Graduate students’ civic orientation: applying and testing an instrument

Abstract This study assesses the civic orientation of graduate students via the “Importance of Social Action Engagement” scale and tests that instrument’s construct validity and reliability when applied to graduate students. The study contributes to our understanding of the levels of graduate studen...

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Main Author: Snejana Slantcheva-Durst
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Springer 2025-05-01
Series:Discover Education
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1007/s44217-025-00514-6
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author Snejana Slantcheva-Durst
author_facet Snejana Slantcheva-Durst
author_sort Snejana Slantcheva-Durst
collection DOAJ
description Abstract This study assesses the civic orientation of graduate students via the “Importance of Social Action Engagement” scale and tests that instrument’s construct validity and reliability when applied to graduate students. The study contributes to our understanding of the levels of graduate students’ willingness to engage with social issues, and to our ability to gauge those levels. The study’s results, based on a sample of 367 survey responses, reports on moderate levels of civic orientation amongst graduate students, and provides evidence of the construct validity and reliability of the instrument items when used with graduate students, and the overall instruments’ effectiveness in the initial exploration of graduate students’ orientation towards social engagement. The results offer useful feedback to graduate student program directors and faculty on the need to incorporate learning initiatives that actively engage their students with social issues, and suggest a viable tool to measure students’ civic orientation.
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spelling doaj-art-cf1b27f0786b4c528525d7ee127c7eeb2025-08-20T02:15:11ZengSpringerDiscover Education2731-55252025-05-014111410.1007/s44217-025-00514-6Graduate students’ civic orientation: applying and testing an instrumentSnejana Slantcheva-Durst0Department of Educational Studies, Judith Herb College of Education, University of ToledoAbstract This study assesses the civic orientation of graduate students via the “Importance of Social Action Engagement” scale and tests that instrument’s construct validity and reliability when applied to graduate students. The study contributes to our understanding of the levels of graduate students’ willingness to engage with social issues, and to our ability to gauge those levels. The study’s results, based on a sample of 367 survey responses, reports on moderate levels of civic orientation amongst graduate students, and provides evidence of the construct validity and reliability of the instrument items when used with graduate students, and the overall instruments’ effectiveness in the initial exploration of graduate students’ orientation towards social engagement. The results offer useful feedback to graduate student program directors and faculty on the need to incorporate learning initiatives that actively engage their students with social issues, and suggest a viable tool to measure students’ civic orientation.https://doi.org/10.1007/s44217-025-00514-6Graduate studentsCivic orientationSocial engagementInstrumentHigher education professionals
spellingShingle Snejana Slantcheva-Durst
Graduate students’ civic orientation: applying and testing an instrument
Discover Education
Graduate students
Civic orientation
Social engagement
Instrument
Higher education professionals
title Graduate students’ civic orientation: applying and testing an instrument
title_full Graduate students’ civic orientation: applying and testing an instrument
title_fullStr Graduate students’ civic orientation: applying and testing an instrument
title_full_unstemmed Graduate students’ civic orientation: applying and testing an instrument
title_short Graduate students’ civic orientation: applying and testing an instrument
title_sort graduate students civic orientation applying and testing an instrument
topic Graduate students
Civic orientation
Social engagement
Instrument
Higher education professionals
url https://doi.org/10.1007/s44217-025-00514-6
work_keys_str_mv AT snejanaslantchevadurst graduatestudentscivicorientationapplyingandtestinganinstrument