National Identity and Patriotic Attitudes: A Case of Lithuanian School Students

Abstract

This paper discusses the situation of people in the current modern nation state in terms of their relation to their own nation and state. They are situated between patriotic and economic interests, between individual rights and national interest, between empirical needs and abstract requirements. These tensions, described more elaborately in a previous article, are illustrated by the research of focus groups on the attitudes of Lithuanian school students. A majority of students was found to prefer economic and personal motivation over patriotic. Historical education based on comics was tested as a way to implement more patriotic attitudes.