In What Way Do Educational Policies Impact on Young People - Research Paper Example

Impacts of Policies on Young People Student’s Name Institution Impacts of Policies on Young People Introduction Many types of research done leave little doubt that policies help in shaping young people’s futures and creating a favorable environment both at school and at home. Though they have a few downfalls, their presence play a significant role in creating a platform that treats all children equally thus smoothening the activities they undergo in different stages of learning and growing. Policies play various parts especially in mentoring children and the youth so as to give them a positive approach to things in life. The following findings provide enough evidence on the impact of policies on young people, especially regarding learning and other different life experiences. Early childhood development regarding education and mentoring requires guidelines and regulations as lack of proper guidance lead to negativity during growth and ends up producing nonproductive adults who have an adverse effect on the society in the long run. Different interviews and other methods of data collection help bring to critical light factors in this research. Many young people based policies focus on the wellbeing and resilience and the key factors that influence this two components (Ball Maguire & Hoskins 2012). Provision of positive and supportive learning environments help foster and enhance the connection between young people and their mentors and also creates the sense of belonging to education institutions and the society in whole. A set of standards helps motivate a child in improving on the areas required and though this impacts a lot of pressure on the young person, the end results justify the means. Terminologies Policies-it’s a course of action, a principle or regulation introduced by the government or any other body in a particular area. Coping-includes the cognitive and behavior based efforts made to help manage the demands of school institution and the society that are challenging and exceed the resource capability of the person. Bullying-this occurs mostly to teenagers and children. It’s a form of aggressive behavior in which one party seeks to hurt and intimidate another party which is the target. Cyber bulling-it’s a new form of bullying that carried out through social network sites thus limiting the freedom of a person in accessing the internet and ends up making a person feel unwanted in the society. Help seeking- This is a way of asking for assistance regarding advice, finance, and information so as to solve a stressing situation. The reliance describes it on other parties, and thus it encompasses social relationships and communication skills. Behavior management approaches-this are practices that emphasize on prevention and avoidance of adverse situations and focus more on the development of values and expertise that help in creating positive behaviors in young people instead of punishing of illegal acts. Resilience-ability to make a comeback after facing adverse events and challenges and to achieve the previous level of wellbeing. It’s also the ability to cope with certain stressful situations and to survive them till the end. School connectedness- it’s the feeling of belonging to the academic community and the sense that everybody cares about each other’s well-being thus everyone feels safe around the school compound. Assessments-this are tests given in schools to children so as to test their knowledge in a particular area of discussion and most of the times they help in determining whether a child will advance to the next level of learning. Analytical Methods Data collection was also done through a collection of information from focus groups and individual interview conducted on some school going children. Questions asked revolved around the understanding of day to day lifestyles of these children thus helping determine how comfortable they were in the current situations of their lives. The children’s experience varied in some ways, but they also shared some characters and emotions like fear and anxiety which were brought about by different factors like examinations. The analysis was also carried out on children and institutions especially those between stage two and stage four in the education system and thus helped show the impact of policies in pursuance of education by young people. An example of the analysis used to collect is the hierarchical linear modeling which is mostly applied in accessing how tobacco policies are related to the use of tobacco by students (Coppo Galanti & Faggiano 2014). Data collection through research on four case studies involving four schools helped in exploring the pressures children face so as to deliver in respect to GCSE performance. Key sectors of this quantitative and qualitative practices include checking the performance pressure, rules and policies governing school bodies, the reaction on young people to different policies and the freedom of decision making among these young people (Ruspini 2016). Data sources include journals and past researches on similar topics, and their findings help us make a comparison of how things change during a given period. Change is classified in the development of new policies aspect and enables us to know the effects of such policies Findings It is clear that policies affect young people in different ways. The introduction of many rules and regulation in all sectors of this children lives govern their freedom of exploring what they like and also create pressure on them due to the raised standards which create a hurdle in their day to day lives at times. Education policies affect young people in a big sale as they stop being viewed in a caring matter and what is important to the government and schools is the grades they acquire after each assessment task. Thus, it leads to categorization and fear of this creates pressure among these young people about how they pass and treatments that get accorded to them according to their level of intelligence. An example of such a policy is education policy commitments and preoccupations of the new labor government that raised the standards in schools performances specifically performances related to assessments i.e. the standard assessment testing and general certificate of secondary education. The problem with building standards is that most children may not adapt to the new set of rules, but this is clearly not considered when developing such policies. Different bodies have addressed this issue but have not come up with any solutions on how to solve it yet. Raising of standard varies differently on its effects on young people. For some, it’s a challenge they take so as to prove themselves and to others, it’s a struggle as they don’t have the ability to attain the level these standards are set due to different circumstances. The specific policies divide the roles and aim at ensuring that learning institutions deliver excellent education thus helping all children achieve potential though it’s determined through performances only. The standards of this policies are questionable at times as the systems create different pressures which affect all bodies involved in the learning system i.e. from the secretaries of state to the school and home environment. It is very clear that children end up facing pressure from all directions and this is harmful to their productivity and the way they live their life. Pressure from different bodies i.e. learning institutions, parents and guardians, and even the society set expectations which at times become hard to achieve, and this affects young people negatively. Cases of school dropouts and lack of adherence to rules are increasing as young people refuse to be shaped by education alone whereas other activities like interests, talents and the choices they want are not addressed (Reay & William 1999). Additionally, the sets of standards introduced by the government make social problems seem controllable and end up alienating the roles and functions of schools and their teachers by limiting the services they offer the students. These pressures work differently in public schools than in private schools. Private schools tend to be more successful thus making the pressure less intense, but at the end, it’s clear that no one can escape the expectations of performance in most schools. In the end, it's clear that setting of high standards is not the right way of improving performance. Rather, focusing on the young people and their surroundings make them focused on different things including performance and achievements. Policies on school uniforms help maintain an equal status among all children as it makes them relate to each other. The provision of different policies on uniforms according to the level of learning is important in differentiating what stage of learning the person is in currently.An example is the size of skirts, colors, and type of clothes stated in policies and their adoption by the school and students. So as To show positivity in this matter, it’s important to show appreciation to students regarding how they dress. Many policies stop focusing on adding value and rather concentrate on setting different metrics of performance appraisal. Thus, the presence of a value-added system goes down and things like talent, abilities gets reduced, and judgment gets encompassed by the capacity of young people to achieve and improve. Having a common language is important to create an atmosphere of understanding in the school fraternity (Nunan 2003). The setting of targets in schools especially the ones that govern the performance of the teacher on how their students perform are okay. Different bodies should ensure that they meet their targets so as to advance to the next level. Rewarding is appropriate as it shows the input appreciation of the work done. Training is vital so as to provide the required skills set to teams on the application of different policies in learning institutions. The setting of goals creates the urge for a person to improve on his or her area of expertise thus help in target achievement. Uniform policies also help uphold discipline. Skirts should be of Conclusion All stakeholders play a significant role in determining how policies impact children. Different systems have different implications, and if the impact is negative, the policy requires reviewing by the lawmakers to make it adaptable to different settings. The best way to ensure such systems work is by rewarding proper implementation. If a child passes and gets a reward for the achievement, this will create a challenge for the other kids thus creating a positive attitude in the long run. For teachers and other mentors, bonuses show appreciation and recognition of effort and thus makes them increase their productivity in mentoring and molding young people. Behavior management is vital as it helps keep a check on all the involved bodies in the way they conduct their work and the most important aspect of this is where it helps maintain discipline among young people and recognize which need counseling and mentoring (Shier, Méndez & González 2014). Nonetheless, policies shouldn’t encompass performance appraisal alone but should also explore in other areas of growing up related to young people. Some aspects of peer pressure, bullying, drug abuse and school dropouts arise due to the lack of concern from parents and learning institutions as more concentration is out on education than on the well-being of these kids.As a conclusion, it's important to have policies, but they should be tailored to create a productive environment for the people. References Ball, S., Maguire, M., Braun, A., Perryman, J., & Hoskins, K. (2012). Assessment technologies in schools:‘Deliverology’ and the ‘play of dominations.' Research Papers in Education, 27(5), 513-533. Coppo, A., Galanti, M. R., Giordano, L., Bremberg, S., & Faggiano, F. (2014). School guidelines for averting smoking among young people. The Cochrane Library Nunan, D. (2003). The effect of English as a globalized language on educational policies and practices in the Asia‐Pacific region. TESOL Quarterly, 37(4), 589-613. Ruspini, E. (2016). A new youth? Young people, generations and family life. Routledge. Reay, D., & William, D. (1999). ’I’ll be a nothing’: Structure, agency and the construction of identity through assessment. British educational research journal, 25(3), 343-354. Shier, H., Méndez, M. H., Centeno, M., Arróliga, I., & González, M. (2014). How young people influence policy‐makers: Lessons from Nicaragua. Children & Society, 28(1), 1-14. Read More