Just world? The impact of young peoples’ perceptions of social inequalities in education on the learning of active citizenship Bryony Hoskins and John

Just world?

The impact of young peoples’ perceptions of social inequalities in education on the learning of active

citizenship

Bryony Hoskins and John PrestonLLAKES, Institute of Education

Inequalities & Social Cohesion

• ESRC LLAKES Centre role of LLL promoting competitiveness and social cohesion

• Inequalities associated with social cohesion (national level)

• Individual actions which would benefit social cohesions: active citizenship, trust and tolerance

• Exploring the impact of inequalities on these behaviour

• Possible barriers to those actions; Experiences of inequalities reduce self-efficacy/ alienation/ apathy In unequal societies there is a perception that people get what they

deserve2

Inequalities & Social Cohesion

Countries/cities: England, London: Denmark, Copenhagen: Germany, Frankfurt: France, Marseille and Singapore.

Institutions: lower school (14), FE & 6th form (16-18), Higher Education

Instruments:• Questionnaires/ England 550, other countries 450.• Interviews and focus groups/ England 40, other countries 30.

• Creation of quantitative and qualitative databases for analysis

3

Introduction to just world paper

• Active citizenship crucial for democracy & social cohesion (legitimises it and holds it to account)

• Equality of participation• But not just quantity but the quality of participation

– E.g. BNP, EDL

Active citizenship• Participation in civil society, community and/or political life,

characterised by mutual respect and non-violence and in accordance with human rights and democracy.

Theories of participation

Rational choice• Cost v benefit analysis e.g. voting• Individual as agent• Arrow, Downs & Olson

Political cultural theory• The search for a civic culture of a country• Historical and political developments • Almond & Verba

Just world theory• Post-hoc justification to devalue person unequally treated (lottery/ electric

shocks)• Conservative authoritarian attitude - limits need to act• Limits of rationalisation• Lerner, Duru Bellet

Data Source

• IEA 1999 CIVED study (follow-up 2009)• 28 countries• 3000 students/ country• Grade 8 students in schools• Tests knowledge and skills • Attitude and values towards citizenship related topics

Perceptions of inequalities

• 4 questions on perceptions of fewer opportunities in education than other students:

– Ethnic groups– Gender– Poor– Countryside

• 4 point scale from strongly agree to strongly disagree• Factor Analysis demonstrated single scale• The Cronbach alphas 0.6805

The Civic Competence Composite Indicator• list of knowledge, skills, attitudes and values for active

citizenship• Used existing data from IEA CIVED• Developed & used scales (using IRT)• Factor analysis to decide upon dimensions

Civic Competence(CCCI)

Social Justice (Values and attitudes)

Participatory attitudes

Cognition about

democratic institutions

POLATCONFS KNOWL SKILSSCON*

Citizenship Values

WOMRT MINOR COMM VOTECTCON CTSOC EFFIC DEMR

Analysis

• Impact of perceptions of inequality of education on civic competence

• Step by step regression analysis• Control variables have been entered in the model as dummy

variables.

Effect of inequalities on CCCICCCI 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Pinequal -0.010* -0.009* -0.009* -0.009* -0.008* -0.008* -0.008*

Observations 68436 68224 62200 62056 53337 49368 49368

R-squared 0.009 0.024 0.027 0.04 0.046 0.053 0.196

+ significant at 10%; ** significant at 5%; * significant at 1%

1 No controls 2 Gender (female) 3 Gender (female) - Language spoken

4 Gender (female) - Language spoken - Books at home

5 Gender (female) - Language spoken - Books at home -Education of mother

6 Gender (female) -Language spoken -books at home -Education of mother -Education of father

7 Gender (female) -Language spoken -Books at home -Education of mother -Education of father -Country

Social Justice






Social justice 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

pinequal -0.020* -0.018* -0.018* -0.018* -0.017* -0.017* -0.016*

Observations 74967 74525 67897 67715 57810 53395 53395

R-squared 0.019 0.079 0.081 0.086 0.089 0.095 0.159


CognitionCognition 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

pinequal -0.015* -0.015* -0.015* -0.014* -0.013* -0.013* -0.011*

Observations 75768 75526 68790 68601 58505 54030 54030

R-squared 0.01 0.01 0.022 0.083 0.108 0.118 0.238







Intended Participation






Parta 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

pinequal 0.002** -.001** -0.001 -0.001+ -0.001+ -0.001+ -0.001

Observations 69269 68873 62768 62621 53783 49762 49762

R-squared 0 0.003 0.003 0.006 0.008 0.009 0.122


Citizen Values






Citizen values 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

pinequal 0.002* 0.002* 0.002* 0.002* 0.003* 0.003* 0

Observations 75938 75481 68742 68553 58448 53972 53972

R-squared 0 0.001 0.001 0.007 0.008 0.008 0.149


Conclusion

• The ‘just world’ can be considered a barrier to the learning of civic competence

• In particular a barrier to the learning of attitudes of social justice and cognition on democracy

• No relation towards intended participation or values towards citizenship behaviour

• Quality of participation effected

Education is important but how?

1 Background

VariablesContext

Personal

Socio-familiar

Educational

Location

2Learning

ExperiencesLearning active

citizenship

Formal education

Non-Formal (e.g. training course)

Informal (e.g. media input)

3Individual Outcomes

Civic Competence

Cognitive:-Knowledge-Skills

Affective:-Attitudes-Values-Intended behaviour

4Social

OutcomesActive citizenship

Participation:-Representative democracy

-Protest and Social change

-Community life

Values (connected to participation):

-Democracy-Human rights-Intercultural understanding

Barriers

A

B

C

1 Background

VariablesContext

Personal

Socio-familiar

Educational

Location

2Learning


citizenship

Formal education




Civic Competence



4Social




-Community life



Barriers

A

B

C

Barriers to the quality of participation

1 Background

VariablesContext

Personal

Socio-familiar

Educational

Location

2Learning


citizenship

Formal education




Civic Competence



4Social




-Community life



Barriers

A

B

C

1 Background

VariablesContext

Personal

Socio-familiar

Educational

Location

2Learning


citizenship

Formal education




Civic Competence



4Social




-Community life



Barriers

A

B

C

i. Barriers: Perceived inequalities

ii. Less ability & less support for social justice iii. Reduced

quality of participation

Documents

Just world? The impact of young peoples’ perceptions of social inequalities in education on the learning of active citizenship Bryony Hoskins and John