Bridging Differences: Youth, Diversity and Civic Values

Transcription

1 Bridging Differences: Youth, Diversity and Civic Values Overview of Initial Results of the McGill Youth Survey 2005/06 In recent years, there has emerged a growing concern about the political engagement of the next generation of citizens. According to Elections Canada, only 37% of young people aged 18 to 24 voted in the federal election of 2004, compared with 61% of the general population. Research in other democracies has also found a decline in young people s trust in others, diminishing rates of volunteering and a growing lack of face-to-face social interactions. The questions of how and why young people in contemporary, multicultural democracies get involved in their communities and what they think about their society are therefore all the more pressing. During the school year, a team of researchers led by Professor Dietlind Stolle in the Department of Political Science at McGill University conducted a large survey with 10 th and 11 th grade students in Quebec and Ontario. The school sample included over 3,300 respondents in 82 different schools. This general sample of students was complemented by targeted samples of young people in different youth environments: over 700 people in 57 different youth groups, over 800 youth at 37 youth events or demonstrations, and almost 300 young people surveyed online from 12 different online communities. In the coming months and years, we plan to conduct a number of in-depth interviews with a selected group of these young people, as well as a second wave of the survey. This project provides a unique and exciting opportunity to see how young people become engaged and how schools can help to shape the next generation s civic values and attitudes. In this short report, we present some preliminary findings from the school sample of this study in hopes of sharing what we have learned so far with the schools and teachers that made this project possible. We highlight the ways in which young people are engaged and examine their attitudes about diversity, with a special focus on the important role that schools and teachers can play. The Bridging Differences Research Team Department of Political Science McGill University bridging@mcgill.ca An Apolitical Generation? Youth Engagement in 10 th and 11 th Grade We often hear in the media that young people are not in politics, or even that they are completely apolitical. Is this true for Canada? When we asked students how much they were in politics and public affairs, the results speak for themselves in Graph 1: only 11% of the students in our sample said they were very. Over half of students reported little or no interest in politics. This echoes the fact that students rarely have discussions with friends on public issues or politics. The vast majority (84%) said that they hardly ever talked about political issues with their friends. Young people, then, do not seem to express a great interest in politics nor does it play much of a role in their everyday discussions. Yet, as the next generation of citizens, even if they do not really care about politics, it is important to assess their knowledge about and participation in the political world. So how much do young people know about politics? Students were asked three separate multiple choice questions that varied in degree of difficulty. As Graph 2 indicates, about two-thirds of students were able to correctly identify the name of their provincial premier. Just over half of students knew that Michaëlle Jean is the new Governor General during the year following her inauguration, while a quarter of students were able to identify the Supreme Graph 1: Interest in Public Affairs and Politics very 11% not 17% 32% a little 40%

2 Graph 2: Percent Able to Answer 2-3 Political Questions Correctly 65% Who is the premier of your province? 54% Who is the new Governor General? Court s role as one of ruling laws unconstitutional. There are small differences between students in their ability to answer these questions, with women and immigrants being slightly less able to answer as many correctly. Those with at least one parent who votes, on the other hand, are more likely to get questions about politics correct (see Table 1). In general, then, young people do demonstrate some political knowledge. Yet what do we know about their actual engagement levels? Obviously, the youth who participated in this study were mostly too young to vote in the past election. When asked about their intention to vote when they are old enough, though, they overwhelmingly responded in the affirmative, with over 80% of them saying they would definitely or probably vote in the next federal elections. This is in stark contrast to the small proportion of young Canadians who actually turn out to vote. The fact that young citizens at a fairly young age have such good intentions to vote might have several reasons one being that they realize that in a democracy, citizens have a duty to vote. Why young people fail to turn out is a question on which this study may help to shed some light, as the project moves from preliminary analyses such as this to more in depth examination. Table 1 suggests that those from more politically involved families have an early advantage. The table also shows that visible minorities and youngsters who immigrated to Canada are less likely to get out to vote, or at least say they will. Survey data from adults confirm the fact that immigrants and 26% What does the Supreme Court do? visible minorities vote less frequently. This has serious implications, as voting is one way to voice one s interests and have them reflected in the political process. When it comes to who young people would vote for, they seem more drawn to left-wing or liberal parties. In both Quebec and Ontario, young people expressed their support for the Liberals with 31% of their vote intentions, while the Bloc Quebecois and the NDP represent respectively the two main options for the other respondents. Only 12% of the whole sample indicated they would vote for the Conservatives. Beyond voting, when it comes to other ways in which young people are engaged in their community, we can see from Graph 3 that they are actually involved in a variety of ways. The most common activity (beyond vote intention) is raising or donating money for a cause, with three quarters of all students saying they have done so in the past twelve months. This compares nicely to the proportion of adults--according to the 2000 Canadian National Survey of Giving, Volunteering and Participating (NSGVP), about 78% of the general population reports making direct donations to charitable organizations, Approximately half of students have signed a petition. There is also a significant proportion of students who are boycotting or buying products for political or ethical reasons, and displaying their political viewpoints through clothing, patches and stickers. Young people are actually more likely than their adult counterparts to participate in certain forms of political action. According to the 2003 Canadian Table 1: Overview of Political Outcomes by Student Characteristics Answer 2-3 Political Questions Correctly Intention to Vote in Next Federal Election Volunteered in Past 12 Months Sample Average 51% 81% 41% Female 48% 83% 46% Visible Minority 49% 74% 44% Immigrant 48% 71% 44% Those with a parent who vote 53% 88% 42% Those with parent who volunteer 50% 84% 51%

3 Graph 3: Overview of Youth Engagement Does not participate currently in any political activity Participated in illegal protest activities Wrote or displayed a political statement Forwarded an with political content Taken part in a legal march or protest Attended a political show or cultural event Boycotted certain products Deliberately bought certain products for political reasons Deliberately worn a political patch, sticker, button or tshirt Volunteered time Signed a petition Raised or donated money for a cause Will vote in next federal election 7% 7% 13% 18% 20% 27% 27% 29% 33% 41% 52% 75% 81% General Social Survey, only 28% of the general population reports signing a petition compared to 52% in our sample, only 6% participated in a march or demonstration compared to 20% of the young people we surveyed, and 20% of Canadian adults boycotted or bought a product for political reasons compared to 27% and 29% respectively of the young people in our study. One important way in which youth are getting involved is through voluntary activities. Forty-one percent of the young people surveyed reported volunteering their time in the last 12 months. As Table 1 highlights, those who have a parent who volunteers are about 10% more likely to volunteer themselves. Young women are also significantly more likely to volunteer their time than their male counterpart, a trend that we often see among adults as well. This is one arena where youth seem to be doing more than adults, of whom about 1 in 4 report to have volunteered (NSGVP). In sum, while young people are not in politics per se, they do have some knowledge about it and they are certainly engaged in a variety of political ways. Only 7% of young people in our sample indicated not to be engaged in any political activity besides vote intention. While the plan to vote is admirable at this age, it will likely not result in actual high turnout once these young people are eligible to vote (if the current generation of young voters provides any comparison). However, youth are engaging in their society in a myriad of ways, through voluntary service and by expressing their opinions and views in everyday life. The role of schools in fostering political knowledge and engagement is the question we turn to next. Schools and Political Engagement Schools play a fundamental role in developing democratic values in young people. They can do this by passing on information about politics, fostering a learning environment that encourages them to think critically about different political and social issues, and creating opportunities for engagement. In this section, we look at what exactly schools are doing that seems to have some influence on the level of political knowledge, youth intentions to vote in upcoming elections, and their willingness to volunteer their time. The schools in our study engaged students on political issues in a number of ways. When it comes to classroom discussion, Table 2 shows that schools vary on discussing certain political topics, such as the United Nations, how Parliament works, federalism, voting and current events. Whereas 60% of the schools surveyed in Ontario and Quebec discuss current political events regularly, only 36% and 32% respectively discuss the United Nations. The prominence of current events is merited, since talking about actual political events in the classroom is an important predictor of youth activism. Those schools where political events are more discussed more accommodate students who are more likely to engage in a variety of different political activities.

4 The breadth of topics discussed is also important in helping students to learn and retain important facts about their political system. In Graph 4, you can see that schools that talked about more topics had a higher percentage of students who were able to answer two or more of the political knowlegde questions we posed in our survey. The difference between schools where political topics are hardly ever discussed and those where four of the five topics we inquired about are regularly discussed is over 15 percentage points. Another means by which schools can encourage political engagement is through mandatory community service requirements. Here, there is an obvious distinction between the Ontario and Quebec schools in our sample. In Ontario, the province has instituted a mandatory 40 hours of community service over the four years of high school. In Quebec, no such requirements exist. Only about a quarter of the Quebec schools we surveyed reported having any community service requirements in their schools. Community service can be an effective tool for encouraging students to get involved. In the schools in our study where community service is required, students are far more likely to report volunteering their time, which seems like an intuitive outcome. Yet, students are also more likely to report wearing a patch or T-shirt for a political or social cause, raising or donating money for a cause, writing or displaying a political 44% statement publicly, or attending a show with political content, compared with students in schools where there is no community service requirement. Community service requirements seem to have a spill-over effect into other forms of involvement that are not directly related to the service requirements. Table 2: Teaching Politics at School Percent of schools that: Ontario Quebec Private Public Talk often or several times about How Parliament Works 45% 45% 43% 46% The United Nations 36% 32% 36% 33% Federalism 35% 43% 38% 39% Voting 48% 44% 45% 47% Current Political Events 60% 61% 64% 58% Require community service? 100% 26% 43% 77% Involved students in following activity Regular group projects 70% 67% 71% 67% Visit a government building 25% 19% 28% 17% Politician or community leader speak in class 26% 19% 29% 18% Community service and political discussion topics are not the only means by which schools can encourage engagement either. Previous research has suggested that exposing students to a variety of more interactive activities can encourage involvement in one s community. We asked students about whether or not they were required to do group projects in their courses, if they had ever visited a government building for school, and if any politicians or other community leaders had spoken in their classes. Regular group projects were the most frequently reported activity, with students indicating that over two-thirds of the schools in our sample regularly require them to do a group assignment. Field trips to government buildings and having political or community speakers in class were much less frequent, with students reporting that about a quarter of schools did these during the past school year. While group projects were popular in both Quebec and Ontario schools, whether they be private or public, field trips and speakers with Graph 4: Percent Who Answer 2-3 Politics Questions Correctly Based on Classroom Discussion 50% 47% 55% 61% Number of Political Topics Regularly Discussed

5 Graph 5: Percent of Students Who Volunteer based on School Activities characterizing the Canadian population and what schools can do to foster more tolerant attitudes. No Interactive Activities Interactive Activites 28% 44% Regular Group Projects? political content were more common in Ontario schools and in private schools (see Table 2). In Graph 5, we present the relationship between such school activities and the number of students volunteering on average at a school. In fact, doing regular group projects, visiting government building, or meeting with political or community leaders increases students propensity to volunteer as much as 16 percentage points. We can thus envision that doing projects in teams and having more links with one s political or social leaders can encourage young people to get involved in their communities. In general, these preliminary results confirm that the school environment is indeed an important component in shaping what young people know about politics and how they get involved in their communities. Of course, reverse causality might be possible: engaged and knowledgeable students might go to schools which are particularly active in teaching politics. Only the second wave of our survey will be able to ascertain that school curricula and ways of teaching politics have a payoff in the long-run. Yet, our initial results are supported by previous research (see, for example, Judith Torney- Purta et al., 2001; Niemi and Junn, 1999 ). In the next section, we turn to the questions of how young people feel about the diversity that is increasingly 52% 40% 40% Visit Government Building? Citizenship in Diverse Democracies Canada is well-known for being a land of immigrants and a country where people from many different ethno-cultural and linguistic backgrounds live together. In our study, we tried to understand how young people feel about living in an environment characterized by such diversity. In this study, we asked students about their opinions on different issues concerning immigration in Canada. The results in Table 3 show that on average, Canadian students are relatively open to immigration and multiculturalism, with less than a third of them agreeing that immigrants would make it difficult for them to get jobs or endorsing the idea that immigrants need to share the customs and traditions of the majority. The numbers are lower for those that see immigrants as a threat or want to see immigration stopped completely. Although there are small differences that emerge between students in Ontario and Quebec regarding the impact of immigration on their chance of employment, in general, the majority of students do not express any resentment or fear of immigrants. However, this should not hide the fact that about a third of those surveyed expressed some reservations about immigrants. 56% Politician or Community Leader Spoke in Class? Visible minorities do not have the same opportunities as Whites in Canada. In the questionnaire, we also addressed students feelings towards different social groups by asking the question: If you had the opportunity, would you ever date someone from the following groups? The results show that majority groups, such as Anglophones (71%), Francophones (63%) and whites Table 3: Attitudes toward Minorities The arrival of new immigrants will make it harder for me to get a decent job later on. It is better for a country if almost everyone shares the same customs and traditions. The presence of too many immigrants is a threat to our way of life. If a country wants to reduce tensions, it should stop immigration. Agree Ontario Quebec 56% 55% 56% 31% 37% 27% 29% 28% 31% 26% 23% 28% 17% 17% 19%

6 (79%), are easiest for participants to envision dating. Only about a quarter of students could imagine dating an Aboriginal person or a Muslim. There are again small differences between the provinces, but they likely reflect their distinct linguistic and ethno-cultural make-up. When we asked students how they perceived the diversity in their school, only small numbers reported that they felt any tensions between different ethnocultural groups. It is noteworthy that when students did perceive such tensions in their schools, they were more likely to endorse a negative view of immigration. This holds even at various levels of ethno-cultural diversity among the student body. Thus, a diverse school environment, when it fosters positive relationships between students, creates more tolerant attitudes of immigrants. When it comes to the school curriculum, we find that a meaningful way to foster tolerance is to regularly talk about different cultures and religions. In fact, students in schools that regularly talked about religions other than Christianity and other countries and cultures outside of North America and Europe were less likely to see immigrants as a threat. While these results are very preliminary with respect to issues surrounding diversity, they suggest an important area of research in understanding the general tolerance of Canadian students. In the months to come, we hope to shed more light on this topic as we pursue further analysis, and start to make comparisons with similar studies that have been conducted in the past year in Belgium and Romania. Concluding Remarks To envision Canada s future as a democracy and a multicultural society, we need to know more about the next generation of citizens: today s youth. These preliminary findings from our extensive Canadian youth study demonstrates that even if young people do not have a lot of interest in politics per se, they still have some knowledge about it. In addition, they express high intentions to participate in the political process. Even if in the long-term these good intentions do not fully materialise, young people have shown that they use other means to express their ideas and participate in their community, be it through volunteering, signing petitions, donating money for a cause, wearing a T-shirt or button for a social or political cause, or through their thoughtful consumption in the marketplace. It is clear that schools and teachers can help foster young people s political knowledge and participation through regular class discussions of political topics, community service requirements and the use of interactive activities in the classroom such as group projects, having public figures speak in class, or visiting government buildings. In terms of attitudes, we find that Canadian students are in general quite open to the idea of immigration, although many might still have more propensity to bond with the majority groups of the population when it comes to more intimate relationships like dating. Schools can have an important impact on students tolerance of diversity by installing a peaceful and respectful atmosphere within the school and by promoting regular class discussions about other cultures and religions. A more detailed analysis of our data and more concrete ideas for schools to foster adolescents civic engagement will be available in the upcoming year on our project web site: Again, we greatly appreciate your school s involvement in this research project and the time that individual teachers took to make this possible. Thank you for your participation and we hope you find the results here as promising as we do. Selected Recommended Readings Hahn, C.L. (1998). Becoming Political: A Comparative Perspective on Citizenship Education. Albany, NY: SUNY Press. McAndrew, M. (2002). Immigration et diversité à l école : le débat québécois dans une perspective comparative. Montréal: Les Presses de l Université de Montréal. Micheletti, M. and Stolle, D. (2005). "The Concept of Political Consumerism," Lonnie R. Sherrod (ed.), Youth Activism An International Encyclopedia. Westport: Greenwood Publishing Niemi, R. and Junn., J. (1998). Civic Education: What Makes Students Learn. New Haven: Yale University Press. Stolle, D. and Hooghe, M. (2004). "The Roots of Social Capital: Attitudinal and Network Mechanisms in the Relation between Youth and Adult Indicators of Social Capital," Acta Politica, 39(4), pp Stolle, D., Harell, A., Mahéo, V-A., and Nishikawa, L. (2006). McGill Youth Survey. Data set. McGill University. Torney-Purta, J., Lehmann, R., Oswald, H., and Schulz, W. (2001). Citizenship and Education in Twenty-Eight Countries: Civic Knowledge and Engagement at Age Fourteen. Amsterdam: IEA. This report was created by Allison Harell, Valérie- Anne Mahéo, and Dietlind Stolle in the Department of Political Science, McGill University. We thank the Social Science and Humanities Research Council and the Fonds Québécois de la Recherche for making this project possible. November 2006