Abstract:

In this study the authors assessed the connections between volunteerism and self-efficacy. Participants were students in the Pre-School and Primary School programs, on-campus students and weekend hybrid program students. Students were asked to take part in two surveys: 1. The Extra-Curricular Activities survey and 2. The Teacher Self-Efficacy survey. The Extra-curricular survey was developed by the authors of this study and the Teacher Self-Efficacy survey was developed by Anita Woolfolk Hoyt, and used with her permission. 213 students participated in this study, 138 on campus students and 75 weekend hybrid students. All of the participants are female pre-service teachers working toward teacher certification. The hypothesis for this study is that students who volunteer on a regular basis have personal resources that will make them be more self-efficacious. Students with higher self-efficacy believe they will be successful in their classes and later in life in their roles as teachers. This is important because when students or teachers face hurdles in their studies or in their teaching circumstances, those with higher self-efficacy tend to be more persistent than are those with lower self-efficacy. This study is important because teaching is a complex career, and almost half of the students who become teachers leave their jobs within the first fives years of work. Helping students to develop strong self-efficacies is important, because students on our schools need teachers who are strong in their abilities to deal with the stresses of teaching. Additionally, if there is a connection between personal resources like volunteering, then schools can help teachers become more resilient and remain in education. In this article, the authors review ideas in relation to student and teacher organizational citizenship behavior, job satisfaction, intent to remain on the job, and personal and organizational resources to develop positive and supportive school climates in which administrators are supportive of teachers, teachers are supportive of each other and students, and students are supportive of their peers.

Keywords:

Self-efficacy, volunteerism, personal resources, organizational resources.