engleski

Eastern Croatian Youth’s Perception of the Multicultural Reality

In most democratic societies, schooling is recognized as a key means by which young people are educated for multicultural reality. It has long been recognized that young people have a key role in the process of strengthening democracy and promoting cosmopolitan citizenship. 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 pieces of research, 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; interculturalism; different nationalities

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