| Summary: | 碩士 === 佛光人文社會學院 === 宗教學研究所 === 93 === ABSTRACT
This study investigates the relationship between religious belief and the motivations of participating in service-learning by vocational high school students. Service-learning has been set up as a compulsory program in all of the high schools in Taipei, Taiwan. Students are required to participate in any forms of volunteering activities, either in a group or individually, at least eight hours each semester, to complete the “mandatory volunteerism” program. This study seeks to find new ways to look at this issue, by drawing together understandings from the fields of construction of religious belief, and the relevant works of the motivations underlying mandatory volunteerism. The theoretical framing of the study therefore moves it beyond positions frequently associated with the perspectives of motivations to volunteer, to a broader conception of the relationship between religious belief and the motivation to volunteer. This study aims to address the following questions:
1.The relationship between vocational high school students’ religious belief and their motivations to volunteer in the service-learning program.
2.The influence of socialization processes on the students’ motivation to volunteer.
3.The effect of the “Mandatory Volunteerism” program on the students’ ongoing volunteering.
4.The construction of the students’ religious identities.
Twelve high school students aged 15 ~17, from a public vocational high school in Taipei, were selected for the study. The study split the students into two groups for comparison. The two groups were determined by the form of participating in mandatory volunteering activities, Group A containing students who have experienced volunteering as a group and Group B being students who volunteered individually.
A combination of qualitative form of enquiry and case study approach was used in collecting and analyzing data, which is presented in the form of theme comparison. Data sources included three aspects: mandatory volunteerism program documents, participants’ personal and school profiles; observations in classrooms, break time and volunteering activities; and semi-structured interviews with the participants, their peer groups and their class teachers. The main findings are as follows:
1.Students volunteering as a group (Group A) were able to describe their motivations to volunteer more clearly and reasonably.
2.Students volunteering as a group (Group A) were more easily affected by the bystander intervention.
3.Both groups of students’ voluntary involvement were not significantly affected by the praise and demerit policy in the program. That is, the Boomerang Effect did not influence their attitudes toward volunteering.
4.Students’ volunteering experiences were an important component of their motivations.
5.Students’ involvement in these mandatory volunteering activities may not have a great impact on their ongoing volunteering in the future.
6.Students’ volunteering did not directly relate to their beliefs of some formal religions, but were linked to the beliefs of traditional Confucianism and the ideas from the media.
7.Students’ religious beliefs and identities were not directly related to their religious attitudes.
Suggestions were made from the results of the study, including the necessity of reforms in religious education for high school students, improvements of the mandatory volunteering programs, and aiding students to correctly clarify their religious beliefs and the supernatural ideas expressed by the media.
Key words: service-learning, religious beliefs, mandatory volunteerism, motivation to volunteer
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