Wirkungsnachweis aus der Literatur

Langfristig (> 5 Jahre)
Mikro (Individuum)
Sozial

boost of attitudinal commitment to civic engagement for program graduates

gesellschaftliche Partizipation

A comparison of the responses of three subject groups - drop-outs, graduates and non-matriculants - appears to support the claims of those who believe youth service reinforces or boosts attitudinal commitment to civic engagement. Though all of the groups expose highly civic-regarding views, the graduates tend to be first among equals in this regard. The graduates have consistently higher mean civic attitudes than either the dropouts or the non-matriculants on most of the items. The graduates seem to have emerged from their TFA experience with an enhanced attitudinal commitment to service and civic life.

Beschreibung der Aktivität

Ausbildungsprogramm "Teach for America" für PraktikerInnen/ JugendarbeiterInnen
Ausbildung der PraktikerInnen/ JugendarbeiterInnen
USA
2 years (for completing the program)
2,771 individuals
PraktikerInnen/ JugendarbeiterInnen/ MentorInnen
PraktikerInnen/JugendarbeiterInnen/MentorInnen

Evaluierung der Aktivität

Quantitative Fragebogenerhebung (schriftlich/offline)
The study includes every individual who applied to and was accepted by TFA in the years 1993-1998. This population includes "graduates," "dropouts" and "non-matriculants." Graduates are those who completed the two year teaching commitment, dropouts are those who began the program but left sometime before completing the two years, and non-matriculants are those who were accepted by TFA but declined the offer. Whenever available, the survey was mailed to the applicant's last known address as provided by TFA.
Within the survey, the subjects were asked to to provide detailed information on their extra-curricular and volunteer service activities during college. The study authors thus have a behavioral measure of prior service commitment on which to compare the subjects.
Much of what I do is for a cause larger than myself; I support a policy that encourages all young people to perform at least one year of local or national public service after high school or college; I support a policy that requires all young people to spend one year performing some local or national public service; I am willing to go to great lengths to fulfill my obligations to my country; To me, the phrase "duty, honor, and country" stirs deeply felt emotions; I believe that citizens have an obligation to vote in elections.
All items are coded on a scale of 1 = strongly disagree, 2 = disagree, 3 = neither, 4 = agree, and 5 = strongly agree. Scale for obligation to vote is: 1 = not an obligation, 2 = a somewhat important obligation, 3 = a very important obligation.
Of the 2,771 individuals whom TFA told us they had accepted from 1993 through 1998, we were able to locate all but 230 using our various tracking procedures. These "missing" individuals were removed from our sample. We then mailed surveys to the remaining 2,541 accepted applicants. In response to our efforts, we received a total of 1,124 completed surveys for an overall response rate of 44.2 percent
The surveys were completed and returned from May of 2001 through April of 2002