University Students' Perceptions of The Role of Intellectuals in Limiting the Social Effects of The Siege

Abstract

The study aimed to identify the perceptions of university students about  the role of intellectuals in reducing the social effects of the siege in the Palestinian society, and to find out wherever there were statistically significant differences at the level of significance )α≤0.05( between the average scores for this role due to gender, The researcher applied the descriptive analytical method by applying a questionnaire consisting of (39) paragraphs divided into three areas:

(Enhancing social construction - enhancing expected positive behavior - community participation) on a sample of (184) ) male and female students (fourth level) in the universities (Al-Azhar and Islamic). The results shown:

- 96.1% of the respondents agreed that the role of intellectuals in society is important, and 79.9% believe that intellectuals will not play an active role without participating in the social concern. 63.0% of them believe that the conditions surrounding the intellectuals do not allow them to play their real role.

-  The total degree of the respondents' estimation of the role of intellectuals in reducing the social effects of the siege is equal to (51.43%), which is a low degree. The fields are in order: (Positive expected behavior reinforcement) in first place with a relative weight (54.24%) (51.04%) and finally (Social Building Enhancement) with a relative weight (49.02%).
- There are statistically significant differences at the level of significance )α≤0.05( between the average scores of the sample members of the sample for the role of intellectuals in reducing the social effects of the siege due to gender variable in favor of male students, while there are no differences due to the variable of the general university estimate.

In light of the results, the study recommended the need to develop the rules of value judgments for the obligations of intellectuals towards society, and to protect the national intellectual frameworks for the provisions of intellectuals in the face of different intellectual currents.