Reflection of the value in practical plans of secondary school youth from country areas of Greater Poland – a pilot study of research approach

Abstract

Background The research on values constitutes an essential part of social research. These studies usually use an approach associated with the lists of values and their evaluations on scales, ranging or comparative. This approach is problematic, particularly in the situation of youth who are often characterized by low reflectiveness. One of the ways to achieve the value is to conduct research on practical plans. Participants and procedure The study involved 218 pupils from three lower secondary schools from the Greater Poland region. We used the card description of practical plans (“Timeline”), in which pupils described their intentions within perspectives ranging 5, 10, 15 and 20 years. The study was carried out during lessons, conducted by teachers. However, rather than the cognitive goal, the more essential aim was to estimate the usefulness of research tool. Results The presented data serves only to illustrate the possibilities of the tested research tool. The obtained descriptions identified a low crystallization of practical plans. In the context of values it is necessary to refer to the dominance of a materialistic and pragmatic approach, a family remains essential as a value, but self-fulfillment does not. Conclusions The study was primarily conducted to check whether the analysis of practical plans will be useful approach to examine values important for youth. In the study, issues of standardizing the research situation proved to be relevant – hence there was a demand to use the lesson script. The results show that this approach to research on values leads to valuable results.

Keywords

• lower secondary school pupils
• practical plans
• modern values
• value research method