![Mean and Standard Deviation [SD] of Responses of Each Independent Variable on Measures (n = 372)](https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Adaobiagu_Obiagu/publication/352953003/figure/tbl2/AS:1041568186245121@1625340615214/Mean-and-Standard-Deviation-SD-of-Responses-of-Each-Independent-Variable-on-Measures-n_Q320.jpg)
Content uploaded by Adaobiagu Obiagu
Author content
All content in this area was uploaded by Adaobiagu Obiagu on Jul 03, 2021
Content may be subject to copyright.
A preview of the PDF is not available
Increasing Civic Engagement Through Civic Education: A Critical Consciousness Theory Perspective
Abstract and Figures
There is a growing need for increased civic engagement in developing countries. We argue that civic education has not met this need in Nigeria because it is uncritical, but it can be reformed through critical consciousness theory emphasizing knowledge and critical thinking. However, for civic education reforms, we need to understand the relationship between sociodemographic factors and civic engagement. Therefore, we investigated the influence of six sociodemographic factors (gender, location, age, income, education, and ethnicity) on two civic engagement constructs-environmental civility and community volunteering-using the responses of 372 respondents on the Civic Engagement Scale. Results revealed that community volunteerism is mainly influenced by age, gender, and location, while environmental civility is mainly influenced by location and education, and there is a generally low level of civic engagement. The implications of these findings for a critical civic education aimed at increasing critical consciousness and civic action are discussed.
Content may be subject to copyright.
... A premência de vários estudos com a população estudantil (e.g., Augsberger et al., 2018;Dauer et al., 2021;Doolitle, & Faul, 2013;Hylton, 2018) reflete a preponderância de preparar os adultos ativos de amanhã com valores, atitudes e comportamentos de maior envolvimento para com a comunidade na qual se inserem. A educação deve garantir um equilíbrio entre a aprendizagem formal e informal, ou seja, tanto a aprendizagem escolar, como as experiências concretas na comunidade têm um papel importante na estruturação dos indivíduos (e.g., Ajaps, & Obiagu, 2021;Dauer et al., 2021). Para Doolitle e Faul (2013) a aprendizagem em sala de aula deve e é passível de ser aplicada ao contexto da comunidade (Hepburn, 1997). ...
... O estudo do civic engagement é fundamental para compreender como é que os indivíduos contribuem para a construção de uma sociedade civil, e consequentemente para contribuir para a paz e para o desenvolvimento das nações (Ajaps, & Obiagu, 2021). Nos últimos anos, fruto da evolução tecnológica, o civic engagement tem-se intensificado no mundo digital, possibilitando e aumentando a participação das populações mais jovens nas plataformas online (Gaby, 2017) e consequentemente na esfera pública (Ida et al., 2020). ...
The purpose of this study was to analyze the psychometric properties of the Civic Engagement Scale (Doolittle & Faul, 2013) in a Portuguese sample. A translation-back translation process of the items was carried out, with the psychometric characteristics analyzed using a sample of 539 participants. The data were subjected to confirmatory factor analysis, multi-group confirmatory factorial analysis, item analysis and reliability analysis. The results confirmed the bifactor structure, civic attitudes and civic behaviors. The psychometric properties of the Portuguese version of the Civic Engagement scale were adequate, which allows the use of this questionnaire in the Portuguese population. Future studies should analyze the temporal stability.
... Bekkers (Bekkers, 2005) showed that social activism was associated with human and social capital as well as political interest and empathic concern for others as a personal disposition. Within the concept of human capital, education, and area of living were most frequently and strongly associated with civic involvement (Ajaps & Obiagu, 2021). Within the concept of social capital-social connections (including online), social skills and activities were associated with the tendency to be politically active (Ferrucci et al., 2020). ...
... Volunteerism is a form of civic engagement; it involves voluntarily performing some tasks mainly with the motive of helping or fostering development without expectation of material rewards for self (Ajaps & Obiagu, 2021). Volunteering in causes promotes social cohesions and civic values; revitalizes the society and renew civic life; stimulates leaderships' responsiveness; leads to progress in realizing sustainability goals, especially in the area of health. ...
COVID-19 pandemic illuminated the existence of non-formal community based volunteering
(NCV) across countries. NCV during the COVID-19 lockdown was, however, mainly in health and welfare
causes since previous studies showed it improved citizens’ health care and awareness in health emergencies
(e.g., Ebola) in Africa. Educational needs were underemphasized and mainly managed by formal organizations; and their services are usually not enough. NCV, being substantial in Africa, could be leveraged
on to meet children’s educational needs during emergencies. To effectively utilize NCV to maintain access
to education in emergencies (EiE), we need to understand its constraints. Hence, this paper adopts an autoethnographic method to highlight the lessons learned, from an NCV in EiE initiative during the health
pandemic lockdown in Nigeria, about the constraints and possibilities of NCV in EiE. The volunteers were
two education graduates and the targeted beneficiaries were COVID19-induced out-of-school children (ages
6-14) from low-income backgrounds. Important lessons for health (post)pandemic education policies, practices
and preparedness emerged from NCV in EiE encountered constraints, including curriculum, legal, security,
and political challenges. Given the findings, the study proposes institutionalizing NCV in EiE and ways of
the institutionalization to enable increased access to education of vulnerable children.
... The liberal approach assumes that individuals have the freedom to choose whether to participate or not. Nevertheless, the participation of the majority of individuals in society leads to higher trust in democratic institutions, better accountability of elected officials and a heightened sense of responsibility (Ajaps & Obiagu, 2021). ...
Acknowledgements I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisor, professor Adam Swift, who supported me in the process of writing this piece of research and inspired me to pursue the questions that interest me the most. 3 Abstract Civic education is instrumental to a healthy democracy. The aims of civic education rooted in the liberal democratic tradition have been appealing, yet increasingly contested. We already know that the aims and content of civic education depend on what society we live in. This paper investigates the question of whether Western liberal values of civic education are suited for young democracies. Using a value framework for decision making, it first discusses the three dominant values in civic education scholarship-deliberation, participation and diversity. By combining theory and evidence, this paper suggests that these values are ill-suited for young democracies because of their deficiency in democratic legitimacy, institutional quality and trust for democracy. Deliberation, participation and diversity all produce value conflicts with equality and relevant trade-offs are considered. This paper proposes three policy options for civic education decision-makers in young democracies in light of those values. It concludes that the most appropriate policy option is to implement the value of social responsibility, rather than a combination of the three primary liberal values. In sum, this piece of research contributes to the field of civic education in young democracies and gives a recommendation as to the tailored approach decision-makers in those states ought to take into account.
... In its ideal form, engaged citizenship is intended as an act of social justice aimed at investigating privilege and eradicating structural oppression. Several studies associate the practice of engaged citizenship, where individuals work in reciprocal relationships to affect social change, with the development of critical consciousness (Ajaps and Obiagu 2021;Clark-Taylor 2016, 105;Tucker et al. 2013). ...
In recent years, higher education institutions globally and in South Africa have begun to focus more on the educational potential of community-university engagement. As a result, many institutions of higher learning have been reimagining and debating the terms used to describe the engagement between students, academic staff and their community partners. At Rhodes University in Makhanda, there has been an active change in terminology, with previous "volunteerism" programmes renamed "engaged citizenship" opportunities. This article's authors are current staff members and previous students at Rhodes University, whose university experiences were shaped by their involvement in the Rhodes University Community Engagement (RUCE) Division. Using an autoethnographic style, they reflect on their experiences as volunteers/engaged citizens. These stories and reflections serve to highlight how the term engaged citizenship better encapsulates the nature of the involvement of students who are actively involved in their communities: where these community engagement spaces provide mutual benefit and mutual joy, deep learning and platforms for individuals to direct their agency to socially just ends. Ultimately, these narratives aim to illustrate the deeply personal ways in which the practice of engaged citizenship has shaped the authors' own growth and generated the holistic and transformative educational experience for which higher education institutions strive.
... Critical reflection concerns an individual's understanding of societal inequalities; critical agency-also referred to as political agency or sociopolitical efficacy-concerns an individual's motivation and feeling of power to create change to the perceived inequalities; and critical action concerns an individual's actual behaviour in creating change. Researchers have considered critical consciousness to be both a catalyst for, and outcome of, civic engagement (Ajaps & Obiagu, 2020;Thomas et al., 2014). ...
Unlabelled:
Critical agency (CA) refers to an individual's feeling of power in relation to social inequalities. Research has demonstrated that high CA is associated with positive adolescent outcomes, however, less is known about what supports are important for its development. Moreover, a large majority of the literature is based on studies from the US and various countries in Africa; although the UK is saturated with inequalities there is little research within a UK context. In this paper we examine (a) the validity of using an existing measure of CA with a sample of UK adolescents and (b) the extent to which resilience supports account for variance in CA. Our analysis identified two distinct factors of CA: justice-oriented and community-oriented. High CA in both factors was explained by resilience supports associated with peer relationships (p < 0.01). Our findings push us towards new relational, ecological ways of understanding adolescent CA. We close by instantiating a translational framework for those devising policies in support of youth resilience and CA.
Supplementary information:
The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12144-023-04578-1.
... However, for civic education reforms, we need to understand the relationship between sociodemographic factors and civic engagement. The implications of these findings for a critical civic education aimed at increasing critical consciousness and civic action are discussed (Ajaps and Obiagu, 2020). ...
The purpose of the article is to conduct a content analysis of the opinions of Russian experts on the possibility of introducing liability for non-participation in elections in the Russian Federation. The authors used a specialized subgroup of content analysis-media content analysis-as scientific research method. The article's authors conclude that in the Russian Federation, the introduction of a fine for failure to appear at a polling station is discussed only at the level of an idea. Experts' opinions can be divided into 4 groups: the group of experts has a positive attitude to introducing a fine for failure to appear at the elections; the group of experts has a negative attitude to introducing a fine for failure to appear at the elections; the group of experts notes the conditions, in which it will not be necessary to introduce a fine for failure to appear at the elections («should not be introduced in those regions where the electorate is quite active»; and finally the group of experts does not see the prospect of a legislative initiative on the introduction of a fine for failure to appear at the election. Este obra está licenciado com uma Licença Creative Commons Atribuição-NãoComercial 4.0 Internacional. AVALIAÇÃO DAS OPINIÕES DE PERITOS SOBRE A POSSIBILIDADE DE INTRODUZIR UMA PENA POR NÃO PARTICIPAR DE ELEIÇÕES NA FEDERAÇÃO RUSSA RESUMO O objetivo do artigo é realizar uma análise de conteúdo das opiniões de especialistas russos sobre a possibilidade de introduzir responsabilidade por não participação nas eleições na Federação Russa. Os autores utilizaram um subgrupo especializado de análise de conteúdo-análise de conteúdo de mídia-como método de pesquisa científica. Os autores do artigo concluem que, na Federação Russa, a introdução de uma multa por não comparecimento a uma assembleia de voto é discutida apenas ao nível de uma ideia. As opiniões dos peritos podem ser divididas em 4 grupos: o grupo de peritos tem uma atitude positiva quanto à aplicação de uma multa por não comparência às eleições; o grupo de peritos tem uma atitude negativa quanto à aplicação de uma multa por não comparência às eleições; o grupo de peritos toma nota das condições em que não será necessário aplicar multa por não comparência às eleições («não deve ser introduzida nas regiões onde o eleitorado é bastante activo»; e finalmente o grupo de peritos não não vê a perspectiva de uma iniciativa legislativa sobre a introdução de uma multa por não comparecimento às eleições. Palavras-chave: eleitores, eleições, absentismo, campanha eleitoral, participação eleitoral.
How can youth in developing countries enhance knowledge and capacity for civic
engagement? What role can international development assistance play in youth
civic learning and capacity development? This chapter weighs in on youth civic
engagement from the angle of “social audit,” a participatory tool and approach.
It does so by examining two specific initiatives designed and implemented by the
author in Belize and Guatemala with support from international development
organizations and local universities. In addition to describing the social audit approach,
including the strategy and methodology, this chapter also provides initial
evidence showing that introducing university students in developing countries
to civic engagement, even with short and focused workshops that combine a mix
of pedagogical approaches, has a potential to lay down a foundation to increase
civic engagement and facilitates the development of basic knowledge and skills.
Although international development assistance can play a crucial role in supporting
youth civic engagement in developing countries, the effort will remain
incomplete unless changes in youth attitude and behavior are systematically
measured and effort is sustained through continuous civic engagement support
by local stakeholders, including universities.
The world is getting increasingly interconnected. For this reason, schools should apply strategies to develop students’ civic skills and global civic engagement. The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of multicultural exposure, multicultural interaction, social media usage, and study abroad experience on global civic engagement. The correlational survey model was applied for the study. The participants were selected through cluster random sampling during the 2018-2019 academic year. This study was implemented with 425 high school students who attend private schools. The authors used Global Citizenship Scale (Morais & Ogden, 2011) and Multicultural Experience Assessment (Aytug, Kern, & Dilchert, 2018). The findings showed that multicultural exposure, multicultural interaction, and social media usage were positively correlated to global civic engagement. In addition, multicultural exposure, multicultural interaction, social media usage, and study abroad experience significantly predicted global civic engagement.
This study investigated the attitudes of university students toward political participation, as well as four other selected democratic values – freedom and liberty, human rights/human rights protest, corruption resistance, and separation of powers in Nigeria. A descriptive survey design, with a tool entitled ‘Attitude towards Democratic Values Questionnaire (ADVQ)’, was used to collect data from randomly selected 250 undergraduate students (male = 120; female = 130) from a university in Nigeria. Six research questions were answered using descriptive statistics in guiding the study. The results showed that university students reported an unwillingness to protest human rights violations as well as the tendency to accept bribes and campaign for a wrong political candidate for financial gains, despite general findings that indicated positive attitudes towards all selected democratic values among university students. The result of the variance analysis conducted to ascertain the influence of gender on attitudes towards democratic values showed that female students scored significantly higher than their male counterparts in all measured democratic principles, excepting human rights and separation of powers. Implications of findings for a critical democratic education that emphasises critical consciousness, spatial voting, and socio-political resilience are discussed.
There is evidence of dissatisfaction of millennials with democracy and rising populist support for non-democratic forms of governance and nationalism among them. This presents challenges for civic education implementation and calls for promotion of constructivist civic teachers. Motivated by the need to apply deep civic education in inhibiting non-democratic beliefs and promoting viable strong democracy through active citizens, the present study employed a descriptive survey to investigate the influence of teacher's gender and educational background on teacher's implementation of civic education using data collected from randomly selected 16 secondary school civic education teachers and 320 secondary school students comprising 20 students of each teacher participating in the study. Two instruments were used for data collection on teachers’ initial and continuous training in civic education, and teachers’ implementation of civic education. Two research questions answered using mean and standard deviation, and three null hypotheses tested at 0.05 level of significance using correlation, Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis H Test guided the study. The findings showed that a high number of civic teachers did not receive prior training in civic education as well as do not engage in lifelong learning or continuous training in civic education and teaching practice. Civic teachers do not also actively engage students in civic instructions. A positive relationship exists between teacher’s training in civic education and teacher’s implementation of civic education. While civic teachers’ educational background did significantly influence implementation of civic education, gender did not. The findings were associated to a number of factors including lack of cognition of the power of civic education in constructing, reconstructing and transforming (dys)functional societal ideologies. Promotion of lifelong learning among teachers, training of teachers in civic contents and methods, and utilization of ICT for instructional purposes were recommended.
This study sought to understand environmental knowledge and attitudes among young people to explain the relationship between environmental education (EE) and reported pro-environmental behaviours (PEB). A mixed-methods design was employed: 88 university students in the UK and Nigeria were surveyed and 6 were subsequently interviewed. The findings indicate that the participants believe humans are abusing the earth and are very concerned about the consequences but do not know enough about environmental problems, especially global warming. Also, those who had more environmental knowledge reported more PEB. Generally, participants want more EE content to be taught in schools and in more engaging ways such as field trips. These findings offer important insights for both theory and practice related to the use of education to develop PEB for a healthier environment.
Evidence suggesting that the growth of civic roots in adolescence may be crucial to the long-term development of citizenship has stimulated research into factors that might influence civic development during this time. One interesting finding to emerge from that exploration is the apparent importance of discussion to the development of civic competence. Adolescents who discuss politics and current events with their parents, peers, or teachers tend to score higher than other youth on measures of civic behaviors, attitudes, and skills. They develop higher levels of political knowledge, show greater intention to vote in the future, and do better on a range of civic outcomes from petitioning and boycotting to raising money for charities and participating in community meetings (Torney-Purta et al. 2001; Andolina et al. 2003).
To help mitigate the negative effects of climate change, citizens’ attitudes and behaviors must be better understood. However, little is known about which factors predict engagement with climate change, and which messaging strategies are most effective. A community sample of 324 residents from three regions in British Columbia read information either about a climate change impact relevant to their local area, a more global one, or, in a control condition, no message. Participants indicated the extent of their climate change engagement, the strength of their attachment to their local area, and demographic information. Three significant unique predictors of climate change engagement emerged: place attachment, receiving the local message, and gender (female). These results provide empirical support for some previously proposed barriers to climate action and suggest guidelines for effective climate change communication.
Using data from an original two-wave panel survey of California high school students and a two-wave panel survey of high school students in Chicago, we find that different pedagogical approaches influence different forms of civic and political engagement. Specifically, controlling for prior levels of engagement and demo- graphic factors, we find that open discussion of societal issues promotes engagement with political issues and elections. In contrast, service learning opportunities increase community-based and expressive actions. Both kinds of opportunities promoted commitments to participatory citizenship. These patterns can teach us about the kinds of opportunities (both in school and out) that can shape adolescents’ civic and political development.
Inadequate environmental sanitation has been recognized as a public health hazard worldwide. In some Nigerian cities, living with waste as part of the natural environment has become a way of life. This study examined the sanitary condition of an urban community in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. It used a cross sectional survey design for a population of 123,033 inhabitants of four villages in North Eastern Akwa Ibom. Multi-stage sampling was used in selecting 237 inhabitants in this community and structured questionnaire was used for data collection. Data was analyzed using frequencies, percentages, Chisquare test and multiple logistic regressions. Results showed that tap water was the major source of water, usually disinfected by boiling. Results of multiple logistic regression showed a significant association between gender and their participation in environmental sanitation (p<0.05) with males showing 9 times more odds of participation than females (OR =9.84, C.I =1.225-79.018). Unwholesome practices like open refuse dumping and building of pit latrines close to the house were prevalent in this community. Therefore, to enhance the sanitary condition in this community, government should establish and enforce a more robust environmental sanitation approach and health education. Key words : Environmental sanitation, sanitary condition, diarrhoea, disease.
Rethinking questions of identity, social agency and national affiliation, Bhabha provides a working, if controversial, theory of cultural hybridity - one that goes far beyond previous attempts by others. In The Location of Culture, he uses concepts such as mimicry, interstice, hybridity, and liminality to argue that cultural production is always most productive where it is most ambivalent. Speaking in a voice that combines intellectual ease with the belief that theory itself can contribute to practical political change, Bhabha has become one of the leading post-colonial theorists of this era.
Journal of Democracy 6.1 (1995) 65-78
As featured on National Public Radio, The New York Times, and in other major media, we offer this sold-out, much-discussed Journal of Democracy article by Robert Putnam, "Bowling Alone." You can also find information at DemocracyNet about the Journal of Democracy and its sponsor, the National Endowment for Democracy.
Many students of the new democracies that have emerged over the past decade and a half have emphasized the importance of a strong and active civil society to the consolidation of democracy. Especially with regard to the postcommunist countries, scholars and democratic activists alike have lamented the absence or obliteration of traditions of independent civic engagement and a widespread tendency toward passive reliance on the state. To those concerned with the weakness of civil societies in the developing or postcommunist world, the advanced Western democracies and above all the United States have typically been taken as models to be emulated. There is striking evidence, however, that the vibrancy of American civil society has notably declined over the past several decades.
Ever since the publication of Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America, the United States has played a central role in systematic studies of the links between democracy and civil society. Although this is in part because trends in American life are often regarded as harbingers of social modernization, it is also because America has traditionally been considered unusually "civic" (a reputation that, as we shall later see, has not been entirely unjustified).
When Tocqueville visited the United States in the 1830s, it was the Americans' propensity for civic association that most impressed him as the key to their unprecedented ability to make democracy work. "Americans of all ages, all stations in life, and all types of disposition," he observed, "are forever forming associations. There are not only commercial and industrial associations in which all take part, but others of a thousand different types -- religious, moral, serious, futile, very general and very limited, immensely large and very minute. . . . Nothing, in my view, deserves more attention than the intellectual and moral associations in America."
Recently, American social scientists of a neo-Tocquevillean bent have unearthed a wide range of empirical evidence that the quality of public life and the performance of social institutions (and not only in America) are indeed powerfully influenced by norms and networks of civic engagement. Researchers in such fields as education, urban poverty, unemployment, the control of crime and drug abuse, and even health have discovered that successful outcomes are more likely in civically engaged communities. Similarly, research on the varying economic attainments of different ethnic groups in the United States has demonstrated the importance of social bonds within each group. These results are consistent with research in a wide range of settings that demonstrates the vital importance of social networks for job placement and many other economic outcomes.
Meanwhile, a seemingly unrelated body of research on the sociology of economic development has also focused attention on the role of social networks. Some of this work is situated in the developing countries, and some of it elucidates the peculiarly successful "network capitalism" of East Asia. Even in less exotic Western economies, however, researchers have discovered highly efficient, highly flexible "industrial districts" based on networks of collaboration among workers and small entrepreneurs. Far from being paleoindustrial anachronisms, these dense interpersonal and interorganizational networks undergird ultramodern industries, from the high tech of Silicon Valley to the high fashion of Benetton.
The norms and networks of civic engagement also powerfully affect the performance of representative government. That, at least, was the central conclusion of my own 20-year, quasi-experimental study of subnational governments in different regions of Italy. Although all these regional governments seemed identical on paper, their levels of effectiveness varied dramatically. Systematic inquiry showed that the quality of governance was determined by longstanding traditions of civic engagement (or its absence). Voter turnout, newspaper readership, membership in choral societies and football clubs -- these were the hallmarks of a successful region. In fact, historical analysis suggested that these networks of organized reciprocity and civic solidarity...
Environmental education is assumed to have a significant influence on the environmental awareness, everyday lifestyles and consumer behavior of students. Several higher education institutions have recently recognized the importance of integrating sustainability issues into education to make this impact focused and explicit. This paper explores the relationship strength between environmental education and environmental knowledge, attitudes and reported actual behavior of university and high school students, providing a comparative questionnaire survey analysis which is unique in the literature. The results show a strong correlation between the intensity of environmental education and the environmental knowledge of students. This is partly due to the environmental education itself and partly due to the higher intrinsic motivation of committed students who voluntarily participate in environmental education, primarily at university level. The focus of the environmental education appears to be important in shaping attitudes about sustainable consumption. Addressing the issue of consumerism in environmental education clearly increases awareness of the need for consumption-related lifestyle changes. Based on Multidimensional Scaling methodology, the interdependence of several influencing variables is explored and illustrated graphically. Respondents are classified into five clusters – hedonist, techno-optimist, active environmentalist, familiar and careless – according to their environmental knowledge, attitudes, consumer behavior and everyday environmental awareness. Consistencies and inconsistencies in behavior are then identified in order to promote the creation of more effective educational instruments for supporting sustainable consumption and lifestyles.