engleski

Young people's attitudes towards members of their own nation and members of other nations: a view from Eastern Croatia

Changes occurring in the last two decades in Croatia are democratic and Europe-oriented and connected to multi-intercultural perspective. Students, as future agents of changes, have a special place in all processes. The main aim of this paper is to examine students’ attitudes towards their nation and to determine social distance to certain European nations and their willingness to participate in different relationships with other members in certain life situations. Specific problems of this research are directed at determining young people’s social distance to members of their and other nations regarding respondents’ gender and type of faculty. The research examined attitudes of 164 students of the University J.J. Strossmayer in Osijek at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, the Faculty of Law and the Faculty of Teacher Education. In order to determine young people’s attitude to own nation, formed under the influence of social processes in wider, international context, we have used Bogardus scale of social distance and attitude scale related to young people (dis)connectedness to their nation. The research results indicate that social distance, in a number of examined categories, is smaller than in previous researches, although having the same orientation. Taking into consideration the importance of interculturalism in Eastern Croatia, it is essential to create an extensive institutionalised approach to this issue

young people; social distance; ethnocentrism; intrcultural education

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