and Colville, 2024). In considering the implications of this, I have found it useful to adopt a Freirean informed lens on youth work. Freire’s (1972) approach sees education as a transformative process built on purposeful relationships, with the key purpose of promoting non-formal and informal learning methods (Sapin, 2013), to provide opportunities for empowerment, critical thinking and social change. As youth work scholars (e.g. Gormally, Howard and Seal, 2024; Norris, 2024) have argued, whilst universities develop activities that may ostensibly be relationship-based and transformative, for instance those that promote equity, diversity and inclusion, widening participation, employability, knowledge exchange, and community-building, their priority in this market-driven environment remains student numbers. Thus, as a youth work actitioner, it is important to recognise that I am operating in a neoliberal higher education landscape that increasingly emphasises consumerism, competition, and conformity (Wilkinson, Silverio and Wilkinson, 2021), and therefore the values-base conflicts with the professional values of youth work, and my values, which are rooted in social justice, equity and empowerment (Cooper, 2018; Smith and Seal, 2021). Further, this seemingly goes against the youth work curriculum, which prioritises empowerment, participation, and equality, alongside education (NYA, 2024). While youth work and higher education can therefore appear at odds with one another, de St Croix (2018), with reference to neoliberal governance, has discussed how youth centres, just like universities, are economised, and their effectiveness is often evaluated in terms of measurable outcomes to the labour market.

Whilst similarities exist between the process of educating students and youth work (both promote learning and development), differences exist in relation to environment, relationships, and outcomes. This serves to remind me of the unique role that youth work plays in fostering holistic, non-formal learning experiences that prioritise empowerment, personal growth, and social justice (Metz, 2017), rather than academic achievement alone. This difference can be encapsulated in the pedagogical ideology of youth work as “being young together” (see Metz, 2017, p.7), emphasising the mutual relationships between young people and adults. This differs to the student-lecturer relationship in which I have observed power disparities. Shor (1979, p.109; p.113) refers to the “withering away of the teacher”, in relation to liberatory learning processes which promote “mutual effort” between student and lecturer and result in minimised power imbalances. Despite Shor (1979) writing forty-five years ago, power imbalances between student and lecturer remain in some classrooms and lecture theatres (Smith and Seal, 2021). Through critical pedagogy, I will promote the NYA’s (2024) values of youth work through the curriculum, for instance B2 ‘promote young people’s self-awareness, confidence and participation’. In line with Purcell, Cantali and Colville (2024), I hope that through delivering the Youth Work Degree Apprenticeship, in which youth work professional values, and my values aligned to these, will be embedded into my pedagogical practices and the curriculum content, I can deliver a transformative teaching and learning experience to the next generation of professionally qualified youth workers. My pedagogy would thus have the potential to “disrupt the reductionist values systems that have permeated the neo-liberal university” (Purcell, Cantali and Colville, 2024, p.177). As such, despite the tensions recounted in this paper, I remain optimistic about the contributions I can make in what Gormally, Howard and Seal (2024, p.120) refer to as a “grounded, responsive and meaningful career” as a youth work practitioner, or as I argue, actitioner.

In conclusion, my current professional identity as a youth work actitioner, a term I have used to foreground my established academic experience alongside my entry into practice, reflects my dual commitment to theory and practice. My evolving professional identity will continue to be shaped by the tensions between youth work practice, which values social justice, equity, and empowerment (Cooper, 2018; Smith and Seal, 2021), and neoliberal higher education, which prioritises conformity, competition, and consumerism (Wilkinson, Silverio and Wilkinson, 2021). The work of Gormally, Maquire and Seal (2025) has been instrumental in locating myself within the profession as a youth work actitioner, highlighting the importance of ‘liquifying boundaries’ between academic theory and the lived experiences of practice. As I have argued in this paper, through embedding youth work values and my own values in curriculum and pedagogy, I will be able to contribute to the development of transformative, values-based pedagogy (Purcell, Cantali and Colville, 2024). My journey towards becoming a fully integrated youth work actitioner involves continuous learning and critical self-reflection, but it also brings exciting possibilities for bridging the gap between research, pedagogy, and practice, whilst also challenging the conceptualisation (Gormally, Maquire and Seal, 2025) of youth work pracademics as reluctant academics.