Features of students’ national identity development

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FEATURES OF STUDENTS' NATIONAL IDENTITY DEVELOPMENT

Diana Piontkovska,

lecturer, Department of Developmental and Educational Psychology,

Rivne State University of Humanities, 12, S. Bandera Str., Rivne, Ukraine

The article deals with the features of the development of students ' national identity. The author's understanding of the concept of «national identity» is presented. The empirical study checks the author's assumption that the development of national identity of students majoring in different fields of study has specific features depending on the students ' specialty and may be deficient in some of them. It has been established that the national identity offuture History teachers, Ukrainian language and literature teachers is developed more intensively; the national identity of students majoring in Law, Philosophy, Psychology, Speech therapy, Cultural studies, Journalism, Social pedagogy is developed less intensively; and the national identity of students majoring in General medicine, Geodesy, Transport technologies (Road transport), Mathematics (group 3) demonstrates the lowest level of its development.

Keywords: national identity, development, students.

Діана Володимирівна Піонтковська. Особливості розвитку національної ідентичності студентської молоді

Статтю присвячено вивченню особливостей розвитку національної ідентичності студентської молоді. Презентовано авторське розуміння поняття «національна ідентичність особистості». Під час емпіричного дослідження перевірялося припущення автора, що розвиток національної ідентичності студентів різних спеціальностей має певні особливості та може бути недостатнім у частини з них. Встановлено, що національна ідентичність у студентів, майбутніх учителів історії, української мови та літератури (перша група) розвивається найінтенсивніше; у студентів спеціальностей «правознавство», «філософія», «психологія», «логопедія», «культурологія», «журналістика», «соціальна педагогіка» (друга група) менш інтенсивно; у студентів спеціальностей «лікувальна справа», «геодезія», «транспортні технології» (автомобільний транспорт), «математика» (третя група) найменш інтенсивно. Узагальнюючи одержані результати, можемо зробити висновок про те, що основними соціальними чинниками розвитку національної ідентичності студентів є професійна освіта, яку вони здобувають у вищому навчальному закладі; знання ознак своєї та інших націй, які вони одержують самостійно та у взаємодії з представниками своєї та інших націй; спілкування з представниками своєї нації; взаємодії з представниками інших націй; психологічними їх позитивне ставлення до представників своєї нації; толерантне ставлення до представників інших націй. Отримані результати можуть використовуватися кураторами академічних груп і викладачами вищих навчальних закладів під час розробки та організації психологічних і педагогічних технологій із метою підвищення рівня національної ідентичності студентів.

Ключові слова: національна ідентичність, розвиток, студентська молодь. student national identity development

Introduction. Social and cultural integration of Ukraine into the world public space in the era of intense globalisation processes causes the importance and relevance of Ukrainian young citizens' national identity development. The formation of students' national identity is one of the priority tasks of the State Programme of National and Patriotic Upbringing of Children and Youth. The urgent need to address this important public task leads modern psychological science towards a careful study of features of students' national identity development.

The theoretical analysis of modern research studies in the field has shown that in foreign and domestic psychology there are some works dealing with various aspects of students' national and ethnic identity development. Thus, in the field of developmental and educational psychology the factors of the genesis of national identity among the eleventhgrade students of high schools and the fifthyear students of higher educational institutions were researched by A. Berezin (2002); psychological foundations of the development of personal national consciousness in youth were investigated by L. Spivak (2016); psychological peculiarities of students' national consciousness development by means of the Ukrainian literature were examined by V. Sokolova (2009); the role of national identity in the formation of «selfimage» of 1420yearold people was studied by A. Shevchenko (2005); the issues of the development of students' ethnic identity were researched by V. Hotynets (2000); social and psychological factors of the young peoples' ethnic identity development by H. A. Stavitskyi (2016) et al. In the field of social psychology the psychologists focused on the research of features of students' ethnic identity (O. Bychko, 2004); the role of ethnopsychological life orientations in the process of students' selfactualization (M. B. Bodnar, 2004); ethnical and social representations in the structure of the students' “selfconcept” (O. Vasylchenko, 2003); the influence of ethnic stereotypes on students' interpersonal evaluation (A. Kvas, 2003); ethnosocial units as a means of students' interpersonal interaction (M. Strunina, 2007).

The review of scientific research studies performed by psychologists shows that the issue of the students' national identity development still remains understudied. Therefore, the paper aims to reveal the peculiarities of national identity of university students majoring in different fields of study.

Research methods. The study involved 527 respondents aged from 17 to 22 who were fulltime and parttime students of 15 years of studying in pedagogical, medical, law and technical higher educational institutions from different cities of Ukraine (Kyiv, Lviv, Kharkiv, Rivne and Berdiansk). It should be noted that there were 105 firstyear students, 106 secondyear students, 106 thirdyear students, 105 fourthyear students and 105 fifthyear students. All the students were Ukrainian. The respondents majored in such fields of study as “History”, “Philosophy”, “Cultural studies”, “Ukrainian Philology”, “Journalism”, “General Medicine”, “Law”, “Mathematics”, “Geodesy”, “Transport Technologies (Road transport)”, “Social Pedagogy”, “Speech Therapy” and “Psychology”.

To verify the assumption that the development of the components of national identity of students majoring in different fields of study has certain features and may be deficient in some of them, the respondents were divided into three groups. The first one included 175 students future History teachers, Ukrainian Language and Literature teachers. The second and third groups consisted of 176 respondents. The second group consisted of students majoring in “Philosophy”, “Cultural studies”, “Journalism”, “Law”, “Social pedagogy”, “Speech therapy” and “Psychology”, and the third one involved future professionals in the field of general medicine, mathematics, geodesy, transport technologies (road transport).?

Discussion. It is important to mention that according to our understanding, people's national identity is their cognitive and emotional sense of belonging to a particular nation with the name, historical territory, common myths, historical memory, mass public culture, language, economy and common legal rights and obligations. It should be emphasised that the national identity exists only in a conscious form [3].

In order to outline the features of students' national identity development Jean Phinney's modified methods of ethnic identity measurement were applied [1]. They were adopted by L. Spivak [2]. The respondents were asked to determine whether they agreed with a number of statements which could be the endings of the following statement: «In terms of national identity I consider myself as...». These statements showed the features of their national identity as they helped to reveal the general and partial indicators of the students' national identity (the achievement of national identity, nationaloriented behaviour and attitude towards other nations). The lowest value of each indicator was 1 point, and the highest value was 4 points. The level of the indicators showed a certain number of points, namely: 34 high; 22.99 medium; 11.99 low.

The results of calculation of total indicators of the national identity in different groups of respondents are demonstrated in Table 1.

According to Table 1, the greatest number of the students in all groups had the high level of national identity. However, the greatest number of students with the high level were in the 1st group (66.29%), the smaller number was in the 2nd (58.52%) and the smallest one was in 3rd group (50.57%). It should be noted that the respondents with the high level spent a lot of time obtaining deep knowledge of their nation, history, culture, territory, state structure, traditions and customs. They were quite aware of their national identity, understood its importance and were proud of their national and cultural origin.

We think that the established differences between quantitative characteristics of the high level can be explained by the fact that the students from the 1st group were future Ukrainian History teachers or Ukrainian language and literature teachers; the students from the 2nd group majored in another fields (future lawyers, philosophers, political scientists, etc.); but the students from the 3rd group majored in technical disciplines, not in the humanities. It should be noted that while studying at higher educational institutions the respondents from the 1st group had profound knowledge in many field of studies which were taught to them (History of Ukraine, Archaeology, History of Ukraine in personalities, Historical study of local lore, Ukrainian ethnology, History of Ukrainian culture, History of Ukrainian language, Ukrainian literature, Oral folk art, Ethnopsychology, Religious studies, etc.), and underwent a compulsory practical training in the fields of Archaeology and Folklore which, in general, has greatly increased their level of national identity.

The students from the 2nd group studied a number of compulsory academic disciplines (History of Ukraine, Ukrainian language, History of Ukrainian culture), additional academic disciplines (Culture and technique of speech, Ethnic psychology, Religious Studies, etc.) which have quite significantly contributed to the development of their level of national identity.

The students from the 3rd group studied only such compulsory academic disciplines as Ukrainian history, Ukrainian language and History of Ukrainian culture which had a lesser impact on their overall level of national identity.

Therefore, due to the fact that the respondents from different groups studied different number of humanitarian academic disciplines which significantly contributed to the development of their national identity, the smallest number of the students with the medium and low levels were in the 1st group and the greatest in the 3rd group. At the same time, the level of their national identity was not high. Thus, the medium level of overall national identity was detected in 32% of students from the 1st group, 38.64% in the students from the 2nd group and 45.45% in the students from the 3rd group. The respondents with this level have insufficient knowledge of their nation, history, culture, territory, state structure, traditions and customs, because they have not spend much time obtaining it. Their understanding of national identity and its importance was not clear enough.

However, the low level of general indicator of national identity was demonstrated by 1.71% of students from the 1st group, by 2.84% of students from the 2nd group and by 3.98% of students from the 3rd group. The respondents with the low level of national identity have insufficient knowledge about their nation, history, culture, territory, state structure, traditions and customs. Their understanding of national identity was not deep enough.

Therefore, in the 1st group the number of the students with the high level of general indicator of national identity was the greatest while the number of the students with the medium and low levels was the smallest. In comparison with the students from the 1st group, in the 2nd group there were a small number of the students with the high level and a greater number of them with the medium and low levels of national identity. In comparison with the 1st and the 2nd groups, in the 3rd group the number of the students with the high level was the smallest and the number of the respondents with the medium and low levels was the greatest. The factor that contributed to these changes was the future profession of the respondents from all groups, which differently affected the development of their national identity.

In addition, it has been found that among the firstand the fifthyear students medium values of the general indicator of national identity in the 1st group increased from 2.8 to 3.3; in the 2nd group from 2.5 to 2.7; in the 3rd one from 2 to 2.1. We believe that the obtained results can be explained by systematic, longlasting and deep study of many academic disciplines by students from the 1st group that significantly increased their level of national identity. The fact that the students from the 2nd group studied humanities to some extent increased the level of their national identity. However, the fact that the students from the 3rd group studied only the compulsory humanitarian disciplines did not contribute to the development of their national identity.

The quantitative characteristics of the additional scale of the “achievement of national identity” by the students are demonstrated in Table 2.

According Table 2, the number of the students with the high level of national identity achievement in all groups is the greatest. However, the students from the 1st group had the most significant results (79.43%), the students from the 2nd group had lower results (71.59%) and the students from the 3rd group had the lowest ones (65.91%). It should be noted that the students with the high level of national identity have good knowledge of the culture and history of their nation as they spent a lot of time obtaining it independently and communicating with other Ukrainians. In addition, the respondents with the high level are characterised by deep awareness of the importance of their national identity.

A much smaller number of the respondents had medium level of national identity, namely: 18.29% of the students from the 1st group (the smallest number), 25% of the students from the 2nd group (a little bit more) and 29.55% of the students from the 3rd group (the biggest number). The respondents with this level had sufficient knowledge about the culture and history of their nation and understanding of the importance of their national identity.

The smallest number of the students in all groups had the low level of national identity. Namely: 2.28% in the 1st group (the smallest number), 3.41% in the 2nd group (a slightly bigger number) and 4.54% in the 3rd group (the highest number). The respondents with this level had partial knowledge of the culture and history of their nation and unclear understanding of their national identity.

In general, it should be noted that in comparison with the 2nd and the 3rd groups, the 1st group contained the biggest number of students with high level and the smallest number of students with the medium and low levels.

Quantitative characteristics of the additional scale of the “nationallyoriented behaviour” are demonstrated in Table 3.

Table 3 demonstrates that the biggest number of the respondents have the high level of nationallyoriented behaviour. However, their number in the 1st group (64.57%) is almost 1.5 times greater in comparison with the 3rd one (39.2%) and slightly exceeds the number of the respondents in the 2nd group (53.41%). The students with this level actively participate in national and cultural life they listen to music and attend concerts of mostly Ukrainian performers, they follow the national traditions and prefer dishes of the national cuisine.

In comparison with the high level, the quantitative characteristics of the medium level are almost 2 times lower than those in the 1st group (30.86%) and almost 1.5 times lower than those in the 2nd group (39.77%), and 1.2 times higher than those in the 3rd group (50.57%). The respondents with this level listen to the songs by the

Ukrainian performers and follow certain national traditions. Compared to the high and medium levels, the number of the students with the low level turned out to be the smallest. At the same time, the number of the respondents with this level is the smallest in the 1st group (4.57%), slightly greater in the 2nd group (6.82%) and the greatest in the 3rd group (10.23%). It should be noted that the students with the low level of nationallyoriented behaviour like culture and traditions of other nations.

In general, it should be emphasised that in comparison with the 3 rd group, the 1st and the 2nd groups had the biggest numbers of the respondents with the high and medium levels of nationallyoriented behaviour and the smallest number of the respondents with the low level.

The quantitative characteristics of the additional scale “attitude towards other nations” of studentsrespondents are demonstrated in Table 4.

Table 4 shows that the high level of attitude towards other nations is possessed by nearly half of the students from the 1st group (52.57%), twofifth of the students from the 2nd group (of 40.91%) and one third of the students from the 3rd group (of 32.39%). This level is confirmed by frequent communication and friendly relations of the respondents with the representatives of other nations which are accompanied by positive emotions. However, the medium level was recorded in almost one third of the students from the 1st group (32.57%), two fifth of the students from the 2nd group (39.2%) and of almost the same number of the students from the 3rd group (42.61%). This level is manifested by their frequent interactions and friendship with many other nations, which is accompanied by positive emotions. In comparison with the high and medium levels, the number of the respondents with the low level is the smallest, namely: 14.86% in the 1st group, 19.89% in the 2nd and 25% in the 3rd group. The respondents with this level feel comfortable interacting and making friends with the representatives of certain nations.

Conclusions. Therefore, the research results show that the greatest number of the students from the 1st group are characterised by the high level of general indicator of national identity, the indicators of additional scales, and the smallest number of the students are characterized by the medium and low levels. Compared to the 1st group, the smaller number of the students from the 2nd one have the high level of national identity and the greater number of the students have the medium and low levels. In comparison with the 1st and 2nd groups, the smallest number of the students from the 3 rd group have the high level of national identity and the greatest number of them have the medium and low levels. The factor which contributes to these differences is professional education of the respondents from these groups, which has different effect on the development of their national identity.

Summarizing the obtained results, we can conclude that the following social factors contribute to the development of the students' national identity: the professional training they receive in higher educational institutions; knowledge of the characteristics of their own and other nations that they receive independently and while interacting with the representatives of their own and other nations; the communication with the representatives of their nation; interaction with the representatives of other nations; psychological factors their positive attitude to the representatives of their nation; tolerant attitude towards the representatives of other nations. It should be emphasised that the issue of the main factors of students' national identity development present big potential for further empirical study.

REFERENCES

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3. Piontkovska, D. V. (2014). The problem of contrast between the Concepts of «National Identity» and «Ethnic Identity» in Psychological Science. European Applied Sciences, 1, 9193 [in English].

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