An Analytical Summary of Fast (2016)Manlin (Cathy) Zhang

The changing of educational policy caused by school violence happened not only in

Israel, but also in America, England, and Europe, previous research, however, failed to

present the explanation of affection that global policy diffusion has on local educational

policy formation result from raising of school violence. Fast (2016) inspects and analyzes the

procedure of educational policy formation through school violence to make people have a

deep understanding of educational policy formation process. Fast (2016) collected data from

the Parliamentary Education Committee and Tel Aviv University School of Educations

library database from the end of the 1980s till now which include governmental archives,

newspaper analysis, and analysis of studies and surveys. He also combined archives from

interviews to complete a policy development timeline. His research fills the gap in previous

literatures which describing the role of global policy in forming local policy and suggests

future studies focus more on comparing different countries educational policy formation

process and the adjustment between global and local mechanisms. This research relevant to

researchers in this field by providing a deeper understanding of educational policy formation

as well as giving a direction for further research. Authorities will realize the rise of school

violence and policy makers will pay more attention on the chain from policy formation to

dynamic school problems.

Focused Analysis of School violence

School violence is becoming a central problem on nowadays school campus in the world

and the educational policy is forming based on this situation. Fasts (2016) research also talks

a lot about school violence and its consequence to policy formation, so one of the important

key concept in this article is school violence.

The most commonly definition/ understanding of school violence is students fights on

campus, however there are other incidents of violence are regarded as school violence. Fast

(2016) confirms that there are different conceptions of school violence, but researchers

mostly are discussing instances of school break-ins and juvenile delinquency outside of

school rather than incidents of students attacking each other in this field which shape

educational policy. These three key terms are all used to describe school violence but they

focus on different aspects. The first is emphasizing the incidents of illegal infiltration which

are not caused by student but the intruder. The second, juvenile delinquency outside of school,

is caused by students but this unlawful action happens outside the school campus. The last

definition (key term) of school violence is incidents of students attacking each other. This

indicates the physical confliction among students. These three key terms give different scenes

and involved people of the violence. According to Fast (2016), the violence caused by

breaking-in intruders and incidents caused by outside school students are the main discussion

in article suggested by the language clue rather than.

Author use school violence within educational policies in Israel to restrict the scope

of his case studyIsrael. This key term clarify that the violence happens in Israeli school and

should be regulated under the educational policy. This key term, also, lead out another key

concept in this articleeducational policy formation.

Language Pattern AnalysisStance

Stance, from the basic meaning of a word, means attitude or position. In language pattern

analysis, stance shows authors standpoint towards information he/ she cites and it can be

identified through reporting verbs and signal words. Thus, citation, reporting verb, and signal

word are three important components of stance. Reporting verb reveals how strong authors

attitude is toward the citation (neutral versus stronger, and convinced versus unconvinced).

Citation is significant because it provides a comparison between authors position and

forwarded information and thus audience can confirm is authors attitude positive towards
citation or negative. Transition word is a common signal word in showing authors stance in

academic research. Mostly, signal word helps to tell positive/ negative position toward

citation, but sometimes signal word take the place of reporting verb to show authors

position. There are two examples in Fasts (2016) research article help to explain this

language pattern.

Fast (2016) cites Arums (2005) point of view like In another example, Arum (2005)

suggests that court rulings are an institutional mechanism that shapes changes over time in

how moral authority is pronounced and used in schools. Suggests in this integrated

paraphrasing is a reporting verb with a strong attitude. Fast (2016) has a convinced position

toward Arum (2005). However, it is not sure whether Fast (2016) has a positive position

about this quotation or negative. There is another language clue in this sentence in another

example. This phrase reveals that Arums (2005) arguments is used as an example to

support/ oppose to authors attitude and there should be other example and conclusion to find

out the answer.

Another stance example in Fasts (2016) is As Kupchik and colleagues (2014) observed,

the fact that school violence and punishment became a central policy issue in several

countries around the same time does not mean the treatment of these issues or the translation

of policy frameworks into laws and regulations was similar across different settings.

Observed is a neutral reporting verb and it simply points out who find the phenomenon. But

there is a clue to trace is it a positive attitude toward this forwarded or negative attitude. The

signal word as means same in this sentence reveals that author stands on the same position

with Kupchik and colleagues (2014). Thus, it can be predicted that observed serves a positive

role in showing authors stance toward this quotation.

After analyzing this language pattern, I realized that language, even a single word is

powerful. I can easily find out authors position through a word. Moreover, stance with
powerful words can make articles more concise than rigmarole statements. Positive attitude

toward forwarding information make argument more persuasive, whereas negative attitude

toward citation can draw readers attention. As a Public Policy student, I should read more

articles in this field and learn to use these powerful words in my academic writing and to

make my article more powerful in illuminating my attitude as well as more professional.

Pursuing a Line of Inquiry

Educational policy formation, as I mention before, is another key concept in this

article and it is lead out by increasing school violence. The formation process discussed in

this article draw my attention. Is all the educational policy formed through the same process?

If not, what is the formation process of virtual school policy? How the parties/ problems

involved in virtual schools (for example organizations, teachers qualification, and students

learning efficiency) influence the formation of virtual school policy? What is the school

violence in virtual school? What other elements/ factors influence this process? Is policy of

virtual school for K-12 differ with policy of virtual school for higher education? How and

why?

Reference

Arum, R. (2005). Judging School Discipline. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Fast, I. (2016). Understanding educational policy formation: the case of school violence

policies in Israel. SAGE Journals. 89 (1). 59-78. Retrieved from

http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0038040715615923

Kupchik, A., David A. G., & Thomas J. M. (2014). School punishment in the US and

England: divergent frames and responses. Youth Justice. 15 (1). 3-22