The role of the secondary school volunteer as perceived by school volunteer coordinators

Abstract

The major purpose of this inquiry was to determine the functions and tasks critical to the role of the secondary school volunteer. The empirical efforts documented the perceptions of school volunteer coordinators regarding this role when comparisons were made in (1) individual perceptions, (2) geographic locations, (3) size of student enrollment in school districts, (4) experience as a coordinator, and (5) formal educational preparation of the coordinator. The population for the study consisted of school volunteer coordinators identified from the National School Volunteer Program, Inc. 1980 membership directory. A stratified random sample of 150 coordinators was selected from the 10 NSVP regions. Data was collected with mail questionnaires. This yielded 102 usable responses. The conceptual framework of the questionnaire was designed to secure information concerning: (1) school volunteer coordinators and their school districts, (2) school volunteer service, more specifically secondary school volunteer involvement, (3) respondent's perceptions regarding 45 statements defining the secondary school volunteer role, and (4) assessments of coordinators regarding the difficulties, strengths, and domains for improvement of secondary volunteer programs. Comparisons among types of respondents indicated that geography, experience, size of student enrollment, and educational preparation had little overall influence on how school volunteer coordinators perceived the role of secondary school volunteers. Experience seemed to have the greatest impact, suggesting that the role of the school volunteer expands as the coordinator gains experience. The greatest differences were found in the individual perceptions of coordinators. A high level of agreement (above 85%) was determined on only 17 of the 45 statements developed to define the specific functions and tasks secondary school volunteers should be allowed to perform....