What are the differences in the values of young people from the Czech Republic and Slovakia?

Thanks to the support from Erasmus+ program Slovak and Czech national youth councils have been implementing a project called Youth values. The project started in July 2019 and ends in October 2021. Our aim is to research selected values of young people in Slovakia and the Czech Republic with the focus on finding patterns of commonalities and differences between the countries that were once unified in a federation. Additionally, our aim is to compare the values of general youth population with those of young people who are active in youth organizations.

This innovative approach helps us to deepen and enrich our understanding of the importance of youth work. With the help of these findings we strive to increase societal and expert recognition and provide foundation for evidence-based discussions about youth policy and young people in general.  By raising these important issues we further promote the importance of values in education and society in general and what crucial role do youth organisations play in this process.

The study focused on a few key areas of values. The main values overview was provided by Schwartz conceptual framework of values. Additionally we looked at values connected to democracy and trust, prosocial behavior, participation and engagement, self-efficacy, gender equality and topics which continuously evoke heated discussions in our society.

 

An inherent part of the project are the infotainment activities, which aim to spread the research findings and present them in an innovative and entertaining way to reach as many people as possible. We aim to develop tools for digital youth work (little did we know while writing the project proposal how crucial this will become in these pandemic years ) to enhance the interactive dialogue of the online world and offline in individual learning. These tools include a values compass (an interactive tool that estimates one’s value profile), an app for values game, series of podcasts on selected topics, photo competition, and numerous interactive discussions on the importance of selected values.