Learning by rhythms: A compositional inquiry with foster & Residential care professionals

Foster care is a temporary process in which many actors (children, professionals, 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 to illuminate the complexity of these embodied and simultaneous processes. From a social 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 to inspire useful and innovative 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 of the concept of rhythm in foster care. A second study was based on a co-operative inquiry with 12 practitioners, aimed at illuminating the theoretical and practical implications regarding individual, relational, and institutional rhythms. A main line of reflection from the analysis of data concerns the presence of contradictory and complementary rhythms in foster care. These rhythmic polarities sustain the composition of the opposing dimensions, towards the coordination of temporal dimensions and their effects in foster care.