ENGAGING IN SERVICE: THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT ENGAGEMENT AND SOCIAL JUSTICE ATTITUDES
Open Access
- Author:
- Ziegler, Melisa Jill
- Graduate Program:
- Educational Psychology
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- June 08, 2017
- Committee Members:
- Stephanie L Knight, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
Stephanie L Knight, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Pui-Wa Lei, Committee Member
David Post, Committee Member
Kathy Lou Jackson, Outside Member - Keywords:
- measurement
mixed methods
social justice
service
undergraduate students
student engagement
Jesuit higher education
civic learning outcomes - Abstract:
- The purpose of this study was to describe the relationship between the extent and nature of undergraduate students’ engagement in service organizations and undergraduate students' social justice attitudes. The undergraduate students in this study participated in co-curricular, service organizations that focused on a variety of social justice and civic concerns. Based on Kahu’s (2013) conceptual framework of student engagement, a mixed-methods study with a quantitative emphasis (Johnson & Onwuegbuzie, 2004) was conducted in order to best address the research questions. The dependent variable, social justice attitudes, was measured using the Social Justice (SJ) scale from the Civic Attitudes and Skills Questionnaire (CASQ) (Moely, Mercer, Ilustre, Miron, & McFarland, 2002). Affective and cognitive engagement were measured by quantitizing two open-ended questions that assessed students’ feelings towards and learning as a result of their engagement in a service organization. These responses were coded on a scale of 1 (low engagement) to 3 (high engagement). Behavioral engagement was measured via two items: an effort scale of 1 (very little effort) to 10 (considerable effort) and an average of reported hours per week spent engaging in service organization activities. Students exhibited, on average, medium levels of affective, cognitive, behavioral (effort and time) engagement, M = 1.93 (SD = 0.76), M = 2.00 (SD = 0.50), M = 7.63 (SD = 1.81), and M = 3.00 (SD = 1.88), respectively. A linear regression was run to assess the relationship between scores on the student engagement measures and the SJ scale, while controlling for demographic characteristics (gender and college). The model was statistically significant (F(6, 79) = 2.59, p = .025) and college was the only statistically significant predictor (t = -3.14, p = .002) of social justice attitudes.