Civic Attitudes Research Articles

Service and Learning at a Residential Parenting Program for Incarcerated Mothers: Speech-Language Pathology Student Outcomes and Maternal Perspectives.

Purpose This article reports preliminary outcomes from a service-learning (SL) experience for graduate students in the Speech-Language Pathology program with incarcerated mothers who reside with their infants at a residential parenting program. We present an ecological model to serve as a framework for interpreting the impact of the experience on student learning and maternal perceptions. Method Graduate speech-language pathology students (total n = 30) participated in an SL project, called the Partnership for Healthy Parenting. With faculty guidance, students implemented parent education and child development workshops designed to foster secure attachment relationships, enhance the quality of mother-child interactions, and promote communication and language development. Students completed self-report scales measuring civic attitudes and self-efficacy before participating; they also provided written reflections about their experience that were analyzed qualitatively. Mothers completed voluntary feedback surveys after each workshop. Results Student reflections revealed a variety of perceived positive learning outcomes related to personal attitudes and beliefs about their role as a clinician, family-centered practices in early intervention, and knowledge about the population of interest. Feedback surveys administered to mothers who attended the workshops indicated satisfaction relating to the value of the services provided. Conclusions SL programs may benefit students, faculty, communities, higher education institutions, and the relationships among all these stakeholders. Results, limitations, and implications for strengthening university-community collaborations in the field of communication disorders are discussed.

Indonesian civic engagement among college students

ABSTRACTThis paper aims to analyze the overall picture of Indonesian civic engagement, particularly among Palangka Raya university students. Through a quantitative approach and survey method, the population and sample of the research include the students who were on their fourth (2015/2016) and second (2016/2017) semester about 2,422 students. The answers were then divided into three categories: good, moderate, and poor. As for the civic attitude and civic behavior variables, the maximum value is 5 and the minimum 1, and then the answers were divided into five categories: very high, high, moderate, low and very low. Findings reveal (i) the similarity of civic engagement in each faculty and level of the students who are on their fourth and second semester is in moderate category in terms of their knowledge based on identifying the governmental process, rights, and duties of citizens in terms of laws and politics, as well as the lecturers; (ii) the similarity of the high category of their attitude based on the values of humanity, empathy, openness, tolerance, ethics, and social responsibility; (iii) the difference of civic engagement between the second semester students who are low and the fourth semester who are high in terms of their behavior is determined by learning experience where the fourth semester students are more experienced in coping with the problems in community than the second semester counterparts. Recommendation for future research is the exploration of the reason behind the emerging unsynchronized results between the Indonesian civic knowledge, attitude, and behavior.

Nursing students' knowledge and attitudes of blood donation: A multicentre study.

To investigate factors involved in the blood donation (BD) in a population of Italian nursing students (NSs). Young people are still numerically limited among potential blood donors. Recent research on this topic has underlined the need to promote recruitment programmes and focused advertising campaigns to specific targeted population. Cross-sectional study. The STROBE checklist was used to grant adequate and complete reporting of research. The study was carried out in five Italian Universities, and a structured, 22-item questionnaire was distributed to 532 NSs (mean age=24.64, SD=7.41, min=19; max=55; population, female=80.8% of total) to explore propensity, obstacles, knowledge of BD and to assess associations between variables. Descriptive (frequency, mean and SD) and inferential (χ2 ) statistics were conducted. The overall level of knowledge among NSs donors is high, when compared with non-donors (p<0.05); the propensity for donation is acceptable (34.8% of the total are donors; mean=3.17 donation). The obstacles perceived by participants are "practical" (20% and 22.8% think they do not have enough time to donate or are unsuitable because of lifestyle reasons; respectively). A relevant aspect regards the NSs' perceived role as future healthcare professionals to be responsible to educate and influence potential donors (81.5%). Specifically tailored BD campaigning should be implemented to sensitise University students. NSs could become effective motivators among students of different Universities or faculties. Thanks to their role and capability to put themselves in the peer group. NSs could contribute to the promotion of this selfless practice and to the development of a mature, responsible civic attitude. Nursing educators should play a pivotal role in developing teaching methods to promote BD among NSs.

Service Participation among Adolescents in Mainland China

Service participation plays a critical role in adolescent development. To explore the characteristics of Chinese adolescents’ service participation, a national survey (N = 6161 adolescents) was conducted in mainland China. Findings indicated that: (i) Chinese adolescents mostly participated in routine service activities within school, and the quality of their service experiences was relative low; (ii) adolescents’ service experiences varied across different districts, school types, and family structures; and (iii) the intensity, breadth, and type of service participation and service quality significantly predicted adolescents’ civic attitudes and intention for future service. Moreover, service quality moderated the association between service types or breadth and adolescent outcomes. Future longitudinal research is needed to further examine the association between adolescents’ service participation and developmental outcomes.

Non-cognitive civic outcomes: How can education contribute? European evidence from the ICCS 2016 study

This article explores the diverse associations between different educational approaches in civic and citizenship education and a number of civic attitudes and behaviours, including citizenship, expected participation and attitudes towards equal rights, among teenage students in 13 European countries. The results obtained using the 2016 International Civic and Citizenship Survey (ICCS) show that all three educational approaches identified (formal civic learning, school democracy and active community involvement) are related to what students think and how they feel about civic and citizenship issues, although the role of each approach varies considerably across the different civic attitudes and behaviours. Furthermore, students’ civic and citizenship knowledge shows somewhat controversial associations with the various attitudes and behaviours discussed here, while civic self-efficacy is consistently positively related to them.

CIVIC ENGAGEMENT AT THE CROSSROADS OF ONLINE AND OFFLINE SPACES: A PLS-SEM ASSESSMENT

This study addresses citizen implication in societal issues, and analysis it at the crossroads of online and offline spaces. It draws on previous literature to advance a research model which differentiates between online and offline forms of civic engagement, and tests their relationships with people's attitudes and behaviors. Results show that both attitudes and behaviors are influenced by offline and online engagement, pointing out the driving role of the online side in forming civic attitudes, and the powerful direct effect exerted by the offline side on civic behavior. The research findings explain attitudinal and behavioral outcomes of online and offline civic engagement. Indicating that people become more involved in civic issues due to the digital evolution, the study extends prior literature and proposes an inclusive framework for understanding online and offline civic engagement, from a theoretical, instrumental, and empirical point of view. Additionally, the paper offers an up-dated scale for measuring the online civic engagement, by adding a 6th item (crowdfunding) into existent scale.

РОЛЬ СОЦІАЛЬНИХ ПЕДАГОГІВ У ПАТРІОТИЧНОМУ ВИХОВАННІ ДІТЕЙ ТА МОЛОДІ

The actual problem of patriotic upbringing of children and youth, the formation of their national consciousness and civic attitudes discussed in the article. The special role of patriotic education in the formation of a young person as a citizen is highlighted. The patriotic upbringing in the context of modern socio-pedagogical realities is considered. The crisis situation of the socio-political conditions of the young generation's existence is emphasized. In modern conditions, the growing role of social pedagogues in the patriotic education of children and youth is noted. The main tasks of social work in this direction, requirements to professional qualities of social pedagogues are defined. The main technologies of social work that can be applied in forming patriotism of children and youth are characterized. The content of social work technologies with families who have suffered from military aggression is revealed. In the article, social work is considered as a significant means of forming patriotism not only children, the younger generation, but also their families. The expediency of development of optimal directions of social and pedagogical activity in patriotic education of children and youth of Ukraine is substantiated. In order to organize the patriotic education of students in educational institutions, recommendations were given to social educators. Summarized the importance of social pedagogue function in cooperation with all participants in the process of patriotic education of children and younger generation. The necessity of state support in this direction is emphasized not only educational establishments, social institutions, social institutions, medical, legal institutions, public organizations, but also necessarily all those who wish to this process. The further research will be focused on the multidimensional activities of social educators for the formation of new young patriots generations to defend the future independence and prosperity of Ukraine.

ETHICAL COMPOSITION OF THE SOCIAL MISSION OF THE UNIVERSITY

ETHICAL COMPOSITION OF THE SOCIAL MISSION OF THE UNIVERSITY

Service Involvement and Civic Attitudes of University Alumni: Later Correlates of Required Public Service Participation during College

Service Involvement and Civic Attitudes of University Alumni: Later Correlates of Required Public Service Participation during College

Civic Engagement: A Physician's Perspective

Abstract Deep currents of cultural change are having an effect on the medical profession, beginning with gradual decreases in membership numbers in county, state, and national organizations that influence education, training, policy making in the health care sector, and political lobbying, and with gradual increases in membership numbers in specialty organizations that provide educational materials and meeting venues for physicians to remain current in their specialties and to develop and maintain professional relationships. Concurrent with the demographic changes, medical professionalism has become a growing movement to organize accepted professional behaviors into ten commitments, two of which, improving access to care and just distribution of finite resources, are consistent with Russell L. Gruen's concept of civic mindedness. There are also increasing numbers of physician-activists who are emphasizing the need for greater civic engagement. Medical institutions have the opportunity to build on these commitments to inculcate strong social skills and civic attitudes and behaviors at all levels of education, training, and medical practice for the betterment of patients and for the greater public health of the community and the country.

The development of Hong Kong students’ civic attitudes under Chinese sovereignty

PurposeThe recent mobilization of many Hong Kong youth to engage in what are regarded as radical political activities is not a new area of investigation. Much has been discussed about this growing political activism and localism often giving an impression that Hong Kong youth are radical and disengaged from China as a nation. Yet little is known about the possible antecedents of such disengagement. The purpose of this paper is to identify whether there is empirical evidence of growth or decline in civic trust and national attitudes amongst Hong Kong young adolescents over the ten-year period from 1999 to 2009.Design/methodology/approachIn this study latent profile analyses were used to classify cohorts of Hong Kong secondary students according to the levels of their self-reported trust in civic institutions and attitudes toward the nation. The cohorts were separated by a ten-year gap. Comparisons were made across groups and across the ten-year time span, in order to trace changes in civic attitudes of young adolescents following the return of Hong Kong to China in 1997.FindingsThree distinct groups were identified in both cohorts – Activists, who had negative attitudes to trust and toward the nation, Nationalists who had positive attitudes toward trust and the nation and Moderates who endorsed average responses to the, two variables. The gaps between the groups tended to be greater in the 2009 group compared to the 1999 groups suggesting greater polarization amongst adolescents on these measures.Originality/valueYoung adolescents cannot be assumed to be politically neutral or lacking social values. Citizenship education needs to take this into account so that values can be clarified and major issues can be discussed in a safe and supportive environment.

Book review of: Klaudia Śledzińska (ed.). Responsibility – Participation - Conscious Citizenship – The Dilemmas of Global Education. Warszawskie Wydawnictwo Sociologiczne. Warszawa 2017.

Book review of: Klaudia Śledzińska (ed.). Responsibility – Participation - Conscious Citizenship – The Dilemmas of Global Education. Warszawskie Wydawnictwo Sociologiczne. Warszawa 2017.

A meaner, more callous digital world for youth? The relationship between violent digital games, motivation, bullying, and civic behavior among children.

The relationship between violent digital games and youth behavior remains contested in the scholarly literature. To date considerable scholarship has focused on university students with fewer studies of adolescents or children. The current study examines correlational relationships between violent game exposure and bullying behaviors, antisocial attitudes, civic attitudes and civic behaviors in a sample of 304 children from the United Kingdom (Mean age = 12.81). The paper also considered motivational influences on use of violent digital games. Results indicated that violent game exposure did not correlate meaningfully with either antisocial or civic behaviors or attitudes. These results are discussed in a motivational and developmental context.

The impact of economic crisis on civic attitudes

PurposeIn times of crisis, the deterioration of living standards may also have direct consequences on civic culture of people and become dangerous for the health of democracy. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the extent to which the recent economic crisis directly influences the civic attitudes in some European democracies focusing on two questions: how much does crisis exposure affect civic attitudes? And what is the role played by expected social mobility on this effect?Design/methodology/approachHypotheses are tested using data collected in the Western European countries included in the Life in Transition Survey II (France, Germany, Italy, Sweden and UK). To analyze the civic consequences of crisis exposure and to evaluate the moderating role of expected social mobility, multivariate regressions are conducted. The statistical analysis is performed using the Stata software.FindingsThe findings show that economic crisis exposure significantly affects civic attitudes. The results confirm that higher crisis exposure is associated with lower civic attitudes. Additionally, the present research rules out the possibility that crisis exposure affects attitudes in a specific way, depending on the expected mobility valence.Social implicationsTo evaluate the moderating factors of the civic consequences of economic crises is important for both academic research and policymakers. Analyzing these mechanisms may lead to understand under which conditions it is possible to limit deterioration processes in democratic fabric of a society.Originality/valueThis paper sheds light on the importance of analyzing the negative civic effect of economic crisis and on the critical role that the fear of social downgrading plays in determining this effect.

Podmiotowe źródła obywatelstwa

The subject of the considerations taken in the article „Subjective sources of citizenship” is citizenship recognized as a normative category. The authoress tries to explain the moral dimension of citizenship, which exceeds its legal and political meaning. Setting out to achieve that goal, she shows which of ethical categories refer to the ideal of citizen. Pondering over which virtues, competences and forms of participation form an active civic attitude, there were identified personal and subjective structures which enable cooperation for the sake of the community. Consequently, conducted analyzes are the attempt to discover its subjective sources, so those which can by linked with human freedom, consciousness and agency.

Perceptions of Social Justice Among the South Asian and Mainstream Chinese Youth from Diverse Cultural Backgrounds in Hong Kong

ABSTRACTThis study examined the attitudes of young people from different cultural backgrounds in Hong Kong toward social justice, in particular those regarding gender, racial/ethnic equalities, and immigrant rights. Among the sample of 15,428 adolescents, aged 12 to 19, 7.1% were South Asians, 15.5% were immigrants from mainland China, 4.1% were cross-boundary students, 73% were Hong Kong mainstream Chinese, and 0.3% did not indicate. Their civic attitudes were assessed by the adapted International Civic and Citizenship Study (ICCS) (2009) questionnaire instrument. Latent means analysis (LMA) was conducted and the findings concluded that, compared with Hong Kong mainstream students (HKMS), South Asian (SA) students reported a statistically significant lower score on gender equality and significantly higher score on racial/ethnic equality and immigrants' rights. In contrast, both Cross-Boundary students (CBS) and Chinese Immigrant students (CIS) rated significantly higher on items relating to racial/ethnic equality and immigrants' rights, as compared with their HKMS counterparts. Regression analyses were also utilized to investigate how demographic variables predicted the latent variables. Specifically, regression analyses of different student groups on social justice issues were discussed to compare how demographic variables contributed to the subjective perceptions of these rights and responsibilities. Policy implications were drawn with reference to the data and recommendations for improvement were discussed.

Civic Engagement Index (CEI) - the case of liberal arts universities from Romania

Abstract We have arrived to a moment in history when the society we are living in is confronted with different sets of problems: hunger, crime, economic crises, natural disasters or cataclysms, and various human rights violations. At the moment the most appropriate way to solve these problems still lies with the organisms of the nation state. As such, the lack of civic sense and the increasing political apathy will only allow these problems to grow out of proportions. We are of the opinion that most of them can be counteracted if we try to educate the civic sense in people. By civic sense or engagement we understand a type of orientation towards being involved in social groups according to democratic principles. It is said the post-socialist countries are particularly threatened by the lack of civic engagement on behalf of their citizens that have reached the point where they take democracy for granted. This is why we explore the role played by universities in developing and shaping this civic attitude amongst young people. In order to do so, we resorted to questionnaires applied in liberal arts universities in Romania. These universities have a special relation to democratic principles, national pride and the perpetuation of the nation state as an ideal for its citizens and because of this we believe they represent a proper starting point for the current investigation. The areas that are targeted through the questionnaire are the following: the academic environment, the methods through which civic values are instilled in the hearts and minds of the students, and the institutional and personal factors that determine faculty to introduce civic values in their academic environments. Using the results we create the Civic Engagement Index (CEI) that can be used as a valuable benchmarking mechanism for those universities that are trying to enhance their civic engagement activities. Finally, we test the hypothesis that certain universities fail to create civic-oriented graduates and we propose ways in which the organizational culture could be transformed into a more supportive one: civic participation guides, civic responsibility classes, and service learning classes for faculty members to increase their openness towards the promotion of civic values.

Lokalna aktywność obywatelska – czynniki, pułapki, zróżnicowanie. O wzorach zaangażowania charakterystycznych dla wspólnot mieszkaniowych

Artykuł skupia się na lokalnej aktywności obywatelskiej, postrzeganej jako istotny warunek rozwoju miasta. Przegląd literatury wskazuje czynniki aktywności obywatelskiej: poziom wykształcenia, dochody, więzi sąsiedzkie, przywiązanie do miejsca, kontakty społeczne, ogólna aktywność społeczna, etap życia, wielkość społeczności, lokalne problemy, relacje wewnątrz społeczności lokalnej, lokalny lider, cechy kulturowe regionu oraz lokalna kultura polityczna. Scharakteryzowano także różnorodne typy zaangażowania obywatelskiego. Rozważania na temat lokalnej aktywności obywatelskiej uzupełniono o aktywność generowaną w ramach wspólnot mieszkaniowych. Rosnąca popularność tych organizacji skłania do rozważań na temat ich wpływu na wzory zaangażowania obywatelskiego. Część badaczy dowodzi, że członkostwo we wspólnocie uczy współrządzenia, daje poczucie wpływu, wzmacnia zaangażowanie lokalne i obywatelskie. Z drugiej strony pojawiają się argumenty, zgodnie z którymi poczucie przynależności do wspólnoty mieszkaniowej skutkuje niższą odpowiedzialnością za miasto i sferę publiczną. Czy zaangażowanie w ramach wspólnoty mieszkaniowej można nazwać obywatelskim? Odpowiedź bazuje na wynikach przekrojowego studium przypadków jedenastu takich wspólnot. Zaprezentowano te aspekty funkcjonowania wspólnot mieszkaniowych, które odnoszą się do aktywności obywatelskiej: cele organizacji w opinii mieszkańców, zaangażowanie w proces współrządzenia, stosunek do dalszego otoczenia oraz relacje wspólnot z sąsiadami. Wzory zaangażowania charakterystyczne dla wspólnot mieszkaniowych nie mieszczą się w ramach przyjętej definicji aktywnej obywatelskości. Korespondują raczej z koncepcją sprywatyzowanej, biernej obywatelskości. Ich członkowie są skupieni na własnych, grupowych interesach. Wspólnoty mieszkaniowe mogą być postrzegane jako pułapka czy niebezpieczeństwo dla lokalnej aktywności obywatelskiej. Skłaniają bowiem do aktywności społecznej, która stanowi alternatywę dla uczestnictwa w sferze publicznej.

Odpowiedzialność uczelni za kształtowanie postaw obywatelskich studentów

Zasadniczym zagadnieniem artykułu jest kwestia odpowiedzialności uczelni za kształtowanie postaw obywatelskich studenta. Wydaje się, że takie zadanie jest skutkiem ubocznym czy też jednym z pozapoznawczych celów działalności kształcącej (edukacyjnej) uczelni: nie tylko merytorycznie przygotowuje do przyszłego zawodu, lecz także zakłada, skoro jej absolwenci będą pełnili różne funkcje w życiu społecznym, politycznym, to powinni uzyskać pewien kapitał intelektualny, który pozwoli im je realizować. W tekście skupiam się na pokazaniu różnych założeń warunkujących rozumienie wiedzy oraz ram instytucjonalnych, w jakich nauka i edukacja funkcjonują w pluralistycznym społeczeństwie. Omawiam więc: (1) aspekt ontologiczny, czyli kto jest podmiotem odpowiedzialności, (2) aspekt epistemologiczny, czyli kwestię wyróżnionej pozycji uczonych w stosunku do pozostałych członków społeczności, (3) aspekt aksjologiczny, czyli pluralizm aksjologiczny współczesnych społeczeństw, (4) w kontekście fenomenu postprawdy, jako zjawiska zagrażającego racjonalnym postawom obywateli, oraz (5) przemian zachodzących w obszarze wzorców uprawiania nauki: od „republiki uczonych” do „nauki dobrze uporządkowanej”, (6) pozycję ekspertów w kontekście kategorii reprezentacji różnych opcji aksjologicznych przy okazji prezentacji wiedzy dla obywateli w ramach instytucji społeczno-politycznych społeczeństwa opartego na wiedzy, a także formułuję ostateczne konkluzje dotyczące zasadności wysuniętej hipotezy, że uczelnia jest odpowiedzialna za kształtowanie postaw obywatelskich studentów.

Mobilisation through early activation and school engagement – the story from Scotland

ABSTRACTThis paper explores the experience of 16–17 year olds participating in the Scottish independence referendum and discusses whether it can be seen as positive or negative considering civic attitudes and participation. Using data from two comprehensive and representative surveys of 14–17 year olds, it engages empirically with claims about young people's alleged political (dis-)interest and provides qualifications for commonly believed stories of young people as mere recipients of information given to them by parents and teachers.The paper develops a positive view of young people's engagement in the referendum process and suggests that inputs from parents and schools actually have distinguishable effects on young people, who do not simply ‘follow the lead’ of others uncritically. The analyses suggest that the discussion of political issues in the classroom (rather than the simple delivery of civics-style classes per se) may act as a positive factor in the political socialisation of young people, but suggests that further research is required to examine these effects beyond the specific context of the Scottish independence referendum in particular in relation to questions about whether reducing the voting age to 16 could be expected to generally lead to positive outcomes.