DEMOCRATIC ATTITUDE AMONG STUDENTS OF UNIVERSITY EDUCATION

Abstract:

The present study was descriptive survey type of research aiming at analyzing the democratic attitude of university education students of Nilamber Pitamber University, Daltonganj. The sample of 90 students from three different colleges of Nilamber Pitamber University was taken into consideration with the help of Democratic Attitude Scale of Uma Varshney (1969).  It was a matter of investigation to find whether there is any real significant difference between the male and female, rural and urban, graduate and post graduate students and between the students of science stream and arts stream. The result showed that post graduate and urban students were more democratic in compare to the graduates and rural groups respectively. The outcome also suggested that there is no effect of gender and streams on democratic attitude of students.

Introduction:

Democracy is the best known form of governance and also the best way of human life. For an ideal democratic society, each and every citizen must have to develop democratic attitude, keeping positive view to the ideals of democracy. Faith in democratic principles is essential for the citizens of India as only this can lead a successful democracy in practice. Although the most accurate description is of Abraham Lincoln, i.e., “democracy is a government of the people, by the people and for the people” but it also involves many other spheres of life other than the political ones. Democracy aims to establish political, economic and social equality and gives every individual a constitutional right to express his own opinion to associate with any group, to indulge in any legitimate action. Democracy also creates a conducive environment as providing equal opportunities and through developing brotherhood between the members of society. Justice also describes equality as all are equal against constitution and social justice as democracy provides an equal opportunity for the members who are on lower hierarchal order in society. What type of attitude has been developed or is developing in the students? Are they considering democratic value as important as other values in life? Are they actively practicing the democratic norms? We should know the role of students in new generation regarding democracy.

Review of literature regarding the present study discloses the importance of democratic value in society and it’s relation wjth other factors. Dave and Srivastava (1951); studied democratic attitude and the casual factors for the development of democratic attitudes among students. One of the finding concluded that there is a significant difference in students’ attitudes of the two schools in the area of understanding and tolerance, creative participation and respect for higher values of life while least difference is found in the attitudes towards the value of respect for individuality.

S.P. Ahluwalia examined the various notions about democracy in a research report prepared at the NCERT in 1963 (Notions about democracy: an exploratory study). He says on page 53, “This study reveals that there is considerable unanimity among the respondents on certain facets of democracy. Nevertheless, there still are differences of opinion in the matter of practical application of the general principles of democracy.

Perkovich (2004); came on conclusion about democratic society of India as – “Democratically managing a society as big, popular, diverse and culturally dynamic as India is a world historical challenge. If India can democratically lift all of its citizens to a decent quality of life without trampling on basic liberties and harming its neighbors, the Indian people will have accomplished perhaps the greater success in human history.”

Objectives of the Study:

            Following were the objectives of the study:

       I.          To find out the effect of gender on the democratic attitudes of students.

     II.          To find out the effect of residence (rural/urban) on the democratic attitudes of students  

   III.          To find out the effect of streams on the democratic attitudes of students.

  IV.          To find out the effect of educational qualification on the attitudes of students.

Methodology:

The only tool used in this study is ‘Democratic Attitude Scale’ constructed and standardized by Uma Varshney (1969). The sample was incidental because the subjects are easily available, no question of researcher’s choice arose and selection depends on chance. The sample of 90 students were taken from three different colleges; 30 from each college.

Results and Discussion:

Results pertaining to the set objectives are reported and interpreted. The scores were analyzed to find out means and standard deviation of the data groups. For testing the significance of difference of means;‘t’ test was employed.

Democratic attitude of male and female students:

There is no effect of gender on democratic attitude of students of university, i.e. male and female students are not different regarding their democratic attitudes in Palamu.

The variable was chosen for the study because of the reason that the previous study done on the value and value patterns indicates positive results, i.e., significant differences most of time. The related studies can be summarized as follows:

           

Dorothy (1952); found that man holds significantly higher political values than women; Mukhija (1970); found that male teacher gives more importance to power than the female ones. Transler and Vectione (1959) stated that male students are higher on political values while female students are higher on social values, etc. are the part studies showing gender as an important variable and also showing significant differences regarding value and value patterns. Democracy is one of the values and political or social values are very much related with democratic values.

It can be concluded that the students have same entry behaviour, equal structure of framework and high educational qualification and hence they possess equal democratic attitude irrespective of their gender.

Democratic attitude of rural and urban students:

There is a significant effect of locality on democratic attitude of students of university, i.e. urban and rural students are different regarding their democratic attitudes in Palamu.

Study of Tripathi (1966) concluded that city students were more political. Study of Dadu P. (1992) reveals that personality traits and religious attitude significantly different among rural and urban citizens.

It can be concluded that there is a reason for the significant difference result between the rural and urban prospective teachers regarding their democratic attitude.

Democratic attitude of science and arts stream students:

There is no effect of streams on democratic attitude of students of university, i.e. science and arts students are not different regarding their democratic attitudes in Palamu.

With reference to this finding Upadhyay (1972); studied effect of students stream on political values of University students. He concluded in the line that stream makes a significant affect to political values of University students.

            Khare (1968); also undertook the same variables and studied students different streams – political, social and other values. He concluded with result that stream makes significant effect to student’s values.

With reference to previous findings the result obtained in present investigation shows some opposite result that stream doesn’t make significant effect to democratic attitude. The insignificant result further can be explained as the equal environment of colleges about democratic values. All colleges are situated in palamu region and all have almost the same procedure of entrance irrespective of the streams.

Democratic attitude of post graduate and graduate students:

There is a significant effect of locality on democratic attitude of students of university, i.e. urban and rural students are different regarding their democratic attitudes in Palamu.

In reference to the present study, Kundu (1982); studied on “value pattern of college students and its relation to psychological variables.” The sample includes undergraduate and graduate students and recognizable value pattern were observable among college students. . Moreover, since the students of graduate and post-graduate are very much, a part of the democratic society, they are well indulged in the democratic values and democratic nature of our society. Although the postgraduates can analyze the developments and modernization processes more easily in compare to the graduates.. Thus, the differences in democratic attitude between them are not so uncommon.

Implications:

India is the largest democracy in the world. The four ideals of democracy viz. freedom, equality, fraternity and justice are the four pillars of Indian Constitution. Each and every Indian should live with and according to the constitution as it is the spirit of the Country.

This study has tremendous educational implications. Students should not forget their duty while speaking about or raising the behaviour up to the adequate level in terms of their overall development. Just indulging the content is not enough. Their mental faculties need to be trained so that they become the suitable citizens in future as for the spirit of the country.

Moreover, an investigator can investigate on so many points excluded from the present study. As for example, what type of development needed in rural areas to inculcate democratic attitude, and what type of that needed for the urban ones.

Conclusion:

The sample of 90 students were taken from three different colleges; 30 from three colleges of Nilamber Pitamber University. The conclusions obtained from the result reported are the following:

       I.          The male and female students have no significance difference on democratic attitude.

     II.          The urban students have more democratic values than rural ones.

   III.          The science students and arts students have no significance difference on democratic attitude.

  IV.          The postgraduate students have more democratic values than graduate ones.

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SUSHIL KUMAR TIWARI
LECTURER, FACULTY OF EDUCATION
JAMSHEDPUR CO-OPERATIVE COLLEGE, JAMSHEDPUR
EAST SINGBHUM; JHARKHAND
MO NO. -- 09835193084