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עט השדה
2012
פברואר
Ⅲ
Professional Discourse
Initiating professional discourse among experts working with children and
youth at risk
Ashalim's Learning Center
Ashalim places great importance on promoting professional discourse as part of the overall
discussion about ways to develop study channels for professionals working with children and
youth at risk. The eighth issue of "Et HaSadeh" deals with the broader import of this professional
discourse development and consists of four sections: collegial discourse, a field diary, knowledge
management, and a reading corner.
In the
first section
we present you with
three different discussion tracks
. The first is a professional
response to an article in the risk-oriented health promotion field. The second section highlights
correspondence with Australian researchers about their article and community development
questions and the third involves a learning reading group ("
Hevruta
") debating on women's
entrepreneurship as a social mobility tool. The aim of these different types of discussion is to
jumpstart professional discourse, and to contribute to an atmosphere of mutual dialogue. The
proposed discussion is both interdisciplinary and inter-personal and takes place around topics and
issues connecting the workers' professional world to the world of children and youth at risk.
The discussion opens with an article by Vered Kaufman-Shriqui, Drora Fraser and others, which
contributes to the developing discussion on issues of holistic welfare and the quality of life. The
title of the article is, "Maternal weight misperceptions and smoking in relation to overweight
and obesity in preschoolers from poor socio-economic backgrounds" and analyzes the genetic,
environmental and familial causes of excessive weight in childhood. The study aimed to identify
risk factors – especially those one can change – related to excessive weight among preschool
children from low socio-economic backgrounds. This would serve as a platform for developing
intervention particularly for this age group.
We have added a response to this article by Dr. Bilha Bachrach, a lecturer in the School of Social
Work and Social Welfare at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and director of the "Nutrition
and Family" program. This is a program jointly developed by Ashalim and the Hebrew University's
School for Social Work and its School for Nutritional Sciences. The program works by training
students in the field and – in recent years – on a national level too, with the cooperation of the
Social Affairs and Health ministries. Dr. Bachrach's response represents an attempt to offer a bio-
psycho-social perspective on the research findings and to generate professional discussion with
the authors and readers while presenting another, refreshing and complementary point of view.
The second article, "Beyond Risk Factors: Towards a Holistic Prevention Paradigm for Children
and Young People,"
focuses on the paradigm shift developing in recent years in the field of at-risk
children and youth and in treating risk factors in particular. Accordingly, the crux of the article is
devoted to a new and developing conceptual holistic framework, one that does not allow the risk
factor paradigm to distract from the work and dominate the discourse. The systemwide "Pathways
for Prevention" program – operating in poor neighborhoods in Western Brisbane, Australia – is
mentioned as one of the most successful examples of prevention policy using the new approach.