Learning By Rhythms – A Compositional Inquiry with Foster Care Professionals

Foster care is a complex and temporary process in which many actors (children, social workers, birthparents, foster families, social and health agencies, court) are involved, interacting and learning by their explicit and implicit temporalities intertwined with systemic, social and cultural dimensions. Thus, the concept of rhythm has been used in this work to illuminate the complexity, composition and coordination of these embodied and simultaneous processes. From a pedagogical view, this research will investigate rhythm, as an analytical and practical category in foster care: how does it affect and is affected by foster care processes? These research questions are aimed at outlining a theory/model of rhythm in foster care processes, apt to inspire useful and innovative professional training for professionals in foster care.

A narrative, participatory and interpretative methodological framework guides the research. Semi-structured interviews with 18 researchers and professionals were used to explore their representations and the pertinence of the concept of rhythm in thinking about foster cares. A second study was based on a co-operative inquiry with 12 practitioners, aimed at illuminating the frames of meaning and implicit theories, as well as practical implications, regarding the temporal dimensions which may sustain, hinder or transform individual, relational and institutional rhythms.

A main line of reflection from the analysis of data concerns the presence of antagonistic, contradictory, and complementary rhythms in foster care. These rhythmic polarities sustain the recognition of complexity, the composition and the overcoming of the opposing dimensions, towards the coordination of temporal dimensions and their effects in foster care.