Uppeldi og menntun - 01.07.2011, Side 120

Uppeldi og menntUn/icelandic JoUrnal of edUcation 20 (2) 2011120
„mín köllUn er að hJálpa og reyna að láta gott af mér leiða“
They all said they would continue to volunteer throughout their lives. Also, the
older ones in the group connected this experience to their future plans. One hoped to
become a reporter and write about human rights, another planned to study psychology
at university and hoped to connect it to volunteer work in the future, and the third
intended to study sociology and political science based on her focus on the importance
of encouraging young people to take active part in the development of society. They
may well do so; studies indicate that volunteering at young ages and participating
in service-learning projects predicts people’s later participation in volunteering (Hart,
Donnelly, Youniss & Atkins, 2007).
The main limitation of the study is that only five young people were interviewed.
Also, this interview method may be limited in the sense that some might find it dif-
ficult to express and describe their ideas and experiences. The study has at least three
key strengths. First, using in-depth interviews – which focus on young people’s
interest in volunteering, and their values, aims, and actions, based on the analytical
model of civic engagement (Sigrún Aðalbjarnardóttir, 2007, 2008) – we can develop a
more holistic picture and a deeper understanding of their civic awareness and engage-
ment as related to volunteering. Second, it is valuable since so few studies have been
conducted on young people’s volunteering, particularly with regard to adolescents up
to age 20, using in-depth interviews with this focus. The third strength is its develop-
ment of an analytical model of young people’s civic awareness and engagement by
focusing on volunteering. Given these strengths, the study should make an important
contribution to this field of study, on both national and international levels.
We do hope that the approach and the findings of this study can be of use to
researchers in this field of study, to those who organize volunteer work for young
people, and to those whose everyday work involves cultivating important ethical and
societal values among the younger generation.
Keywords: Volunteering, young people, interview study
about thE authors
Ragny Thora Gudjohnsen (rthg3@hi.is) is a Ph.D. student in education at the University
of Iceland, School of Education. She completed a Magister Juris degree at the Univer-
sity of Iceland in 1992, and an M.A. degree in education in 2009, also at the University
of Iceland. Her research area is young people‘s civic engagement with a focus on their
volunteering and empathy level.
Sigrun Adalbjarnardottir (sa@hi.is) is a professor at the University of Iceland, School
of Education. She completed a doctoral degree from Harvard University in 1988. Her
research projects include a longitudinal study on risk, relationships and the resilience
of young people; youth’s civic engagement; youth‘s social and interpersonal aware-
ness; parenting styles; teachers’ professional development; and school development
(see www.uni.hi.is/sa).