Tapupa Critique

This article critique has been explored by following Tapupa’s principles of Transparency, Accuracy, Purposivity, Utility, Propriety, and Accessibility.

Transparency

The principle of transparency has been met in this article because the article acknowledges that knowledge generated is open to scrutiny. The research was more reactive than proactive to issues faced by young people. It was only conducted after being researched  that young people who leave mentoring care face challenges, such as lack of support, isolation, mental ill-health, and lack of more services to sustain them to adulthood (Clayden & Stein 2005, p.77). This implies that the research was trying to look for solutions to a problem, which had persisted for some time. It would be more appropriate to conduct timely research that could stop young people from undergoing such challenges.

Accuracy

The principle of accuracy has been met in this article since knowledge claims in the article are supported by sources, information, and experiences faithful to events. Moreover, it is worse when research is carried out, especially when many young people have experienced more challenging events, because it can make them more susceptible and lose focus in life. In this study, it was possible that many young people suffered or even lost faith in values derived from the mentoring process. However, involvement of specialist teams, voluntary organisations and local authorities in the whole process cannot be overlooked. Moreover, Prince’s Trust provided funds for recruitment, supervision and training of mentors. Even though, this research covered most of the issues concerning young people’s mentoring process and relationships with their mentors, and it failed to provide in-depth account for the long-term relationships, thus making it inaccurate, to some extent. The reason for this argument is that, the period covered was relatively short. This is because 6 months to 3 years and 2 to 4 years, for current and past mentoring relationships could not provide sufficient data and information for this analysis (Clayden & Stein 2005, p. 77). This kind of research ought to have taken more time approximately, five to ten years providing more time for observation and analysis. The reason for this is that relationships regarding the mentoring process could not be only analysed within a limited period.

Purposivity

The principle of purposivity has not been adequately met in the following article because the methods and approaches used do not refer to the task. The project could have provided one-on-one and volunteer types of mentoring, which were not sufficient because few young people could be served. The traditional adult and peer mentoring processes were not fully explored in this study. There are many young people who leave the mentoring care to join adulthood. Therefore, one-on-one type of mentoring cannot serve the increasingly high number of youths who graduate to adulthood.     

Utility

The principle of utility was not met in the article because there were varied boundaries on mentoring relationships, especially among mentors and personal advisors. However, the research failed to address solutions to these confusing relationships. It appeared just merely stating a problem rather than addressing to its cause and solution. The research should have acted as a guide to addressing challenges affecting young people, once they leave mentoring care.

Propriety

Following the principle of propriety, one can consider that it was not adequately met in this article because not every stakeholder was involved in the decision-making process. For example, if the Children Leaving Care Act 2000 had serious flaws, such as defined time limits, project leaders could have proposed the amendments. This would ensure the interests of young people are well taken care of, especially when they leave the mentoring care (Clayden & Stein 2005, p.77). Indeed, more positive results can be attained when young people are subjected to a longer mentoring process. It is also necessary to take into account ethnicity, skill and experience when matching young people with their mentors. Young people and their mentor’s meetings ought to be more frequent to achieve the desired results during this critical stage of transition of children to grown-ups.

Young people’s goals need to be given more attention during the mentoring processes. They are meant to be guided, but not compelled to pursue goals, which are not inline with their perceived future professions/careers. Therefore, consistency, training, accessibility and support are necessary to improve the relationships between the young people and their mentors.

Accessibility

The principle of accessibility was met in the article, since the research article presented information in such a way that it is easier for the knowledge seekers to understand it. According to the findings of this research, some young people who graduated from mentoring care could hardly recognise the impact of the mentoring process in their lives, especially before they left children’s homes or foster homes (Clayden & Stein 2005, p.79). In this regard, young people ought to be sensitised by creating more awareness on mentoring programmes, as a way of encouraging others to join such projects and gain from the same.

Critique of the Article, “Natural Mentoring and Psychosocial Outcomes among Older Youth Transitioning from Foster Care, Children and Youth Services Review 31 (2009) 104–111,” by Michelle R. Munson and J. Curtis McMillen

 This article explores a natural mentoring process, as well as psychosocial results among young people from foster care. Even though Michelle and Curtis have explored challenges facing young people, little attention have been put in place to facilitate the development of young people (Munson & Curtis 2009, p. 106). Such mentoring programmes are financed, especially in the US and the UK, but their effectiveness and benefit to young people still remains a major challenge (Munson & Curtis 2009, p.110). The expected framework seeks to establish a wide variety of criteria in which the eminence of evidence will be argued. These criteria are collectively referred to as TAPUPA.

Transparency

The process of knowledge production is open to outside inspection. This principle was met because the article used meta-analysis to evaluate the effectiveness of mentoring programmes. The analysis proved the effectiveness of mentoring programmes, especially on academic, social, behavioural, and emotional domains of youth’s development.

Accuracy

Entire knowledge rights must be reinforced by and be realistic to the events, informants, sources, and experiences used in their creation. This principle was not met, since this research was limited to mainly young people of 19 years old, but it should have covered an age group of 15-20 years to give a more representative sample (Munson & Curtis 2009, p. 104). Moreover, the research was mainly based on a sample size of 339, which represented the number of youths in foster care (Munson & Curtis 2009, p.104). A larger sample size would be appropriate to make it more representative and to minimise the degree of error.

Purposivity

The methods and approaches utilized are appropriate to the critique in hand and “fit for the purpose”. This principle was met because the study reported that hierarchical regression and simultaneous analyses proved mentoring and relationship duration, especially at the age of 18, when they were linked to better psychological results (Munson & Curtis 2009, p.109).

Utility

Knowledge is appropriate to decisions to be set, which is fit for use.  This research article failed to meet the principle of utility, because it used more complex statistical tools, such as hierarchical and simultaneous analyses, which could not be easily understood by many people. This made the research more complex, because its message failed to meet the research objective (Munson & Curtis 2009, p. 105). Fewer young people on the long-term natural relationships were arrested, especially those who were 19 years old (Munson & Curtis 2009, p. 110).

Propriety

Knowledge is managed and created legally and ethically with care to entire stakeholders. The principle of utility was not met because this research failed to ascertain the association between the long-term natural mentoring relationship and present employment, or alcohol/marijuana addiction.

Accessibility

Knowledge is obtained in various ways that meet the requirements of knowledge seekers. This principle was not met because, for example, essential database instruments lacked their properties that made use of meta-analytic methods, decided on the best assessment methods to be used in the study. Even though, Michelle and Curtis have explored challenges facing young people; little attention intervention strategies have been put in place to facilitate the development of youths. Focusing on the next research that is meant to examine the long-term natural mentoring among young people transcending from foster cares, database instruments should be involved to ensure the more refined study outcomes. There is also the proposal to expand this field of knowledge, since it is currently too small to accommodate such complex analytical procedures as have been used in the current research. In addition, the next research work should incorporate various life domains, such as mentors’ ethnicity or even cultural maintenance.

 In conclusion, the research overview measures have a strong correlation with the context of the studied problem. The goals of examining the effects of long-term natural mentoring process on young people have been met. The comparative study on the long-term natural mentoring process on young people was rather weak, since it failed to incorporate a unified system of assessment that can be built using database of instruments.  Besides, the research was done using the complex statistical analysis which failed to analyse simple mentoring processes. For instance, some measures of mentoring processes were specifically meant to analyse coping processes among young people from foster care, but they failed to incorporate assimilation and cultural aspects into this study.  Finally, this research failed to take into account the comparative long-term natural mentoring processes, but much emphasis was put on the relationship elements of this research.