The Values and Character Dispositions of 14-16 Year Olds in the Hodge Hill Constituency

feel isolated and forgotten about, ‘it’s as if you are here but nobody cares about you or
the area’. There is also evidence of distrust of the political process and of politicians,
‘yeah they are just making a career for themselves but they don’t really care’. The
students do not see politicians as being their representatives endowed with a caring side
or an integrity that they can believe in. There is also a latent sense (high inference) that
students feel acted upon, rather than acting themselves. For example, there is no sense of
positivity or students’ active interest in community arrangements.

Using the data from this research phase the team identified key words and phrases that
described students’ experiences and feelings in relation to the issues raised. For example,
the word ‘bored’ was commonly used. This conveys a lack of ambition, and reinforces
the sense that the student expected to be acted upon rather than generating his or her own
interests. We used these key words and phrases to identify what was most important to
the students, and to construct questions in the subsequent phase.

The documents used in the analysis and described above were reliability-checked for
accuracy as part of the research process.

The Findings

Presented below are the findings in summary that emerged from the group discussions
and individual interviews. The findings are drawn from the transcripts of the discussions
and from student written responses and reflections.

1. Likelihood of voting

Many students in the Hodge Hill area said they would not bother voting even if
they could. What does this tell us about the way they feel? And why do they feel
that way?

This question, asked as a result of an indifference to voting identified in the first
questionnaire, revealed that many students felt ‘forgotten’ in the political process. Many
said that politicians did not ‘live in the real world’ or understand what it was like in their
community. Several pupils commented that it was as if no one cared about them or their
way of life, so they did not see why they should vote. One student reported that a student
he knew, a victim of racism, would vote if voting stopped racism, but since voting didn’t
ever change anything that student would never vote.

A question about student perceptions of politics had already been asked in the preceding
questionnaire so was not asked again. The research team was interested in the notion of
student indifference and perceived powerlessness and these were taken forward into the
next research phase.

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