Postmodern Youth Research Articles

Development of Music Education in Postmodern Society

The article is devoted to the emergence of new contradictory trends in the school music education of postmodern society, how young postmodern youth perceives and uses music and attempts to methodically solve these problems. We explain the relevance of the topic by the fact that postmodern historical trends are still very strong in developing countries, and the industrialization of music art is increasingly distancing young people from academic and folk music achievements. Objective of the article is to identify the main trends, contradictions and problems of music education in postmodernism, and to simulate possible methodical ways of its decision. The general methodological approach is theoretical. We have chosen sociological, theoretical and analytical plus theoretical and methodological methods as the main ones for a data collection, information processing and modeling (modification) of educational conditions in music lessons in high school. As a result, the authors of the article presented main features of music education in postmodern society, the attitude of young people to music, and most importantly presented a thesis formulated 15 guidelines for optimizing school music education. The main conclusion is to avoid categoricalness in the hierarchy of educational process management; evaluation of musical content, to emphasize perceptual, reflexive and performative mechanisms of the development of musical heritage. The international significance of the article lies in the supplementation of numerous theoretical studies with specific methodological recommendations, as well as the use of the Ukrainian cultural context of the late postmodern era, which for some reason scholars pay little attention to.

Faith, culture and youth ministry in South Africa: The impact of traditional cultural practices on the faith formation of youth

Postmodern youth are deeply spiritual. These youth sometimes do not even call themselves religious, yet at the root of their postmodern pluralism and relativism, they do have a deep hunger for God. It is for this reason that congregations need to do all possible to engage these youth, assisting them in their quest for faith and growth in that faith, but this has to be done in a responsible and effective way. This paper will explore the relationship that culture has in the faith formation of the youth. In this sense, it reflects on the church’s mission to young people as they wrestle with the tensions they may experience between faith and culture. Due to the diversity of culture and faith in South Africa, our attention is focussed on examples of traditional practices which involve youth from various African cultures. Theological reflection on the religious aspects of culture and society as well as the spiritual dimension of individual life is prioiritized.

Youth culture, physical education and the question of relevance: after 20 years, a reply to Tinning and Fitzclarence

This article is an attempt to think through the idea that physical education should draw from youth culture in order to be more ‘relevant’ to students. We begin by revisiting Tinning and Fitzclarence's 1992 article ‘Postmodern youth culture and the crisis in Australian secondary school physical education’ in which they essentially argued that young people were bored by physical education because it had failed to keep pace with the pleasures they derive from consumer culture. With this as a starting point, we try to both critique and extend Tinning and Fizclarence's ideas by drawing on two broad areas of scholarship; cultural studies of youth and participatory action research. Our purpose here is twofold. First, we want to help clarify what might be meant by the terms ‘youth culture’ and ‘relevance’. Flowing on from this, we suggest some directions for practice and research. These suggestions are not ‘solutions’ and we are at pains to argue that the ‘relevance problem’ may in fact be an unwitting shorthand for a range of related but distinct challenges. Because of this, as well as our own differing perspectives, we propose contradictory paths forward, including both more and less interest in student subjectivity and more and less allowance for student autonomy.

Analyzing Body Values in the Context of Postmodern Youth Education. A Comparative Study Between Italy, Latvia and Romania

Analyzing Body Values in the Context of Postmodern Youth Education. A Comparative Study Between Italy, Latvia and RomaniaNowadays, research on the body and the values it embodies is considered fundamental in the research field of sport studies. There is a correlation between the choice of values preferred by youth and changes taking place in contemporary society. The postmodern society is a society in which body values prevail over all other ones; the type of body values dominant in a capitalist society are mostly those which are connected to the hedonistic, esthetic and emotional dimension of the body itself.Starting from this background, this study aims to draw the hierarchy of body values, focusing on sport sciences students at Italian, Latvian and Romanian universities, who will be future educators and professionals of body care and well-being in the European society, in order to understand their preferences and the possible cultural differences that can emerge from the three societies.To carry out the research, a randomized sample of 300 subjects - female and male students (100 per country) - attending first-, second- and third-year sport sciences courses at the University of Rome "Foro Italico", the Latvian Academy of Sport Education in Riga, and Babes-Bolyai University of Cluj-Napoca were selected.The students' values hierarchy was obtained through a Likert-scale-based questionnaire adapted and translated into Italian, Latvian and Romanian. The aim of the questionnaire was to detect the level of agreeability or disagreeability shown by each student when presented with words regarding 10 main body values models: biological body; ecological body; instrumental body; dynamic/sporting body, emotional/social body; ethical body; esthetical body; religious body; intellectual body; pleasure body.The data obtained were statistically processed and compared. The results showed that the hierarchy of body values in young students of sports sciences is broadly in line with those of postmodern society and education, and that there are differences in the perception of values among students due to cultural differences and the traditions of the societies in which they live. The research also highlighted the need to develop a more effective moral education, one that focuses on ethics, in the curricula of the three universities studied.

Book Review: The Origins of Postmodern Youth: Informal Youth Movements in a Comparative Perspective

Book Review: The Origins of Postmodern Youth: Informal Youth Movements in a Comparative Perspective

Youth Ministry in and beyond the Church? The sacrament of confirmation in the Roman Catholic Church as a testcase[1

This article deals with the dilemma in which the Roman Catholic Church in Western Europe is involved, concerning the initiation of young people into the life and faith of Christian communities. Some people argue that only a solid and profound mystagogical catechesis can revitalise the congregation, other people are in favour of the idea that the church should remain open for every particular quest for meaning of young people today. Two different opinions on the meaning of the gospel for postmodern youth cultures are at stake. In the field of confirmation catechesis this discussion culminates in strong tensions and conflicts. In this article a third vision on confirmation catechesis is presented which focuses on the hermeneutical qualities of the Christian gospel and on the possibility of young people to explore these qualities by ‘following the church at some distance’. [1] This article was originally published in the Flemish pastoral review Collationes(1998, Vol. 28, pp. 91‐100) with many references to Flemish literature (books, articles, materials, brochures and policy statements). It has been shortened and re‐edited for an international forum. I thank John Ries for his valuable help in translating the text.

The Origins of Postmodern Youth: Informal Youth Movements in a Comparative Perspective

The Origins of Postmodern Youth: Informal Youth Movements in a Comparative Perspective

A Spring in their Steps? Possibilities for Professional Renewal through Sport Education in Australian Schools

ABSTRACT We report on three projects and an accompanying critical research agenda designed to establish and evaluate a new pedagogy in Australian physical education based on the sport education curriculum model first published by Siedentop et al. [Siedentop, D., Mand, C. & Taggart, A. (1986) Physical Education: Teaching and Curriculum Strategies for Grades 5‐12 (Palo Alto, Mayfield]. The projects, involving over 80 schools throughout Australia, are set in a context featuring an amalgam of postmodern youth culture, governmental inquiries and reports and the continuing difficulties facing physical educators in their workplaces. Against a backdrop of subject marginatyia, the projects’ findings have lent support to the proposition that it is dysfunctional programme structures (rather that deficits in teaching skills) that are most to blame in denying teachers access to significant subject matter learning targets. Our work presents evidence that the student‐centred, extended‐unit sport education curriculum model has the potential to be responsive to these challenges. It is conducive to ongoing school‐based professional and curriculum development, has led to widespread programme restructuring, has improved outcomes for many lower skilled students and has generally produced positive results for aspects of students’ social development. However girls tend still to be dominated by boys in particular sports. The model is positively affecting the career expectations of pre‐service students. As the model is already diffusing rapidly in Australian schools, there is a need to identify issues and chart an educational course for any further development.

Postmodern Youth Culture and the Crisis in Australian Secondary School Physical Education

In this paper we claim that there is a crisis in Australian secondary school physical education. The crisis is evident in, among other things, the fact that school physical education is irrelevant or boring for many adolescents. The curriculum does not excite or stimulate adolescents who outside of school live in what might be called a postmodern youth culture, inextricably shaped by television and the information society. A contradictory, and ironic, aspect of the crisis is that many of the adolescents bored with school physical education see physical activity as significant to their lifestyles outside the school context. We provide a tentative analysis of this trend and draw on our experiences in a curriculum development project to discuss the need to consider a curriculum that is relevant and engaging for postmodern youth. We argue that this requires more than providing entertaining classes or better teaching: It requires a rethinking of the nature of school physical education.