Analysis and Interpretation of the Research Results

Of ten developmental tasks, eight (i.e. acquiring a social role appropriate for one’s sex; achieving emotional and economic independence from others; seeking a partner – love; establishing the system of values; choosing and preparing for a professional career; achieving more mature relations with friends – peers; obtaining self-knowledge; acquiring competences to fulfil school tasks) obtained the highest mean. Two tasks (understanding the phenomena of the social world (unemployment, politics, economy) as preparation for holding citizen roles, and changing and shaping the surrounding reality) were not fulfilled.Footnote ³ Noticing the existing deficiencies in school education was the reason to make an attempt at defining the elements of tasks that are not fulfilled. The assumption was to confirm cluster structures composed by the sentences ‘understanding the phenomena of the social world (unemployment, politics, economy) as preparation for holding citizen roles’ and ‘changing and shaping surrounding reality ’ and to indicate the occurring dominations. With the use of cluster analysis, the associations were calculated between particular identity behaviours which compose these developmental tasks. The distance of the association was expressed by the correlation coefficient: Pearson’s r – 1. The analysis of the studies conducted in 2003/2004 and in 2016/2017 revealed the occurrence of similarities in cluster structures of the examined sentences not only in the number of clusters and their inner structure but also in the strength of the association between particular behaviours. This can be exemplified by the dendrogram presenting the 2016/2017 research results (Figure 1).

Figure 1.

Dendrogram 1. Cluster structure of the developmental task: understanding the phenomena of the social world (unemployment, politics, economy) as preparation for holding citizen roles. N=248 – the studies of youth in 2016/2017. Agglomeration with the method of average weighted associations. Association distance: Pearson’s r – 1. (Source: own research.)

In the image of the sentence ‘understanding the phenomena of the social world (unemployment, politics, economy) as preparation for holding citizen roles’, the bipolar structure is clearly seen. Two substructures appeared (Figure 1). The first, with a clear strength of association (r = 0.362) (the interpretation of correlation coefficients r according to Guilford Reference Guilford1960), is composed of the behaviour patterns indicating the negative attitude to any forms of activity: ‘I do not like engaging in general matters, e.g. of my country’ /VA24/ and ‘I do not like holding any social functions’ /VA19/. The second substructure, with the strength of association r = 0.320, is composed of the behaviours manifesting a lack of understanding of the social world: ‘the rules which govern politics are quite incomprehensible to me’ /VA11/ and ‘it is hard for me to understand the phenomena of social life (unemployment, politics, economy’ /VA20/. Substructures I and II remain in a distinct but weak dependence (r = 0.213). This interrelation shows that identity behaviours determine one another to a distinct extent in such a way that fulfilling some of them in practice results in the occurrence of other behaviours.

Fulfilling this task mostly consists of developing instrumental skills, indispensable in shaping citizen competences, which determine the social participation of youth. The activities of educational institutions are aimed at developing the skill of understanding the notions of law, government, politics, geography and social institutions responsible for the modern world. All this enhances the shaping of competences to handle the problems of democracy and the development of interpersonal relations.

Broadening one’s influence on society’s functioning takes place through undertaking citizen duties and responsibilities. Reaching the age of majority implies active voting rights, the use of which can be viewed as a mechanism that influences the development of social and political life.

In the image of the sentence ‘changing and shaping surrounding reality’, the bipolar structure appears as well. The behaviour patterns constituting the image of this developmental task reveal divergences between wishes (substructure I is composed of the variables: ‘I want to take part in activities for the local environment in which we live’ /VA39/ and ‘there are matters in the world in which I will engage (movements for environmental protection, peace)’ /VA38/, r = 0.529) and the actual activity of the surveyed youth (substructure II is composed of the behaviours ‘I am engaged in the movement for environmental protection’ /VA17/ and ‘I make efforts to act for the nearest local environment (town, village)’ /VA16/, r = 0.357). Both substructures (I and II) are interrelated – r = 0.316, the dependence is evident (Figure 2). They are completed with the identity behaviour ‘I think I am able to change the world and myself’ /VA3/. The rank of this relation r = 0.166 implies a weak correlation. This correlation indicates a broader context of fulfilling this task – youth’s low feeling of self-effectiveness.

Figure 2.

Dendrogram 2. Cluster structure of the developmental task: changing and shaping surrounding reality. N=248 – the studies of youth in 2016/2017. Agglomeration with the method of average weighted associations. Association distance: Pearson r – 1. (Source: own research.)

The results of both the 2003/2004 and 2016/2017 studies revealed some educational deficiencies when it comes to youngsters fulfilling the two discussed tasks: ‘understanding the phenomena of the social world (unemployment, politics, economy) as preparation for holding citizen roles’ and ‘changing and shaping surrounding reality’. Compared with the results of the earlier studies, young people’s feeling of understanding the phenomena of the social world has slightly decreased (from =1.84 to = 1.89; change: 2.5%) and the belief in the capability of changing and shaping the surrounding reality has increased (from =1.93 to =1.89; change: –2.3%).

What can be noticed in the case of the discussed tasks is the lack of explicit support in elaborating them by society and school education. Society seems to be very poor in educational programmes which – in a pragmatic sense – bring adolescents closer to the problems of functioning in adult social life.

Fulfilling developmental tasks should be viewed in the context of social expectations correlated with school curricula. The curriculum of the school subject ‘knowledge of society’, implemented by the surveyed group, was not aimed at the practical preparation of learners for fulfilling various social roles. It was focused on knowledge rather than skills and experiencing or solving social problems. In the core curriculum of this subject, binding in the school year 2016/2017, the teaching goals were formulated in six fields: (I) The use and production of information. (II) Recognizing and solving problems. (III) Collaboration in public matters. (IV) Knowledge of the principles and procedures of democracy. (V) Knowledge of the foundations of the political system in the Republic of Poland. (VI) Knowledge of human rights and their protection. Transfer of knowledge and its familiarization dominate these general requirements. Only field III (collaboration in public matters) comprises the following statement: ‘The learner collaborates with others – plans, shares tasks and fulfils them; skilfully uses the procedures and possibilities offered by the institutions of public life; knows and makes use of the principles of self-organization and self-support’ (Core curriculum of the subject ‘knowledge of society’ 2011).

The deficiencies in youth’s fulfilling the discussed tasks seem to confirm that Polish school education is dominated by teaching that is detached from practice and that learners are not prepared for taking up adult social roles through active participation in public life. The lack of fulfilling these tasks by the young results from a process of legitimizing that ensures ‘the loyalty of the masses’ and perpetuates existing cultural patterns without co-participation in social or public life (some explanations of this might be provided by, for example, Jürgen Habermas’s theory of communicative action; Habermas Reference Habermas1981).

It should be noticed that despite the occurrence of some problems typical of the whole population of youth, girls and boys attribute different ranks to the developmental tasks. The natural biological differences overlap with social views on male and female roles, binding behaviour patterns and methods of upbringing. Gender is a factor that differentiates the feeling of fulfilling the task ‘understanding the phenomena of the social world (unemployment, politics, economy) as preparation for holding citizen roles’ (r = 0.295 for p < 0.001 in the studies conducted in 2003/2004; r = 0.196 for p < 0.05 in 2016/2017), as well as the task ‘changing and shaping surrounding reality’ (r = 0.201 for p < 0.001 in the studies conducted in 2003/2004; r = 0.168 for p < 0.05 in 2016/2017). Gender determines the way and the quality of a person’s functioning. Girls and boys react differently to particular tasks. The sources of this phenomenon can be found in their unequal physical development and in educating the youth depending on their sex. The stereotypes, into which the young get routed due to socialization practices, impose certain expectations on girls and boys. The traditional family model, which dominates in Polish culture, as well as the cultural context of assigning male and female duties, determine the significance attributed to the developmental tasks in adolescence.

The research carried out in 2016/2017 also revealed that parents’ education (r = 0.184 for p < 0.028) and the type of school (r = 0.179 for p < 0.015) determine the fulfilment of the task ‘understanding the phenomena of the social world (unemployment, politics, economy) as the preparation for holding citizen roles’. The type of school determines fulfilling the task ‘changing and shaping the surrounding reality’ as well (r = 0.193 for p < 0.013). Family and school are educational environments with a particular sociocultural capital which determines the acquisition of developmental tasks. Better potentialities of collecting experience, of managing in real situations, and of increasing their competences are typical both of the youth coming from families with a higher status of parental education and of learners from vocationally profiled schools, who efficiently combine theory and practice.

Social participation as viewed by Modrzewski is an aspect and manifestation of the individual’s life. One of these manifestations is ‘taking or standing for a particular position in the social structure’ (Modrzewski Reference Modrzewski2004, 52). In the studies relative to 2016/2017 the surveyed youth place themselves in the space of school, class, group of peers or friends. The young take particular social positions, they have a certain social status and belonging to a group is of special significance to them (declared by 84.11% of the respondents).

The implementation of social participation takes place through the functioning and behaviour of the individual as well as through contacts with others. Most of the respondents do not act for the nearest local environment (town, village), they are not engaged in, for example, activities for environmental protection (69.01%). In the future, 46.35% of the respondents do not intend to engage in issues important to the wider world (e.g. the movement for peace).

The research has revealed a certain bipolarization of youth’s declarations and behaviours (42.70% of the young declare their commitment to general issues, 39.32% decline all forms of engagement).

Social participation is defined, among other things, by notions such as social knowledge and social identity. The social knowledge of the examined youth mostly concerns the region in which the respondents live. The majority claim to be familiar with their cultural heritage (71.61%). Without doubt, this results from school activities promoting regional education. Over half of the respondents (54.42%) want to maintain the customs, rituals and traditions of their region, and 66.93% identify themselves with the territory, region, local area, place (as earlier studies have shown, place is an important dimension of identity (Szczurek-Boruta Reference Szczurek-Boruta2016, 59–73). In the examined group, the dominating form of identity is local identity – it provides the foundation for engaging in activities for people and groups from the nearest environment with whom the individual identifies. This becomes a favourable condition for building other forms of identity, which in my opinion might lead to shaping citizen identity.