Readiness and motivation in digital civic engagement among tertiary students

Reviewed by: Civic Engagement in Higher Education: Concepts and Practices Jennifer Gilbride-Brown Civic Engagement in Higher Education: Concepts and Practices. Barbara Jacoby and Associates. San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass Publishing, 2009, 265 pages, $40.00 (hardcover) Ambiguity abounds when conceptualizing the term, “civic engagement.” Higher education finds itself in a moment where parameters and definitions are needed in order to move its civic initiatives forward. Institutions are asking the question, “What do we mean by civic engagement?” The latest book from Barbara Jacoby and Associates, Civic Engagement in Higher Education: Concepts and Practices, offers a response and provides insight into what educating students for civic engagement might entail. Jacoby (2009) argues: If civic engagement is to gain real traction in today’s higher education, it must be clearly defined, and civic learning outcomes must be established. Opportunities to learn about and practice civic engagement must be embedded throughout the curriculum and the co-curriculum. This book shows how all this can be done, and is being done, at higher education institutions around the country. (p. 2) Drawing from expertise around the country, the contributing authors in this book offer a wide range of perspectives and examples while drawing from the rich base of research upon which civic engagement work can and must rest. The intended audience is broad and ranges from entry and midlevel professionals on the forefront of civic engagement initiatives to assistant/associate deans/directors who supervise them. This book has clear implications for policymakers, foundations, and associations. Fundamentally, this is a book for anyone who is charged with enacting the civic mission of higher education and is an important resource for determining what might be accomplished. This edited book is divided into two sections. The first section provides a structure for conceptualizing civic engagement grounded in its historical context and includes an exploration of the dimensions of civic learning. The second section investigates a wide range of civic engagement initiatives, both curricular and co-curricular, happening across the country in diverse institutional contexts. The book flows like a conversation among the authors with many of the contributors referring to the important conceptual and historical mapping offered in the opening chapters. In the introductory chapter, Barbara Jacoby takes on the challenge at hand, getting one’s mind around what is civic engagement and what do we mean by “educating students for civic engagement.” In many ways, the work of civic engagement has pushed ahead with fragmented and loose understandings of what it is in the first place. She cites a review of research done by Lester and Salle (2006) that listed thirty-three recent studies on service-learning of which only three included any definition of civic engagement. Drawing heavily from the work of CIRCLE (Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning & Engagement) and the Coalition for Civic Engagement and Leadership at the University of Maryland-College Park (2005), Jacoby [End Page 567] defines civic engagement as: acting upon a sense of responsibility to one’s communities. This includes a wide range of activities, including developing civic sensitivity, participating in building civic society, and benefiting the common good . . . Through civic engagement, individuals-as citizens of their communities, their nations, and the world-are empowered as agents of positive social change for a more democratic world. (p. 9) She concludes with a thorough overview of leadership in this area that can easily double as a quick reference guide to the many higher education associations and initiatives working to drive civic engagement today. This opening chapter lays important groundwork and captures the current state of affairs in civic engagement across the country. The first section also contains a chapter reviewing civic engagement research over the last 10 years written by Mark Hugo Lopez and Abby Kiesa, both of whom provide leadership on research through CIRCLE. Caryn McTighe Musil of AAC&U completes this opening section by offering a creative and useful conceptualization of what we mean by “educating students for personal and social responsibility.” The second section builds from these definitions and frameworks by examining current practices that shed light on strategies and pitfalls of integrating civic engagement across an institution. Other movements in higher education such as...

<p>In this article, the authors have carried out a comparative analysis of students’ civic engagement in Ukraine and Canada. They have surveyed the students at Pavlo Tychyna Uman State Pedagogical University and compared the findings with the results of a study done by the Canadian researcher Catherine Broom at British Columbia University. Based on the research findings, the authors have identified Ukrainian students’ personal political and civic experience levels and compared them with the Canadian results. The study reveals Ukrainian students’ attitudes towards political and civic participation, democracy, the government in general and in comparison with Canadian data. The research results have identified the following key factors that influence Ukrainian students’ civic activity: students’ free time activities their attitudes and beliefs. According to the survey, gender, religious involvement, personality type, and family’s political involvement do not directly influence the students’ civic engagement. The survey has not reported any influence of school social study courses on civic engagement, stressing the importance of real-life experiences that result in attitudes and intrinsic motivation. The authors have also revealed examples of motivations and barriers for youth civic involvement.</p>

Internet use and civic engagement: A structural equation approach

In Germany, like in other countries, the notions of volunteering and civic action altogether describe a wide diversity of activities. Often, this wide spectre is put together under ‘civic engagement’, reaching from civic action that is sometimes overtly ‘political’ over to engagement as volunteering in areas like sports or culture. Yet in academic contributions that use such a wide concept, nothing much can be found about a convincing differentiation of the diverse forms of engagement that figure under such a wide cover. Is there a clear line separating voluntary and civic action? In line with the introduction to this special issue, the paper takes up these questions by proposing that a proper understanding of differentiations in the wide field of civic engagement calls for a historical approach that gives a key role to discourses and politics. Looking from such a perspective at historical constellations in German history, four decisive historical concepts get sketched. It shows that kinds of differentiation between voluntary and civic action are very much dependent on discourses and politics and not only the repercussions of socio-economic and cultural changes and megatrends. The kind of approach chosen shows as well that older concepts, notions and attitudes do not simply melt away in the light of new ones. The label ‘civic engagement’ appears as an umbrella notion in front of a diversity of forms and understandings of engagement. Understanding this diversity calls for tracing the historical roots, notably the ordering imaginaries and strategies wherein these forms and understandings took shape and function today.

<p><span lang="EN-US">The standards of research depend on the maintenance and coordination of research activities that are conducted by the teachers in higher education institutions. The flexibility in ordinances and statutes empowers the higher education institutions to frame the guidelines that empower the research competence of the teachers. This descriptive research has collected the data from 451 regular teachers of higher education institutions from different areas of discipline for the research. The results of the study show that there is a significant difference in measures of the perceptions of the teachers towards the relationship between organization ethos and research competence in higher education institutions. The study indicates the practical and academic importance for teachers to enhance research performance of higher education institutions.</span></p>

Previous research demonstrates two aspects of religion that affect civic activity—church participation and religious conservatism. Conservative religious beliefs and membership in conservative denominations are often associated with low levels of civic activity while church participation is said to increase civic activity. This article advances the discussion of the relationship between religion and civic participation by introducing the congregational context. Data from the 1987 Church and Community Planning Inventory show that congregations vary in their members’ civic activity—congregational factors associated with conservative Christianity (high levels of biblical literalism and within‐church friendships) are strongly and negatively associated with church members’ activity in nonchurch organizations. At the individual level, the data show that education and participation in church activities other than religious services have particularly strong, positive effects on church members’ activity in nonchurch organizations. The findings demonstrate that a conservative congregational context limits church members’ activity in nonchurch organizations, potentially limiting their opportunities to build heterogeneous social networks and social capital that bridges church members to other people in their communities.

Civic engagement is an important dimension of age-friendly communities but has been understudied among Asian immigrant groups. While research has attributed greater civic engagement among immigrants to acculturation factors, the influence of acculturation may be conditioned upon Asian immigrants’ social network and place attachment to their city. We used data from the Asian American Quality of Life survey to analyze civic engagement activity (e.g., City council meeting, voting in a City election) among a diverse sample of middle-aged and older Asian immigrants in Austin, Texas (N = 994). 34.5% of the sample had participated in at least one civic engagement activity in the past 12 months. We examined how such civic engagement is associated with acculturation factors, and further examined whether one’s friend network and perception of their city moderated the association. We found that number of years lived in the U.S., familiarity with mainstream American culture, and number of friends in one’s social network were positively related to civic engagement activity. Furthermore, we found that the association between years lived in the U.S. and civic engagement was more pronounced for immigrants with larger friend networks; the association between familiarity with American culture and civic engagement was more pronounced for immigrants with more positive perceptions of the city. These findings highlight that acculturation may not operate alone in civic engagement among Asian immigrants. Rather, it may also be important to create opportunities for Asian immigrants to feel connected to their community and build meaningful friend networks to encourage civic engagement.

Purpose: The current paper explores the role of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in re-building post-war Sudan for sustainable development and peace resilience. Design/Methodology/Approach: The paper takes an empirical analytical approach used in light of theoretical framework applications relevant to the topic. A structured questionnaire (open questions) was designed via an online Google form. Research limitations: The designed questionnaire was only distributed to vice chancellors of Sudanese universities and Directors of Peace Centres affiliated to HEIs in Sudan as key informants. Findings: The role of HEIs in re-building post-war Sudan can be exemplified in the adoption of education for reconciliation programmes to foster co-existence and tolerance amongst different ethnic groups. Research and knowledge on the root causes of conflicts in Sudan should be undertaken and disseminated. Training and capacity building programmes should be designed to raise individuals’ and community awareness on conflict resolution. In addition, social cohesion and civic engagement, influencing public policies related to post-conflict recovery, networking and partnerships with development and peace building curators, local leaders and community outreach should be promoted. There must be peace building and resilience in addition to maintenance of the devastated environment and natural resources. Originality/value: This scientific contribution is an original research based on relevant concepts. The results of this contribution could be used by all Sudanese universities individually or collectively to take part in re-building Sudan after the war for sustainable development and peace resilience. Keywords: Sudan HEIs; Peace Resilience; Post-Conflict; SDGs; Sudan Post-Conflict. Citation: Abdalla, M. A., Makeen, M. A. and Mohammed, M. H. (2025): Putative Role of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in Re-Building Sudan Post-War for Sustainable Development and Peace Resilience. International Journal of Innovation and Knowledge Management in Middle East and North Africa (IJIKMMENA), Vol. 10, No. 1/2, pp. 81-91.

This research aims to apply confirmatory factor analysis to identify the enterprise architecture components for higher education institutions. The research sample comprised 300 personnel from agencies within higher education institutions, which are higher education institutions under the Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation that use the database system of educational quality assurance called Commission on Higher Education Quality Assessment online system (CHE QA Online). The selection resulted from multi-stage random sampling from 100 higher education instructions. The research tool was an online questionnaire form on factors influencing the enterprise architecture in the digital transformation for higher education institutions by 5-level rating scale based on the Likert's scale. The result revealed that the enterprise architecture factor is consistent with empirical data (p-value = 0.370), which comprise 5 components: 1) Business 2) Data/Information 3) Application 4) Infrastructure and 5) Security. The research findings help higher education institutions design their blueprint for the institutional transformation to a digital organization.

<span lang="EN-US">In Malaysia, higher education institutions (HEIs) have made significant efforts to integrate micro-credentials into their educational systems. However, the status of micro-credentials among these institutions remains ambiguous. Furthermore, there is a few research on university leaders in Malaysia. As a result, a study was conducted to investigate the preparedness of university leaders in implementing micro-credentials within HEIs. This research aimed to unveil the interconnected relationship among key stakeholders and emphasize the necessity for university leaders to reevaluate their roles and perspectives within their respective institutions. The current study used a qualitative approach via a case study method involving five informants from university leaders in public HEIs in Peninsular Malaysia. For data collection and analysis, this study used focus group discussion and thematic analysis respectively. The data analysis led to the development of the major themes that emerged from findings: i) the conceptualization of micro-credentials; ii) human capitals; iii) infrastructures; iv) accreditation; and v) accountability, all of which are referred to as challenges faced by university leaders. The current study hopes that the top university leaders are able to demonstrate clear vision and unwavering commitment that can contribute to the successful integration of micro-credentials within the HEI landscape.</span>

Given increasing calls for higher education to promote students’ civic and political engagement, the Consortium for Inter-Campus SoTL Research (CISR) was established to facilitate cross-campus data collection for civic engagement and pedagogy research. CISR’s inaugural project, the National Survey of Student Leaders (NSSL), is the first effort to rely on scholarly insights about the role of voluntary associations play in political socialization to systematically assess the quality of the learning experiences provided by student clubs and organizations. The NSSL provides higher education institutions with the means to regularly assess whether civil society on campus promotes the priorities of the civic engagement movement. This article relays findings from the first wave of the NSSL, while increasing familiarity with the type of campus-level data available from this new assessment tool.

What are the circumstances which allow for a civil society network contestation to be successful in changing international policy? What is the role of specific civic actors within these networks? Studies about transnational networks have often focused on impact and effectivenesshow a policy can be altered, how a country's international relations are influencedbut these analyses are still to some degree state-centric. They focus on the national and international conditions which allow for the success or failure of transnational civil society campaigns. My intention, with this dissertation, is to focus on the interaction between civil society and states, and the conditions within civic actors and networks which allow for a campaign to be successful. My focus in on the Brazilian civil organization FASE (Federation of Organizations for Social and Educational Assistance), which lent its expertise and contacts to Mozambican civil society in the contestation of the trilateral cooperation project ProSavana. The research questions ask: What are FASE's internal, fundamental characteristics which allow for impactful transnational contestation? How has FASE contributed to the 'No to ProSavana' campaign? The spiral model and boomerang effect, explored within the literature of transnational civil society, provide a fruitful methodology, as well as several hypotheses. The boomerang effect relates to the domestic civil society bypassing the state in order to acquire transnational support in their struggle, allowing for a contestation 'from below' and 'from above'. The spiral model is a fivephased process, with the success of each phase being depended on the gathering of information, relevance to the international agenda, strengthening of domestic civil society, and continuous pressure on the state. These frameworks are relevant when considering ProSavana and the attention gathered during the last ten years, as these three States -Brazil, Japan, and Mozambiquetried to justify and implement their controversial model of agriculture in the African country's underdeveloped lands. Evidence presented here, provided by reports, news articles and interviews, suggests that the strength and quality of FASE's role in the first steps of the contestation and assembly of the network can be explained by its institutional complexity and expertise, granted by its 60 years of existence. Its participation in the 'No to ProSavana' network was important to strengthen Mozambican civil society claims, which allowed for the significant end of ProSavana in 2020.

Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) play a crucial role in a nation's development, making it essential for their growth to align with sustainable and environmentally friendly practices. Considering their fundamental role in teaching students at several levels, HEIs should exemplify sustainability. This study seeks to integrate educational indicators into a sustainable assessment tool (SAT) to evaluate green HEIs in Malaysia, addressing the urgent demand for sustainable development and the existing deficiency of green HEIs in the country. Although Malaysia has developed various SATs, none are suitable for evaluating green HEIs due to the lack of education-related indicators. To accomplish the research aim, this study has two objectives: to analyze potential education indicators and to propose suitable education indicators. As far as the authors are aware, the Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE) in Malaysia has not introduced any specific guidelines for incorporating sustainable education criteria into HEIs. The study employs a qualitative and quantitative data collection method via a questionnaire survey in 9 selected public HEIs in Malaysia, targeting academicians from specific faculties to validate these education indicators. The questionnaire survey results were analyzed using descriptive analysis with the aid of SPSS software, and the results have identified 30 important education indicators that should be considered in measuring sustainable HEIs. The top five indicators were identified as: (1) funding for program development, (2) funding for research and innovation, (3) funding for training, (4) sustainable courses, and (5) sustainable research. The findings will initially support the MOHE, policymakers, and green associations in creating a dedicated evaluation tool for assessing the green campus and guide other Malaysian HEIs in their journey toward becoming green campuses.

The outbreak of Corona Virus Disease-2019 (COVID-19) has forced higher education institutions (HEIs) worldwide to adopt electronic learning (e-learning), the delivery of learning through digital resources. As e-learning is growing, HEIs have become more interested in knowing students’ readiness to adapt to the new learning environment, use new technologies, and be involved in self-directed learning. However, HEIs in less-economically developed countries like the Philippines, are challenged in the transition to e-learning due to the financial capabilities of the students and teachers. This study was conducted to determine the readiness of students for e-learning during the COVID-19 era and its association with demographic variables. A quantitative approach based on survey method was used to collect data from 880 students from HEIs in Northern Mindanao, Philippines, through an online questionnaire. Findings revealed that majority of the respondents scored low in the Online Learner Readiness Self-Assessment (OLRS). Respondents who have low readiness scores in OLRS were more likely younger, female, and in the low-income class, rural area, and private HEI. Age, sex, family income class, and living area of the students were associated with low readiness scores in OLRS. This study provides some implications based on the findings.

Higher education institutions (HEIs) play an important role in achieving and promoting sustainable development in their surroundings and integrating with communities. They can be considered as central agents for sustainable development due to their ability to deal with challenges, opening opportunities for the creation of local or global smart solutions, linking the academic community, civil society, decision-makers and stakeholders. Accounting for sustainability in terms of physical data and presenting this information in a clear and meaningful way goes some way to addressing the major challenges and risks posed by sustainability-related issues. The work presented in this article examines how a global analysis of the publication output from HEIs can provide a measureable metric for sustainability in their operational management, research and teaching activities. This investigation is achieved using a data mining method based on a semi automatic approach for the recognition, correlation and extraction of named entities and relations from textual documents.