VAL-U: Psychometric properties of a Values and Civic Attitudes Scale for University Students’ Service-Learning

The service-learning disciplines can offer a unique opportunity for civic development in university students, as there is a large body of research that links it to values and civic attitudes including a vast number of ecological issues and citizen variables. Moreover, one should bear in mind that these students are future generations that will face many pressing social and environmental issues. Given the need to develop instruments to measure the impact of a service-learning methodology in university students’ values as well as civic attitudes, VAL-U is proposed. As the university can be considered a learning step prior to the professional field, the main objective of this study was to analyse the internal consistency and factor structure of the proposed VAL-U scale in the Spanish population. The scale confirmed acceptable psychometric properties. Furthermore, the results have shown high reliability and optimal goodness of fit. Promising results are offered to employ VAL-U as a valuable tool for assessing Values and Civic Attitudes Scale for Spanish-speaking University Students’ Service-Learning.

Selected aspects of the university social responsibility (USR) in Poland

Motivation: In accordance with the Law on Higher Education, the mission of the Polish education and science system is to provide top quality education and scientific activity, develop civic attitudes, and be involved in social development and creation of an innovation-based economy. The third mission of an academy focusing on social responsibility is to build mutual relations with the community in order to popularise and implement research results. In recent years, university social responsibility (USR) has turned into one of the priorities for Polish academic authorities, although research shows this to be a new matter in this area, which often leads to incorrect classification of activities resulting from regular obedience of the law as activities confirming the social responsibility of the organisation. Aim: The main objective of this article is to identify examples of socially responsible activity assumed by Polish academies and demonstrate the similarities with such activities conducted by other foreign academies. The author also wanted to associate the name of Professor Karol Adamiecki with social responsibility affairs what is usually overlooked in studies on this subject. Results: The conducted analyses confirmed that Polish academies are assuming socially responsible activity voluntarily and not just in order to fulfil the criterion of conformity with the currently effective laws. Furthermore, these results also confirm that — in comparison with academies abroad — the involvement of Polish academies in implementation of the concept of social responsibility is on the right path of development, although not as popularised, which only confirms the genuine and non-marketing approach to the matter of social responsibility.

Assessing the Impact of Holocaust Education on Adolescents’ Civic Values: Experimental Evidence from Arkansas

Background American adults overwhelmingly agree that the Holocaust should be taught in schools, yet few studies investigate the potential benefits of Holocaust education. Objectives We evaluate the impact of a Holocaust education conference on knowledge of the Holocaust and several civic outcomes, including “upstander” efficacy (willingness to intervene on behalf of others), likelihood of exercising civil disobedience, empathy for the suffering of others, and tolerance of others with different values and lifestyles. Research Design We recruit two cohorts of students from three local high schools and randomize access to the Arkansas Holocaust Education Conference, where students have the chance to hear from a Holocaust survivor and to participate in breakout sessions led by Holocaust experts. Results We find evidence that the conference increased participants’ upstander efficacy, but fail to reject the null hypothesis that the conference would increase participants’ knowledge or other civic attitudes.

Algorithmic Curation and Users’ Civic Attitudes: A Study on Facebook News Feed Results

Facebook users are exposed to diverse news and political content; this means that Facebook is a significant tool for the enhancement of civic participation and engagement in politics. However, it has been argued that Facebook, through its algorithmic curation reinforces the pre-existing attitudes of individuals, rather than challenging or potentially altering them. The objective of this study is to elucidate the emotional and behavioural impact of the personalization of Facebook users’ News Feeds results, and thereby to uncover a possible link between their online and offline civic attitudes. Firstly, we investigate the extent to which users’ Facebook News Feeds results are personalized and customized to fit users’ pre-existing civic attitudes and political interests. Secondly, we explore whether users embody new roles as a result of their emotional and behavioural interaction with political content on Facebook. Our methodology is based on a quantitative survey involving 108 participants. Our findings indicate that, while Facebook can potentially expose users to varying political views and beliefs, it tends to reinforce existing civic attitudes and validate what users already hold to be true. Furthermore, we find that users themselves often assume a proactive stance towards Facebook News Feed results, acquiring roles in which they filter and even censor the content to which they are exposed and thus trying to obfuscate algorithmic curation.

Making cross-cutting exposure more deliberative The moderating role of the equality rule in online discussions on a gender issue

Contrary to the normative emphasis on the rule of equality in the deliberation literature, little has been known about empirical consequences of the rule of equality, especially when applied in online discussions where political disagreement is prevalent. Given that hostile gender-related discussions have been noticeably increasing in South Korea, we investigated whether applying deliberative rules, especially cross-cutting exposure and equality, can improve gender-issue discussion quality and foster mutual understanding and healthy political engagement. For this purpose, we designed an online experiment involving moderated deliberations on the abolition of the national abortion ban via KakaoTalk, the most popular messenger platform in South Korea. The deliberative qualities of online discussions in terms of rationality and civility were assessed in a more objective and unobtrusive way: a content analysis of actual conversation transcripts. Participatory intention for gender issue-related activities and civic attitudes were also measured. Results indicate the equality rule can help to promote normatively desirable outcomes in discussions with disagreeing others while the positive effects of cross-cutting exposure were found limited. When combined with the rule of equality, hearing the other side meaningfully enhanced the deliberative qualities and participatory intentions of discussants.

Grundtvigian Folk High Schools and Their “grassroots work” of Civil Society Participation

We will discuss about the role of Grundtvigian folk high schools and their contemporary meanings in two contexts. The first one will be the revision of its sources in the Scandinavian countries (especially in Denmark) and in Poland. The second one will be an attempt to find a connection between building a civil society based on the strong foundation of Grundtvigian schools in the Scandinavian countries and its constant “corruption” is Poland. We would like to get that institution (undervalued in Poland though still functioning in Scandinavia and in many other countries) out of the past and to show its timeless “grassroots work” role in building civic attitudes.

The role of multi-platform news consumption in explaining civic participation during the COVID-19 pandemic: A communication mediation approach

This study employs the orientation–stimulus–reasoning–orientation–response (O-S-R-O-R) framework to examine how multi-platform news consumption is associated with civic participation during the COVID-19 pandemic (offline and via social media) and how this relation is mediated by civic talk and civic attitudes. A survey was administered to 1500 adults in Belgium. Results from structural equation modelling indicate how civic talk with weak ties is not associated with civic attitudes or participation. Analysis of indirect effects reveals that multi-platform news consumption stimulates two different types of participation, through civic talk with strong ties and civic attitudes. The results shed light on previously unexplored pathways towards participation, while providing support for the O-S-R-O-R framework and highlighting the role of social media as an emerging arena for civic participation.

Futuros educadores, compromiso social y Aprendizaje-Servicio

El presente trabajo se centra en el análisis de la metodología de Aprendizaje-Servicio como estrategia de desarrollo de competencias en alumnado universitario. A partir de un estudio pre-post intrasujeto, se analizaron los cambios producidos en las actitudes cívicas, habilidades interpersonales e intenciones de participar en acciones sociales de un grupo de 162 estudiantes de los Grados de Educación en una univesridad. Para ello se suministró una adaptación de la escala Civic Attitudes and Skills Questionnaire (CASQ) antes y después de la implementación de programas de ApS para el desarrollo de sus prácticas curriculares. Los resultados obtenidos muestran un incremento en la percepción de los estudiantes sobre sus propias habilidades de liderazgo o de resolución de problemas, entre otras, y expresan, en mayor medida, sus intenciones de involucrarse en futuras acciones sociales. No se observan, sin embargo, diferencias en sus actitudes hacia la diversidad tras la utilización de esta metodología. Tras el análisis de los datos obtenidos podemos concluir que la utilización de la metodología ApS en los estudiantes de los Grados de Educación promueve el desarrollo de competencias que facilitarán un desempeño profesional futuro que atienda a la necesidad de contribuir al desarrollo de sociedades más justas y comprometidas.

Information Flows Concerning Human Rights Protection in the Digital Representation Structure of Russians’ Civic Engagement in 2020: Results of Social Media Analysis

In the article, the author analysed the structural and content characteristics of the information flow, reflecting the discussion of the problems of protecting the individual’s rights in Russia as a type of civic activity of Russian Internet users. As a result of particular software use, the author accumulated a relevant array of social media document and the dynamics, the modality of the flow, its distribution across various social media, the gender and interpreted age composition of the human rights information audience flow. The author concluded that a sufficiently high potential for protest mobilization of this type of digital stream triggers top-starters of human rights discourse in social media to form non-constructive civic attitudes of Russians. Signs of a significant influence of the human rights stream, first of all, among the younger generation are shown. The author identified methods of using the most resonant events in Russian society’s socio-political life by online network opposition leaders to form unconventional Russians’ attitudes by placing these events in the context of a violation of individual rights. It predetermines a shift in meanings and meanings in the sphere of perception by Russian internet users of the ratio of rights and obligations citizens in the Russian Federation. The necessity of monitoring social and media streams representing the human rights theme in the structure of all streams reflecting the digital civic activity of Russian users is substantiated, the importance of accompanying these streams from the standpoint of creating alternative discourses aimed at overcoming the problem of undermining trust in existing government institutions and contributing to the formation of a culture of constructive civic activity of Russians in digital and offline environments.