Abstract
This paper strives to reveal what does nationality as the basic element constructing the national identity means to Lithuanian students attending Lithuanian schools in Lithuania, Poland and Belarus. Empirical qualitative research was conducted from the end of 2013 to the beginning of 2014 with ninth and tenth graders attending Lithuanian schools in Lithuania, Poland and Belarus. The research sample: Lithuania (12 ninth graders; 13 tenth graders); Poland (15 ninth graders; 14 tenth graders); Belarus (4 ninth graders; 5 tenth graders). Study instrument: an essay. Analyzing the study data, categories were distinguished in terms of the structural components of the identity (Herskovits, 1948; Huntington, 1996): 1) national heritage; 2) ethnocentrism; 3) cultural homogeneity; 4) belief structure. The research data reveals that Lithuanian students attending Lithuanian schools in Poland perceive their nationality as encompassing all four components of the national identity. The most explicit reference, as in the case of Lithuanian students attending schools in Lithuania, is to the category of the cultural homogeneity, which involves the most explicit expression of the involvement to the process of fostering the culture. However, in the Lithuanian group, nationality even triggers negative feelings and indifference. The results of qualitative research results in Lithuanian schools in Belarus show that students of these schools identify the state of being a Lithuanian with cultural homogeneity, when they can foster their mother tongue, traditions, customs. etc.; also the students see actual possibilities to associate their future with their homeland, which in this case is Lithuania. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n22p20
Highlights
Identification with nation is one of the most important phenomena in the society; it is realized as the fact when a person considers himself as a part of his nation, accepts and believes in its standard rules, the way of life and knows cultural, material and spiritual heritage
Empirical qualitative research conducted from the end of 2013 to the beginning of 2014 with ninth and tenth graders in Lithuanian schools in Lithuania, Poland and Belarus
The analysis of theoretical material presupposes that the notion of nationality does not have a unified notion to this day
Summary
Identification with nation is one of the most important phenomena in the society; it is realized as the fact when a person considers himself as a part of his nation, accepts and believes in its standard rules, the way of life and knows cultural, material and spiritual heritage. Personal identification with the national society in the global world becomes increasingly weaker and less significant because people who decide to disassociate from their nation seek to identify themselves with Europe or even with the entire world. Increasing migration, technologies and the progress of communities are reducing the world by bringing people to closer interaction with each other which would not have been possible a few decades ago
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