Questions

Questions

1.     Are young people a homogenous group?

No, I don’t believe that young people are a homogenous group however there is a constant debate around what being a young person actually means and people are always trying to put a definition on it (Bruce, 2015, p. 68).  Young people are not homogenous but rather just like any age group, young people are human beings learning to adjust to a new stage in their life and should be treated as individuals who may in fact be competently handling immense burdens, facing stressful decisions and trying to figure out how to handle it all.  There are certainly common themes that young people face while developing into an adult such as puberty (Chua & Chang, 2015, p. 190).  However, the circumstances of how upbringing, their cultural background and even life experiences both positive and negative will have implications of the way in which a person behaves at any stage of their life. (152 Words)

2.     How do other populations view young people?

Bruce (2015) explains that public sentiment characterizes adolescence as a time to be feared, with adults often describing teenagers in negative terms or as an undesirable condition (p. 68).  Media also contributes to the cultural construction of adolescence, as can be seen in the examples of this assignment through stereotypical portrayals of teenagers.  More often than not negative descriptors of young people seem to fill general societal view and even from young people themselves as they had been treated in demeaning ways because they were a young person and therefore they should be the way in which society constructs them (Bruce, 2015, p. 68).  An example of this is that in today’s society there is much talk about young people’s apparent addiction to social media.  Research shows that social media has become a large part of western culture with it being used as a means by which to stay connected with people in an increasingly busy world (Hornsby, 2015).  The specific worrying concern from older generations is that teens are unable to interact in a positive way socially and therefore a stereotype is formed, and this is a common theme from older generations about young people today.  (197 Words)

3.     What are the implications of diversity for teaching and working with young people?

Wilson and Alloway (2013) explain that with closing the gap mantras in education policy in Australia as well as a focus on improving literacy and numeracy outcomes for indigenous students some areas of education have lost engagement from students (p. 195).  There is now a move to integrate a diverse curriculum content with indigenous perspectives with cross curricula priorities and culturally affirming pedagogies however there is only a small body of work to conceptualise a pedagogical approach to ‘non-mainstream’ Australians (Wilson & Alloway, 2013, p. 196).  Educators these days need to be aware of the many factors that make up a young person which includes their many differing cultural backgrounds as well as how technology is impacting upon the way in which they learn.  Hornsby (2015) explains that educators should shift their thought from assuming teenagers are addicted to their devices to understanding their desire to socialise in this way (p. 58).  One of the most frequent advice to come from literature these days includes the fact that educators need to educate young people on safe online behaviour and to disseminate between the endless information that is now available to them at a fingers touch. (195 Words)