Role
Senior Lecturer in the School of Social Sciences, Department of Social Work, Care & Community. Course Leader for the Masters in Youth Work Leadership and Practice (MAYW) degree. Teaching modules across the Youth Portfolio.
Ian is also an active member of several internal groups including the Practice & External Engagement Committee (PEEC) as Project Lead for the School Partnerships Project (SPP) and Knowledge Exchange Departmental Lead.
Previously a Knowledge Exchange Seed Funding Panel member (2024-25); Clifton Project Departmental Rep - Community Identity Workstream (2024-25); a staff representative on the School Employability Working Group (2022-2025) and School Research Ethics Committee (SREC) 2020-2022. Led the coordination and facilitation of the Youth Professional Practitioners Network (YPPN) (2022-25).
Ian can offer Consultancy Work & Commercial Activity as a Practice Consultant/Educator & External Mentor. Services include professional advice, guidance and consultancy with individuals, teams, and/or organisations working with children and young people.
Career overview
‘Strong partnerships need strong relationships’ - enabling partnerships to be formed on trust, connectedness, sense of ownership and mutual benefit for all.
Drawing from 30 years practice experience of working with children, young people and families in the statutory, third and charity sectors. Connecting practice with 13 yrs academic expertise in enabling synergy through the role of ‘pracademic’. Developed a range of partnerships based on a value driven motivation for a shared sense of achievement.
Currently a Director of PALYCW-Professional Association of Lecturers in Youth & Community Work TAG:PALYCW (tagpalycw.org).
Research interests include child welfare, kinship foster care, therapeutic practice models for working with children, social pedagogy, informal pedagogy, and the notion of the ‘pracademic’ in teaching.
PhD research study focusing upon contemporary child welfare practice in England drawing upon the notion of Social Pedagogy as a possible conceptually based approach for practice and improved outcomes for children and young people.
"‘Are children's welfare needs, especially those in crisis, being fully met?' A phenomenological mixed-methods exploratory study of the ‘Children's Workforce’ consideration of social pedagogy."
Research areas
I am interested in a range of social justice areas including children, young people and families. Key themes of interest include:
- Informal / Social Education Pedagogies
- Social Pedagogy
- Practitioner Research Methodologies
- Kinship Foster Care
- The 'Pracademic' in HE Teaching.
Current Research Study:
"‘Are children's welfare needs, especially those in crisis, being fully met?'. A phenomenological mixed-methods exploratory study of the ‘Children's Workforce’ consideration of social pedagogy."
Other/Exploring:
- how 'social pedagogy' can transcend across professional and personal domains.
- the notion of the 'pracademic' within the HE teaching environment.
- the lived experiences of 'kinship carers' via the lens of the current policy landscape. Upcoming research exploring the needs of Kinship Carers in utilising Oral Histories with Associate Professor Verusca Calabria to enable future generations the voices of today.
Research expertise:
- Society, communities and social policy
- Education, learning and pedagogy
- Groups, identities and health
Member of:
External activity
Practice Consultant/Educator & External Mentor: Offering professional advice, guidance and consultancy with individuals/teams/organisations working with children and young people.
Director (Trustee) of the Professional Association of Lecturers in Youth & Community Work (PALYCW) TAG:PALYCW (tagpalycw.org)
External Examiner: University of Bradford – BA (hons) Working with Children, Young People & Families (until 2026)
Reviewer for several journals.
Publications
Keynote
International Parent Centred Network Conference; 'Compassion in practice: humility in parent-centred working'; 20th - 24th April 2026; Nottingham Trent University. Keynote speech titled - Seeing suffering, shaping support: compassion at the heart of parent-centred working. Insights from the perspective of being an expert by lived experience. Taking delegates into the multi-faceted world of parenthood; ‘grandparenthood’; kinship foster carer; service user; and academic where compassion can make all the difference.
Articles and chapters
Jones, I. (2025). An Option or Necessity: Can the ‘Informal’ and ‘Formal’ Co-Exist Within Higher Education? Youth, 5(1), 5. https://doi.org/10.3390/youth5010005
Book Chapter (9): Jones, I (2025) Men's Experiences of Grief Across Dual Emotional Domains IN Jones, K and Robb, M. (Eds.) (2025) Men and Loss: New Perspectives on Bereavement, Grief and Masculinity. Oxon: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003333999
Jones, I.D,; Brady, G. (2022) Informal Education Pedagogy Transcendence from the ‘Academy’ to Society in the Current and Post COVID Environment. IN Alldred, P & Howard, F (Eds.) Education Sciences, Educating Informal Educators (Special Issue Print). Link to Book Chapter: https://doi.org/10.3390/books978-3-0365-4222-5
Jones, I.D,; Brady, G. (2022) Informal Education Pedagogy Transcendence from the ‘Academy’ to Society in the Current and Post COVID Environment. International Journal of Education Sciences. Special Issue, Educating Informal Educators, 12, 37. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci12010037
Jones, I. (2021) The Journey So Far: The Pandemic, Life-changes, and what happened to my Haltung? Social Pedagogy Development Network (SPDN) Webinar. Exploring Social Pedagogy Concepts during Turbulent Times. Presenting auto-biographical case study of Academic and Kinship Carer role in the pandemic.
Previous Publications
Jones, I. (2019) What does social pedagogy mean to to you? Social Pedagogy Professional Association (SPPA) Annual Conference. Workshop delivery - bringing together stakeholders, trainers, researchers, organizations and those interested in the notion of social pedagogy and its uses. Lincoln.
Jones, I. (2019) Children's Workforce understanding of Social Pedagogy in England - an exploratory study. Research Poster Presentation - Postgraduate Research Society Conference. Leeds Beckett University.
Jones, I. (2018) Comparative Analysis of Research Fields and Designs. University Centre - Bradford College Symposium.
Jones, I. and Rodgers-Gray, T. (2016) The Faculty Research Centre, 'REFLECT' and the key themes of social pedagogy, safeguarding and comparative practice through international collaboration. "The Bradford College Spring Colloquium - Exploring the Bradford Context". Conference in sharing and celebrating the scholarship and research portfolio of the faculty as 'teacher-scholars'; and showing our role as contributors to the social, economic and cultural life of people and communities locally, regionally, nationally and internationally.
Jones, I. (2016) Social Pedagogy, Youth and Social Transformations, a UK context. International Conference on Social Pedagogy: To explore the theoretical concept of social pedagogy, comparative practice and border pedagogy from a UK perspective. Abstract and full paper published in E-Book. University of Girona, Spain.
Jones, I. (2016) Social Pedagogy, Comparative Practice and Border Pedagogy. Children and Young People in a Changing World: Action and Participation. Liverpool Hope University.
Jones, I and Koral, N. (2015) Questioning Teaching and Learning in Youth and Community Work, New Communities of Practice - where should the craft of youth work fit? 'Questioning Paradigms in Youth and Community Work – Imagining a Different Future', Annual Conference: Education Otherwise – Creating Communities of Practice. Professional Association of Lecturers in Youth and Community Work.
Jones, I and Roders-Gray, T. (2015) Recognising Heterogeneity and its Impact. University Centre - Bradford College. The findings of the three scholarly activities in relation to ‘Internationalisation: Comparative Practice in Social Care, Scandinavia and the UK.’
Jones, I. (2015) The Future Challenges both in NGO, Youth Work and Cultural Management, to try to find answers to the current and future questions. 'Future in Our Hands’ Humak University of Applied Sciences, Finland.
Press expertise
Youth Work Methodology (Principles & Practice) and Youth Policy
Learning Pedagogies (Informal/Non-Formal Education, Social Education, Community Development)
Child Welfare Practice, Kinship Foster Care
Social Pedagogy (Across the Lifespan)
Research related to the UN Sustainable Development Goals
Research aiming to contribute towards to the UN Sustainable Development Goals 1, 4 & 16.
