This paper examines apraxis-focused pedagogical approach to professional formation in community work and youth work developed over four decades at the Department of Applied Social Studies, Maynooth University. The approach is rooted in collectivity, participation, and empowerment, and is based on Freirean and feminist analysis of social structures and embedded systemic discriminations including racism. It aims to develop critical praxis in students through an integrated curriculum grounded in theory and practice, a dialectic of classroom and fieldwork learning, interactive assessments, active student participation in their practice learning, mentoring from departmental staff and fieldwork supervisors. Taken together these elements model ‘pedagogy as praxis’.

Defining professional youth work and its activities presents a challenge for developing international consensus in the university level training and education of professional youth workers. This research is concerned with the question of ‘how youth work students in universities are educated and prepared for professional youth work practice, and, in particular, with diverse young people’. The article presents research examining the experiences of those undertaking the education and training of professional youth workers in universities located in five countries: Estonia, Croatia, Macedonia, Ireland and Australia. Educators from a university in each of the five participating countries completed a survey on the content and underpinning values of their course, and educators from each university participated in a focus group interview discussing their motivations to teach youth work, theoretical underpinnings, and pedagogical practices. The article finds that across the five national contexts there is broad agreement among the university youth work educators that youth work is a ‘social and critical pedagogic’ practice with a commitment to broad values of ‘social justice’ and ‘social inclusion’ for young people. However, the specific expression of these concepts differs depending on the national context, often influenced by historical and political events. The personal values, worldviews, and biographies of youth work educators play a role, both in the conception of themselves as educators, as well as their motivations and teaching practice. Educators also stressed the importance of youth work as a profession and distinct academic discipline, especially in the context of neoliberal pressures in universities that seek to conflate youth work with similar disciplines and areas of study.