Uppeldi og menntun - 01.07.2011, Page 119

Uppeldi og menntUn/icelandic JoUrnal of edUcation 20 (2) 2011 119
ragný þóra gUðJohnsen og sigrún aðalbJarnardóttir
“My calling is to help and try to benefit others”
Young people’s views on volunteering
abstraCt
The past two decades have seen increasing amounts of research on young people‘s
civic engagement (Sherrod, Torney-Purta, & Flanagan, 2010). The main focus, how-
ever, has been on their political engagement, rather than on their volunteerism that
aims to help people in various ways (e.g., Higgins-D’Alessandro, 2010). This study
explored young people’s views on their own volunteering, focusing on their motiva-
tion, goals, and values. It also aimed to continue developing an analytical model of
young people’s civic engagement by extending it to volunteerism. Five young people
aged 14 to 20 were interviewed using semi-structured in-depth interviews.
On one hand, the main result of the thematic analysis suggests that the young
people participating in the study connected their goals to personal gains such as self-
confidence, social competence and companionship. For example, within the theme
of social competence they referred to different competencies. Some said they had
improved in their social interactions, learned a lot through interpersonal communi-
cation and strengthened their collaboration skills, as well as improving their conflict
solving skills. Others also referred to ethical issues, they had learned about honesty
and respect to others. On the other hand, and equally important, they connected their
aims to societal gains like having an impact, being an active citizen with a voice, and
being helpful to people across society.
Their views reflected various values of justice and human rights; thus, each of them
had a personal focus, ranging from the rights of nations (e.g., Palestine) to the rights of
minority groups such as handicapped children, as well as ensuring a voice for young
people and women, and their wish to guarantee equal rights to a decent standard of
living, including access to education, health services, and a livelihood. They called
for justice, some offering examples on a national level and others on an international
level. Also, they all emphasized helpfulness in relation to their volunteering: it is “a
good feeling” to be able to help other people. They expressed empathy for the people
they work with as well. For example, they put themselves in the shoes of people who
need assistance and describe how hard they found the difficult situations some people
live with and how much they would like to improve those situations. In addition,
their sense of responsibility was clear; particularly their wish to be active as citizens
and to serve as good role models for the youth they work with.
Some of them felt their volunteer work had improved their understanding of
people‘s different socio-economic situations (e.g., people with disabilities, poor children
abroad) and of nations where human rights are violated. They said that the experience
of working with these people had encouraged them to take further action. Similarly,
Reinders and Youniss (2006) found that when volunteers communicate directly with
those who receive the help, they experience their contribution as more important.