Identity, political efficacy and expected political participation
among nursing students after 25th January revolution
University students' political participation is of great significance to their own growth and it facilitates a country's democratization process. This study was conducted to investigate the relationship of personal and social identity, political efficacy and expected political participation among nursing students after 25th January 2011 Revolution of Egypt. The study was conducted at the Faculty of Nursing, Alexandria University. A random sample of 50% of nursing students (N = 463) who enrolled in the four academic years of the faculty were included with no exclusion criteria. Data were collected in April- June 2011. The main results of the study showed that majority of nursing students perceived themselves as politically effective and have willingness to be active participants in political activities especially after 25th January revolution. In addition to a significant positive correlation between students’ identity and their political efficacy as well as their expected political participation, it is concluded that Nursing Education program should play a positive role in raising awareness through educating students about concepts of citizenship and the importance of political participation as means to achieve growth and development in their country. Furthermore, the atmosphere of the college may contribute to higher levels of political efficacy through enhancing sense of social and political identity among students.
Key words: 25th January Revolution, politics, political efficacy, political participation, university' students.
During the past two decades, Egypt has witnessed an enormous change in the way political affairs are handled. Egypt has a special demographic distribution of the youth bulge-where the youths make up the majority of the population. For this reason, it is important to assess the actual political participation of youths as a form of civic engagement and to estimate how much of the Egyptian youths today have a "sense of community" and thus how much have the potential to participate if directed to the right track [Mahgoub and Morsi, 2009].
Egyptian 25th January Revolution (Youth Revolution)
Prior to the big demonstration on 25th January revolution, Mahgoub and Morsi [2009] conducted a survey at American University in Cairo; they found that the majority of students said that they did not participate politically in their country for any election and they did not believe that youths in Egypt can make a change or difference by their political participation or interest. They concluded that there is a huge gap in Egyptian youth political participation and by not participating in their country’s political life, a major portion of Egyptian society is not represented politically and are thus more likely to be frustrated or disappointed with overall conditions. Another problem that was revealed by doing this research was the missing voice of youth within the Egyptian society [Mahgoub and Morsi, 2009]. Youths are not provided with the appropriate channels of communication and are not able to voice their ideas and their concerns towards their participation in the civil society. They are also not represented in accordance to their large number, but rather treated as any other faction in the Egyptian society [Mahgoub and Morsi, 2009; Halim, 2004].
On the 25th January, 2011, the whole of Egypt was taken by surprise; the young and the old, the rich and the poor, the civilian and the army and most of all President Hosni Mubarak. Nobody could have really believed that such protests would have gathered such strength. However, the demonstration, which then be-came the revolution, was started by the Egyptian youths after several years of protesting on social networks like Facebook and Twitter. Throughout the previous years, there were small demonstrations; but especially after the most recent fake parliament elections, it was obvious that corruption had increased and the protest groups became larger, which exploded on 25th January as revolution all over Egypt. This revolution is sometimes named the youth revolution [Ramses, 2012].
Nowadays, the younger generation such as university students is a significant and growing demographic of youths [Mannarini et al., 2008]. Many researchers have focused on the university students and their demo-graphics to assess the civic and political health of the nation’s new generations [Long and Meyer, 2011]. University students' political participation is of great significance to their own growth and it facilitates a country's democratization process. Therefore, educators must attach importance to investigate university students' identity, political participation and give them proper guidance [Tao, 2006].
School climate may enhance our sense of belonging in our community and social identity. This can be obtained through storytelling, which gives us an identity, allowing us to exist and function with one another. It is natural for us to communicate through narratives. The process of creating a sense of identity through story-telling allows us to participate in interpersonal relation-ships, while developing and maintaining a satisfying self-concept [Horrocks et al., 2006].
Egyptian university students have proven to be one of the most politically active segments of the population in 25th January revolution. Not only did they participated in protests, sit-ins and marches, they also attempted to take the revolution to their respective universities. The students’ protest movement has alternated between campus activism and street protests. Many students participated in the mass demonstrations that took place in public spaces such as Cairo's Tarhir Square. These students have the imagination to dream of a better life for themselves, and the energy to achieve it [Eskandar, 2010].
Study variables
A large body of work posits that self interest and positive feeling of personal and social identity are the primal forces for political interest, attitudes, efficacy and behaviors [Fowler and Kam, 2007]. Also, the concept of political efficacy has played a prominent role in studies on political behavior and political socialization. Political efficacy is defined as the “feeling that political and social change is possible and that the individual citizen can play a part in bringing about this change”. Acquisition of political efficacy is often seen as crucial for future participation as an active citizen in a democracy [Schulz, 2005].
In particular, there is large consensus that political efficacy comprises two dimensions; internal efficacy and external efficacy. Internal efficacy is an individual’s beliefs about his/her ability to understand as well as participate in politics. Alternatively, external efficacy refers to an individual’s beliefs about political actors or government institutions’ responsiveness to citizens’ demands, needs and wishes. External efficacy is more likely to be influenced by experiences with political participation than internal efficacy [Curran, 2008; Morrell, 2005].
Active political participation requires citizens to believe in their own ability to influence the course of politics, in other words, to feel politically efficacious [Eskandar, 2010]. Political participation can be defined as activity that has the intent or effect of influencing government’s action either directly by affecting the implementation of public policy or indirectly by influencing the selection of those policies [Verba et al., 2010]. There are mainly different forms of political participation. They include electoral participation, which refers to the expectation of becoming informed voter once being in legal age and including behaviors such as voting, getting informed prior to elections; political activities refer to the actual behaviors of being an active participant in politics as an adult and including behaviors such as writing letters to newspapers, joining a party, running for office; social movement activities refer to participating in community-based activities such as community volunteer work, collecting signatures, collecting money, participating in protest march/rally; and protest behavior is a form of unconventional but social activities which occur when dissatisfaction with political system occur and could be expressed illegally by spray-painting slogans, blocking traffic, occupying buildings [Schulz, 2005; Reichert, 2010; Torney-Purta et al., 2001].
Ultimately, an updated understanding of the current generation of university and colleges students’ views and attitudes on politics and political participation requires more than a literature review; thus, an updated research with college students could be timely and relevant topic for study, contributing an important element to the efforts for democratic revitalization: the voices of the youngest generation [Long and Meyer, 2011]. Little is known about the political attitudes and behaviors of today’s university nursing students.
Thus, the present study aims to clarify this issue by investigating the relationship of personal social identity, political efficacy and expected political participation among nursing students after 25 January 2011 Revolution of Egypt.
Research questions
1- How do nursing students perceive their identity, political efficacy and political participation?
2- Is there a relationship between feeling of identity, political efficacy and expected political participation among nursing students?
METHOD
Research design: a descriptive correlational design was used for the study.
Subject and setting
A sample of 50% nursing students (N = 463), who enrolled at the academic year (2011-2012) in the Faculty of Nursing, Alexandria University participated in this study.
The study instruments
Aspect of Identity Questionnaire (AIQ-IV) developed by Cheek and