The development of Canadian student's political conceptions

The Development of Canadian Students' Political Conceptions Theoretical and Methodological Considerations for an Initial Enquiry

Edmund Sullivan, Niall Byrne, and Mary Stager/OISE

Two major considerations underlie a set of proposals, outlined in this paper, for a different technology of investigating the psychology of political development in Canadian children and adolescents. First, the paper deals with Hodgetts' (1968) findings, which point out a clear need for further study of the development of political orientations of Canadian students. Second, the paper surveys the typically normative, atheoretical, and methodologically constraining approaches of American investigations of political development in children. Recommendations are advanced to facilitate theory-building and methodological improvement in future investigations. Specific suggestions deal with the construction of an instrument that will elicit scorable information.

II y a deux considerations principales qui forment la base des propositions pr6sentEes dans cet article visant ?~ une technologie diffErente d'~tudier la psychologie du dEveloppement politique des enfants et des adolescents canadiens. Premi~rement, cet article traite des conclusions de Hodgetts (1968) qui signalent la nEcessitE d'une ~tude plus poussEe du dEveloppement des orientations politiques des Etudiants canadiens. Deuxibmement, cet article examine les approches typiquement normatives et nonthEoriques des Etudes am6ricaines du d6veloppement politique chez Ies enfants; cette mani~re d'aborder Ie probl~me est restrictive du point de vue m&hodologique. On fait des recommandations afin de faciliter la construction des theories et le progr~s mEthodologique dans les Etudes ~ venir. Des suggestions sp6cifiques touchent ~ la construction d'un instrument qui obtiendra des renseignements qu'on peut noter.

Politics has long been a game, a life, a love belonging to the adult world. But its effects reach the younger world, and as we have seen recently (in Paris, Rome, Berkeley, New York, or Montreal), the younger world is increasingly reaching for it. The pervasiveness of youthful concern with politics forces us, we suggest, to attend and investigate not through the eyes of historical political theories that have emphasized the interactive relationships of adult citizens and state, but by seeking out the developmental paths that lead young people to accept, modify, or reject the political system.

By and large, the training that allows youth to have access, as equals, to the political system, is carried on by the environment at large, with the assumption that

Interchange/Vol. 1, No. 3/1970

somehow sufficient stimulation to inculcate societal (and thus, political) norms will be provided. In in- stances where this general training program is forma- lized for those members of society who are considered immature and are found mainly in elementary and high schools and universities, emphasis is placed on the permanent and normative aspects of the political order. There is little attention to change mechanisms, except for occasional pragmatic perspectives on the efficacy of cautious, slowly changing political process.

In liberal democracies, such as Canada, the immaturity to which we allude is typically associated with lack of voting privileges. At present, the age of 21 (with a few exceptions in provincial elections) marks the formal transition from immaturity to maturity and the attainment of full citizenship.

The traditional preoccupation of political observers has been with adult citizens and their political behavior primarily because only the enfranchised adults influence the affairs of state or the lives of politicians. Political scientists and philosophers have contributed to this preoccupation by ignoring in their writings the development of political conceptions in the immature and by limiting their efforts to the final state of this development in the mature.

The present paper attempts to deal with some concepts of politics that Canadian children develop and articulate as they grow to adulthood. This process of development involves questions centering on the formation of relationships between the citizen, his government, and its auxiliary institutions. We pursue explicitly political and nominally nonpolitical learning that affects the child's image of the political system and his own attitudinal and behavioral response to this image. In the political development process, the child comes to know about the functioning and the structure of government, and about less formal aspects such as political parties, pressure groups, and public opinion. In addition, our questions assume that the child de- velops feelings of involvement with, and civic responsibility to participate in, the political community, as well as a realistic assessment of his own limits as a political actor. In a sense, our questions also assume, implicitly, the development of an ideal citizen living in a liberal democracy, but we have reason to think that this ideal is not achieved. Nevertheless, our information should be educationally useful, since the study may necessi- tate more careful consideration of Canadian studies programs in the future. At present there are very few

The Development of Canadian Students' 57 Political Conceptions

studies that attempt to explore the development of political conceptions in Canadian children.

The vast majority of studies of political development, thus far, have been carried out in the United States (e.g., Easton & Dennis, 1967). The two most extensive studies are that of New Haven children in the fourth to eighth grades (Greenstein, 1965) and a much larger sample of second to eighth grade children in two cities in each of the four American geographic regions (Hess & Torney, 1967). Greenstein dealt with knowledge of and attitudes toward specific leaders, parties, and issues and obtained his data through questionnaires and interviews; Hess and Torney used questionnaires to investigate a slightly broader area of political socialization, namely, the growth of interest in the nation, its government, and the rise of the desire to participate in the political process.

As already indicated, there has been no comparable work done in Canada in the area of political development, despite the fact that the "products" of this country's socialization process are, as Hodgetts (1968) documents, extremely unsatisfactory and lacking in a conception of a Canadian political culture and heritage. As a historian of Canada, Hodgetts thinks that the stability of the entire political system depends upon the reservoir of support upon which it can count. In studying students in Grades 10 and 12 across Canada, he indicates that the "legitimate national interests of this country are not being served" (p.15) for "the majority of English-speaking high school graduates . . . [are] without the intellectual skills, the knowledge and the attitudes they should have to play an effective role as citizens in present-day Canada" (p. 116).

There is no question that political conceptions develop out of a variety of sources (e.g., the family, the neighborhood, and the school). Although the school should not take all of the responsibility for political development, it nevertheless has some say in the final outcome of citizenship training and should receive appropriate criticism when this training appears to fail. Hodgetts is quite critical of the role of the school in citizenship training for Canadian children and faults it on several counts:

"The study of government in our schools provides another good illustration of how the actual results of classroom instruction may be the very opposite of those desired by the teacher. According to provincial pre- scriptions, the civics part of Canadian studies is de-

signed not only 'to impart information concerning the form and functioning of our government' but also to give students 'a deep and abiding appreciation of our heritage of free government.' Every Canadian 'should be thoroughly familiar with the working of our demo- cratic institutions, his rights and duties under the rule of law and the responsibilities of those elected to public office.' Again, the great majority of teachers that we interviewed accepted these objectives and felt that their students were developing 'a constructive and positive attitude toward citizenship.' Our evidence suggests that, far from even approximating these aims, the strongest, most widely held attitude of the students in our Survey was either complete indifference or deep cynicism toward politicians and political life." (p.78)

The above criticisms are at this point less than defini- tive and our study represents an attempt to make more detailed assessments with the hope of clarifying political development in Canadian students. The work of Hod- gett's is valuable both in providing descriptive data concerning certain attitudes and knowledge of adolescents and in pointing out the grave inadequacies in these students' political thinking. However, he does not deal particularly with agents of socialization other than the school, he provides only retrospective information about pre-high school political learning, and he tends to concentrate on what is taught without dealing extensively with the learner characteristics that determine how the student interprets such teaching.

Canadian Uniqueness The American work of Greenstein (1965) and of Hess and Torney (1967) is also useful as a source of many approaches, both theoretical and methodological, to the Canadian system. However, any extrapolation from this work must be made cautiously. Canada, as well as having a very different formal governmental structure from that of the United States, has unique informal political traditions, such as the dualistic (French-Eng- lish) structures of political parties and their leadership (McRae, 1964).

Canada's national identity is shaped by the unique problems it faces, particularly, according to Hodgetts (1968), those of bilingualism, of having a powerful neighbor, of regionalism, and of having been created as a political regime in 1867 with no stable supporting political community. Canada's identity, unlike that of the United States, is not bound up with the ideology

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of a successful revolution or a dramatic political movement (Lipset, 1968). Rather, it is "the product of a victorious counterrevolution, and in a sense must iustify its raison d'etre by emphasizing the virtues of being separate from the United States" (p.61). Lipset de- scribes the different value patterns existing in the two countries, and seems to suggest that many Canadian values are held more or less as a reaction against American ones, perhaps because the "Canadian sense of nationality has always felt itself threatened by the United States, physically in earlier days, and culturally and economically in more recent years" (p.61).

The Role ol the School It is assumed that the school plays a significant role in the Canadian child's political development. Although it is not the sole agent of political education, it appears to provide the only possibility for making large-scale improvements in political development. In fact, according to Hodgetts (1968), it is obligated to do so, for "by neglecting the slow process of formal education, a society can fail to provide the public support, the basic consensus, needed to ensure its stability" (p.14).

It is very ditficult at this point to assess exactly what the school can do in the area of political development, although there is reason to believe that it has some im- pact, the direction of which depends on the type of culture studied. In spite of the fact that cognitive skills and other skills related to political participation are assimilated in educational institutions, it is probable that many aspects of civic participation are transmitted by a number of institutions outside of the school setting. Certainly education in liberal democracies such as Canada and the United States is not particularly well matched to the political development of students. There is some indication that civic programs, as presently devised, are not very relevant for realistic political life. (Almond & Verba, 1965)

If Hodgetts' (1968) finding about cynical and indif- ferent attitudes toward political life among Canadian students is true, then it might be that the existing social studies and citizenship training are merely subtle forms of "indoctrination." This involves the imparting of national or provincial myths, which eventually come to tax the credibility of the student as he matures. At present the school appears to be superficial in its treatment of important social issues and, in general, seems to encourage slogans and stereotypes instead of critical thinking (Beck & Sullivan, 1970). Possibly, if

greater stress were given to controversial issues that deal with contemporary problems facing Canadian citizens, the existing cynicism might be reduced. In any case, regardless of the precise outcomes the school might have on political development, it is essential that it be provided with clear information on the existing state of political knowledge of the pupils. In other words, the school may be able to influence more aspects of political development than it currently does, and it may be able to improve the ways in which it deals with those aspects currently influenced; these matters can be decided only by devising and testing alternative curriculum strategies. But, before the school can design any appropriate programs, it must know the state (and eventually, sources) of existing knowledge in students at various ages and with various ethnic, geographic, and language characteristics. Some of the work that we report in this paper constitutes our initial attempts at devising ways of finding out the existing state of Cana- dian students' political notions. Before we report some of our initial findings and the problems we encountered, we provide a critical review of studies that have been helpful in our attempts to assess the political development of some Canadian urban students.

Previous Work on Political Development An examination of American studies was helpful both positively, in suggesting topics important for study, and negatively, in identifying which topics and, especi- ally, which methods were not useful to pursue.

Most work in the area of political development has been done by political scientists and has involved content questionnaires (e.g., Greenstein, 1965; Hess & Torney, 1967). These studies have had numerous theoretical and methodological inadequacies, and have produced limited and perhaps artifactual findings. In the discussion that follows, an arbitrary and artificial distinction has been drawn between the theoretical and the methodological difficulties with previous work although, in reality, these two domains are totally inter- dependent.

Theoretical Difficulties When focusing on the theoretical difficulties that face the researcher interested in political development, one's attention is initially drawn to the rather atheoreti- col nature of many of the empirical investigations (Byrne, 1970). Part of the theoretical vacuum found in the empirical research probably results from the


difficulty that political scientists have had in making their theories testable for political researchers. Appar- ently in reaction to this difficulty, political behaviorists have rejected political theory as useful for their work (Lane, 1963). However, some sorts of hypotheses do shape researchers' judgments of what is worthwhile to study, or their work would be incoherent.

The problems encountered by empirically minded political scientists in dealing with political theories led them into other disciplines; they were attracted primarily to psychology in the fifties. Lane (1963) ad- vances some fairly plausible reasons for this occurrence.

"The rapid advance of the other behavioral sciences in the area of measurement, validation, and the precise formulation of concepts and hypotheses which these have brought abou t . . , are viewed by political scientists with . . . acquisitiveness." (p.621)

In his article, albeit about political science in general and not about political development in particular, Lane suggested that political scientists would benefit most from the theories of social and clinical psychology; he ignored the potential utility of developmental psychology--because researchers dealing with political behavior were more interested in adults, who had presumably already completed the process of development--and explicitly rejected learning theory--because of its emphasis on animal research.

More recent investigators (e.g., Hess & Torney, 1967), who studied political development over a range of ages, have explicitly stated the relevance of these latter two areas of psychology in their political research. The major shortcoming of their approach, however, has been the use of these psychological orientations in post hoc analysis. Specifically, Hess and Torney, after collecting their data, borrow uncritically from developmental and learning models rather than proceeding to empirically test hypotheses derived from theory (Byrne, 1970).

Methodological Difficulties In this section we propose to concentrate on the methodology of the more recent studies of political development, since they are more closely related to the problems of our current research. Our criticism of the research methodology of such studies can be divided into two categories, one dealing with the nature of the questioning techniques employed and the other with

the content of questions used. First of all, it seems probable that, in Hess and

Torney's (1967) assessment instrument, the sheer length of the questioning procedure affected the respondent's motivation in answering the later questions. Although these investigators did take some account of this factor by reducing the length of their instrument to 16 pages and 24 pages for second and third grade students respectively, the fact remains that students in the fourth to eighth grades had to answer a 40-page questionnaire. The study by Greenstein (1965), who also used a written questionnaire, probably was not marred by this difficulty, for his instrument was shorter, administered in two parts, and presented orally to the younger (fourth and fifth grade) subjects. However, his work shares with any structured written test the difficulty described by Piaget (1929) in his criticism of the objective "test method," namely, it does not allow sufficient analysis of results. It permits only rough results, which are often useless as theory, for the context of the responses is unclear. According to Piaget, the test method falsifies the natural mental inclination of the child or, at least, risks so doing. Moreover, it does not allow the investigator to follow the child's train of thought and may force the child to respond in the investigator's terms, whether the child under- stands them or not. The difficulties associated with using predetermined questions that cannot be altered in light of the answers given are allied to the difficulties of using closed as opposed to open questions. Since Hess and Torney (1967) used the closed question exclusive- ly, and Greenstein (1965) used a mixture of open and closed questions, the methodological discussion by Cannell and Kahn (1968), regarding the appropriate- ness of each sort of question for various situations, seems relevant here. Although Cannell and Kahn treat this subject within the context of the interview method, the points they make apply, probably with greater force, to the questionnaire or written interview technique. Closed questions should be used only when the interview objective is to classify a respondent with re- spect to some clearly understood dimension, when the level of information of the population questioned is known to be relatively homogeneous, when it is known that the respondent has formulated his ideas in terms close to those of the question, or when the range of likely responses is known in advance. Although both Hess and Torney and Greenstein did some open interviewing prior to designing their instruments, it seems

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somewhat unlikely that these interviews advanced the state of their understanding of political development to the point where it met the above specifications. Cannell and Kahn stress the possibility that,

" . . . for m a n y . . , situations, the open question involves fewer risks and produces a greater volume of useful information. The closed question represents a kind of efficient small-bore ammunition. If the objective is clearly in sight and ff the researcher is confident of his marksmanship, all is well. For more ambitious game or in less well-defined situations, the greater range, spread, and firepower of the open question are distinct advantages." (p.568)

They specifically describe the open question as appropriate in situations where the research objectives involve learning something about the respondent's level of information, the structure or basis on which he has formed his opinion, the frame of reference within which he answers the question. These objectives seem to coin- cide remarkably well with those of the cognitive-developmental world of Piaget and his followers and they may well be appropriate in the domain of political development.

Some political studies done by Piaget and his colleagues (Inhelder & Piaget, 1958; Piaget & Weil, 1951 ) have provided interesting data, using the open-ended question technique to determine the frame of reference of answers and the theoretical cognitive structure gov- erning the information produced.

In the Piaget and Weil study, for example, children of preschool and elementary school age were queried about where they rived and asked to make value judgments about their country and other countries. Two general observations were made. The child's discovery of his homeland and his understanding of other countries are a process of transition ]rom egocentricity to reciprocity that typically occurs somewhere between 7 and 11 years of age. This development is liable to constant oscillations, usually through the reemergence of egocentricity.

Whereas data from this 1951 study were interpreted along the lines of Piaget's (1932) heteronomous- autonomous moral theory, in the later study (Inhelder & Piaget, 1958) political development was seen as mediated by the transition from concrete operational thinking to formal operational modes of thought. This upward movement in thought structure to formal op-

erations, occurring at approximately 11 years of age, was found to characterize the adolescent's willingness to generate and evaluate other and new social orders, without being bound to the concrete institutions of his immediate and present environment.

The second category of criticisms of research methodology concerns the use of questions that severely re- strict the domain of political discourse. First, although in writing some investigators (e.g., Langton, 1969) acknowledge the importance of learner characteristics in the development of political knowledge, in practice they tend to treat the learner as a passive recipient of presented information. That is, they generally ignore any issues dealing with how the learner's cognitive structure affects what he perceives, learns, and does in the political realm; this difficulty is of course related to the inability of an investigator using a predetermined set of questions to pursue a subject's train of thought in any way. A second limitation on the political content investigated is imposed by the assumption of a stable system governed by norms agreed upon by all. Change and disagreement within the political system axe ignored. This assumption is eminently suited to a world peopled by passive learners, where the most "politically socialized" have simply absorbed the greatest amount of the generally accepted norms related to politics. Again, this content limitation is probably determined in large part by the methodological decision to use a fixed set of closed questions (e.g., Hess & Torney, 1967). To succeed in formulating such questions it would be necessary to assume a fixed and agreed-upon political order. There might be good reasons for limiting the political content studied in these two major ways; however, no author appears to give adequate theoretical justification for proceeding in this way.

The difficulties related to research methodology have led to certain conclusions concerning political development that seem somewhat dubious. Some of the pioneer studies on political development in children intimated that this development reaches its maximum during the childhood years and does not progress in the adolescent years (Greenstein, 1965; Hess & Torney, 1967). It is probable that this finding emerged because the superficial and elementary conceptualization of the political order tapped by their straightforward questions is indeed complete at the end of elementary school and a more extensive conceptualization of the com- plexities of a conflict-ridden and changing political order, which might be tapped by a different instrument,

rhe Development of Canadian Students' 61 Political Conceptions

is probably not complete at this stage. Evidence that contradicts this preadolescent develop-

mental ceiling has been found by several investigators (Adelson, Green, & O'Neil, 1968; Adelson & O'Neil, 1966; Jennings & Niemi, 1968). For example, Adelson and his colleagues found major shifts in the cognitive basis of political and legal discourse in children between 11 and 13 years of age, and between 13 and 15 years. That these investigators, using a very different instrument (an individual interview using open-ended questions about a hypothetical situation), emerged with such different results supports the arguments that the early developmental ceilings were artifacts of the limited questioning techniques and content used by other investigators. The closed nature of the questions asked may have tended to lead to the drawing of er- roneous conclusions in another way, by suggesting that objectively similar responses to simple questions have identical subjective meanings. As Lane and Sears (1964) point out, in spite of similarity in party prefer- ence, a father's reason for voting for Democrat A1 Smith in 1928 could be very different from his son's reason for voting for Democrat John Kennedy in 1960; their responses to a simple voting-choice question are identical, but it is unlikely that the same is true of their frames of reference.

Political Orientations and their Development in Canadian Students The present study is part of an effort to devise an instrument appropriate for assessing the political development of children in a Canadian environment. This instrument may ultimately provide the broad descriptive data, with individual (including developmental) differences, that are necessary before educational programs can be designed. However, the present study does not attempt to produce such data, or even the data-gathering instrument in anything approximating final form. It is a methodological pilot study, one of perhaps several that are necessary before the instrument is adequate. Because the country involved has not been studied and because the whole approach of the present study is different from the strategies of the previous studies criticized above, the instrument must go through several refining stages of which the present is merely the preliminary attempt. Although the study does generate some data and some sources of hypotheses, its purpose is primarily methodological.

The same twelve problem stories were presented to

subjects of all ages in this study. The stories were classified under three main political parameters-- "national identity," "rules and laws," and "political structure and process"--and were intended to survey a wide range of political orientations held by children of various ages. The situations, mainly hypothetical, were not intended to measure content per se. Except for the "national identity" stories, the situations had, of themselves, no concrete political referents. Each story, with one exception, required the child to make some sort of choice between alternatives concerning the outcome of the situation presented, and to elaborate in some way the reasons for his choice. Some ex- amples of stories from each of the three domains follow:

1. National Identity Quebec Story: The French Canadian people of Quebec want to have their own country, free from the rest of Canada. They feel that if Quebec stays as part of Canada, the French-Canadian customs and language will die out. The rest of Canada wants Quebec to stay as part of Canada.

Do you think Quebec should be a separate country or stay as part of Canada?

Why? Let's make believe Quebec was going to become a

country. What do you think the rest of Canada should do? Wheat Story: In Canada a lot of wheat is grown, and because bread is made from wheat, it is a very important crop. Suppose one year there was no rain and so no wheat would grow. The people of Canada became poor and hungry. The United States told the people of Canada that if Canada joined their country, all the people would have plenty to eat. Canadians were very sad because they wanted Canada to be free as it is now.

If this happened, do you think Canadians should join the United States and have enough food for every- one, or stay as a free separate country and be poor and hungry?

Why?

2. Rules and Laws Stealing Story: One day three boys stole a big box of chocolates. The police caught them and wanted to put them in jail. All the parents came and begged the police not to do this and promised the boys would never steal again. The police said all the three boys

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would not have to go to jail, but according to law, one boy must be sent to jail.

Do you think it is fair that just one boy must go to jail, or should all three go?

Why? Suppose the three boys were a Canadian, a Canadian-

Indian and an Italian-Canadian. Which boy do you think would be most likely to go to jail?

Why? Which boy do you think would be most likely not to

go to jail? Why?

3. Political Structure and Process Island Story: Twenty kids, about your age, were on a plane which crashed. The adults on board were killed, but all twenty children safely reached a small island close by, where nobody lived.

Some of the kids felt that everybody should be free to do anything he (she) liked to stay alive and be rescued. Some other kids thought it would be better if everybody worked together as a group or team.

If you were one of these kids, would you want to form a team or work by yourself?

Why? If you were one these kids what would you do on

the island? Why?

Planet Story: A small planet with people was found by space men. Suppose this planet had three different parts, a large city, a poor farming part and a rich farming part.

How do you think the planet should be run in order to be fair to all the people there?

Give your reasons.

The major theoretical and methodological influences on the study came from the work of Piaget in the general area of cognitive growth and from the work of Adelson and O'Neil (1966) and Adelson, Green, and O'Neil (1968) in the particular area of politics. Adel- son and his colleagues studied concepts of rights, laws, and community using imaginary situations in order to avoid the child's responding with clich6s. Adelson and O'Neil (1966) found that notions of community appeared fully only after 13 years of age, and that government was perceived in terms of concrete services rather than of abstraction by children under 15 years of age. Adelson et al. (1968) showed that laws began to be

perceived as facilitating general, moral, and social bene- fits rather than as restraining unacceptable behavior only after 15 years of age. The general approach of these investigators was thought to be more fruitful than those used by others such as Greenstein (1965) and Hess and Torney (1967).

As is pointed out later, the present study has many difficulties in common with other studies on political development (cf. Greenstein; Hess & Tomey), but has also some unique advantages. It works primarily from a psychological theory (being political only in the issues selected for treatment) and that theory is from a subdiscipline, developmental psychology, that appears more relevant for application to the growth of political notions in most children than does, say, clinical psychology. The study involves deducing hypotheses for testing from a single theoretical base, rather than en- gaging in eclectic post hoc borrowing for explaining obtained data. With this theoretical approach and with the use of the open-question format, the study attempts to achieve in some degree the middle course advocated by Piaget (1929) "between systematization due to pre- conceived ideas and incoherence due to the absence of any directing hypothesis" (p.9).

It is likely that the use of stories rather than a series of questions encourages greater motivation on the part of subjects. The use of open "why" questions seems particularly appropriate for exploratory work in an area that has received very little study and clarification. Such a questioning technique seems to provide greater opportunities for understanding the characteristics of the learner, particularly his cognitive structural characteristics, than do closed techniques. The probing questions allow no possibility of confusing superficial similarities in responses with real similarities in mean- ing; they allow a differentiation to be made between rudimentary surface responses and more complex un- derstandings.

In a study such as the present one where the main obiective is the methodological one of devising an instrument and a means of scoring it, no clear-cut hypotheses are formulated. However, the general prediction was made that, with advancing age, children would give increasing numbers of politically relevant responses and would demonstrate increasing sophistication in their political ideas.

Description of Population, Procedures, and Scoring The children we sampled consisted of 123 males and

The Development of Canadian Students' 6:3 Political Conceptions

132 females with 47, 59, 55, 52, and 42 children from Grades 2, 5, 8, 10, and 12 respectively. At each grade level approximately one half of the children were from high socioeconomic status (SES) school districts and one half were from low SES districts in the borough of North York. All subjects used English as their first language. IQ scores for subjects were requested from schools, with the intention of using IQ as an explana- tory individual difference variable. However, it was found that such scores were not useful as some children had no scores and different children had been tested with different instruments and at different points in their time at school.

The instrument was administered orally and individu- ally to children in Grade 2; they were asked to repeat salient features of the stories to make sure that they had understood them. The interviews were tape-re- corded and transcribed, and averaged 25 minutes in length.

The remaining grades received the 12 stories in written form in a group classroom setting, and were given 25 to 30 minutes to complete them. In addition, it was explained to students in Grades 8, 10, and 12 that the simplicity of the wording in the stories was to make the stories comprehensible to the Grade 2 children who were also participating in the study, and that they should direct their attention to the complexity of the issues underlying the questions.

The choices made to the initial question following each story (except the planet story) were merely counted. More elaborate scoring techniques were necessary, however, for the supporting "why" questions, Since the main purpose of the present study was the conducting of methodological pilot work, it was considered appropriate to try out alternative sorts of scoring systems as well as trying out a new type of instrument. Consequently, two general approaches were used in scoring the explanations of choices made. One was a quantitative scoring system, in which a taxon- omy of justifications for responses in each story was compiled. For each story choice there were a number of permissible political justifications (i.e., justifications related to or based on political concepts), as well as appropriate but apolitical choice justifications. A subject was given a single point for each political justification made to each story, and these were summed to obtain his final score. The reliability of the quantitative scoring system was assessed by comparing total scores obtained by two raters on a random group of subjects

from each grade level; coefficients ranged from .87 to .95.

A major goal of the study at its inception was the development of a sophisticated qualitative scoring system for categorizing responses at various levels of development. For a number of reasons described later, this step was found to be too difficult to perform simul- taneously with trying out an instrument for the first time. Consequently, the qualitative scoring "system" to be described here is more like a general "approach" to individual stories in which post hoc examination of the responses given at each age level led to several unrefined descriptive conclusions.

Developmental Findings of the Study In analyzing the content of the data collected, the fre- quencies of choices of alternative outcomes following all but the planet story were counted. No age differences in choice patterns were found on five stories; on the remaining six, a shift in response pattern (found to be significant by X 2 analysis) was found between Grades 2 and 5 or 5 and 8. There were no differences in choice pattern beyond the Grade 8 level. This finding was not surprising in light of Hess and Torney's (1967) finding of developmental ceilings at this age for simple choice responses; beyond this age, developmental differences would be expected to be shown only in the reasons or justifications given for choices.

The quantitative scoring system showed this expec- tation to be so. There was a clear increase in the total number of political versus apolitical choice justifications with increasing grade (age). The mean total scores at each grade level were as follows: Grade 2, 2.98; Grade 5, 4.93; Grade 8, 8.60; Grade 10, 12.43; Grade 12, 14.27. Analysis of variance confirmed that the increase in total scores with grade was significant, as was the increase with grade in scores on each political domain when these were considered separately.

The qualitative approach also confirmed the finding that the answers to the questions probing reasons for choices made provided more information about development throughout the age scale than did the choice questions.

A description of impressions gained from four of the most productive stories follows. Two of these stories involve purely hypothetical situations, and the two concerned with national identity ask rather hypothetical questions about existing geographic places.

The planet story most generally elicited descriptions

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of what the phrase "to run fairly" means to the child. Throughout the age scale studied, "running fairly" appeared to have more to do with the "output" of political systems than with their "input"; that is, children were greatly concerned with economic equality. This concern ranged developmentaUy from the typical "the rich should help (share with) the poor" of the students in Grade 2 through to more precise articulation of economic mechanisms such as graduated income tax and capital investment in the poorer parts of the planet by the older students. There was some awareness, except among the youngest children, that running fairly had to do also with the "input" aspect. This awareness ranged from a few responses by those in Grade 5 that indicated that individuals should be able to do what they wanted, to choose where they wished to live, and to be self-determining about the affairs of their planet, to more elaborate articulation of the rights to vote and to have equal representation. The developmental trend in both general aspects of fairness then appears to be from a position that recognizes the perspective of individuals to one involving recognition of complex relationships.

The island story, in addition to providing some in- sight into the child's notions concerning the purpose of social organization (children moved from seeing no need for social organization through seeing social organization as a means of dealing with external envi- ronmental challenges through seeing organization as also required to counteract the threat of social chaos resulting from uncontrolled impulses), provides as does the planet story some idea of how the child generates a group structure to meet certain needs perceived in the hypothetical environment. The young child proposed an undifferentiated social group; with age came an increasing awareness of the need for different tasks, with the oldest subjects indicating the importance of match- ing individuals having certain abilities and interests to certain roles in the proposed structure. As in the planet story, the responses indicated either the elaboration or assumption of increasingly complex, efficient, and realistic systems of relationships with increasing age.

The Quebec story and the wheat story elicited some responses concerning political structure and process similar to those in the two previous stories but primarily evoked responses concerned with national identity. In the Quebec story, the most salient and surprising feature was the economic nature of the concept of Canada; the most preponderant argument for main-

taining the Canadian nation was the economic inter- dependence of Quebec and the rest of Canada. (The specific systematic economic relationship between these, and how separation would injure either or both, became more fully understood with advancing age.) The other group of reasons supporting pro- or anti- separation choices had to do with the needs of people in Quebec to preserve their language; here anti-separation subjects asserted that separation would not affect language either because language rights are fully pro- tected in Canada or because the French language would die out even in an independent Quebec, and pro- separation subjects agreed with the story as stated. That is, they agreed that separation was necessary to preserve language. However, the form of the question, which included the "language and culture" phrase, made it impossible to assess the importance of culture and language in the spontaneous concept of nation.

Just as many of the responses to the Quebec question were confounded by the form of the question, so, and even to a greater extent, were those in the wheat story. Most of the older subjects rejected the dilemma as unrealistic and pointed out alternatives such as ob- taining financial aid from countries other than the United States. In Grade 2, the only stage at which the dilemma was universally accepted, almost all children chose to join the United States because of the obvious necessity of preserving life. After this grade, there was more determination to keep Canada independent, either because other alternatives were perceived to be available, or despite the possibility of mass poverty. The justification for the independent position was mainly couched in terms of quite unelaborated anti-American- ism or desire for self-determination. These aspects were not well articulated because of the methodological arti- fact that just those older children who might be expected to articulate generally refused to respond to the dilemma as stated. The inclusion of the notion about the "bread and wheat" in this question also made it difficult to assess whether the importance of economic matters to the concept of nation extended from the Quebec story, where the threat to the nation was in- ternal, to the wheat story, where the threat to national identity came from outside. Since an essential feature of the question was the economic necessity of joining the United States, it was impossible to tell whether or not the child might spontaneously generate economic considerations in judging how to respond to the story.

Thus both the quantitative and qualitative "systems"


confirmed the general predictions that political ideas would become more numerous and more sophisticated with age. Both "systems" were even more useful in providing a great deal of information about difficulties with the instrument its construction, administration, and scoring--and how these might be improved in future work in political development. This sort of "finding" from the present study is dealt with in the final section, and represents the most important outcome of this primarily methodological exploratory work.

Conclusions Concerning Methodology and Implications for Further Work An assessment of the methodology of the present study reveals difficulties encountered in question content, questioning technique, and scoring.

The instrument itself was too long and tiring for subjects of all ages; insufficient time was available for older subjects to complete the instrument in a saris- factory way. Too many topics were covered and subjects either were forced to answer all questions superficially or were able to respond to only a few. Even if more time had been available, no subject would have had the patience required to deal with twelve stories in the depth desirable for meaningful assessment of political development. The instrument was unsuitable for the extensive age range to which it was applied, because some questions were too difficult for the youngest children and some were too naive for the older children; the latter reacted by cynically rejecting the questions as stated or by suggesting more realistic alternatives (an interesting finding in itself). As we have seen in the discussion of the findings from the qualitative scoring approach, some stories provided too much information. This led, for example, in the Quebec story to many responses concerned with language; one could not tell if these responses were elicited because of the suggestion in the story or because they were important in the child's spontaneous concept of nation. Similarly, it was often the inclusion of too much descriptive information in the formulation of the story that led to the cynical response to or rejection of a question; the wheat story was perceived as unrealistic, but there was no indication that older students would have treated the underlying issues in a similarly dis- missive manner had they been presented in a more straightforward way. In another sense, the questions provided too little information or direction about how a subject was expected to respond. This lack resulted

in different children responding to different domains or aspects of a situation and failing to explicate whether they were dealing with the real or ideal aspects of situations.

Although the present instrument goes farther than much previous work in counteracting the objections to closed questioning techniques, it does not go far enough, whether presented in the written or interview form. That is, in both forms, although the pursuit questions were open, they were fixed in number. Even in the interview situation it was impossible to pursue the child's train of thought, to "take account of the mental context" (Piaget, 19 29, p. 8 ). Further probing questions were needed, in addition, to deal with inadequacies in the design of the instrument. That is, they were necessary to ensure that all subjects responded to similar aspects of the situation, to obtain more information about certain facile answers (e.g., the answer, "the Maritimes would separate too if Quebec did," should be pursued), and to elicit further information by dem- onstrating to the child inconsistencies in his responses to similar issues.

The use of the quantitative scoring technique in this study revealed firsthand its characteristic defects. The information gained was restricted and rather shallow, for important developmental changes in structure and frame of reference were neglected. A single organiza- tional structure, that of the person devising the scoring system, was imposed on all responses; there is ab- solutely no way to know if this structure agreed with that of any or all subjects.

The alternative qualitative scoring approach appeared to be a potentially more useful one, but one that is far more arduous to achieve. Scoring difficulties with this approach stemmed not from inadequacies inherent in the approach but from inadequacies in the initial design of the instrument being scored. The essential defect was that the instrument was too broad; there were too many stories, and within each story, subjects responded to such diverse aspects that scoring in any common categories was impossible.

Our experiences in pursuing developmental aspects of political orientations have led us to draw a number of methodological conclusions that may help other researchers in this area. Choices of research methodology are typically facilitated by theory. If theory has not been developed, or fully developed, the researcher must make a choice. He can either establish theoretical va- lidity or he can determine by the most effective, but not

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necessarily the most efficient, means available, the salient developmental parameters that should underlie actual decisions about curriculum development. At this juncture, with regard to political development, the second alternative offers the better practical strategy. Consequently, several methodological considerations relevant for attaining this objective are offered as a result of the work just described.

One of the crucial steps at this stage of investigation is the devising of an instrument that will elicit information susceptible to qualitative discrimination. In order to produce a qualitative scoring procedure for responses the instrument should confine responses so that subjects operate within similar constraints. Specifically, the instrument should be limited to narrow, well-defined topics, in order that all subjects are encouraged to attend to the same aspects. The age range, also, should be collapsed to ensure that all subjects have a high prob- ability of understanding the material presented and to ensure that "reasons," such as those described in the wheat story, are not required to be invented. Further- more, questions should avoid, or at least reduce to a minimum, the content loading that is confounded by age. If content is used, the investigator must be sure that all subjects are familiar with such content. The critical feature to bear in mind is that it is not what the subject knows that is important, but how he has come to know it and feel toward it and how he has used that knowledge or attitude in different situations.

An interview, with flexible probing questions, would seem to be useful in eliciting similar content domains in a given story from all subjects. Such probing questions, when used by a trained interviewer, should help subjects to elaborate clich6 or superficial answers, to clarify whether their responses refer to real or ideal situations, to discuss similar issues in more than one case, and to deal with any inconsistencies that emerge. In summary, such a flexible interview, in relation to alternative methods, will expose much more of the cognitive structure underlying responses and should produce conclusions concerning a child's level of political development that have greater generality and co- herence.

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The development of Canadian student's political conceptions

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