Geographies of youth, volunteering and religion: narratives of young Muslim volunteers in Birmingham, UK

This thesis sits at the interface of three cross-cutting areas of research: youth, volunteering and religion. Geography has made notable contributions to the study of youth in recent years, through a focus on spatialities of the lives of young people. There remains, however, a bias towards research on young people in higher education. Research by geographers on volunteering has been vibrant and diverse, yet understandings of what and who a volunteer is remain hazy and problematic. Islam has received considerable attention within geography. The relationship between Islam and the West is continually shifting and geographical research needs to keep up with this everchanging landscape. This thesis examines the narratives of young Muslim volunteers in Birmingham, UK, exploring four research questions: (1) What is the landscape of volunteering in Muslim communities in Birmingham? ; (2) What pathways do young Muslims take to become volunteers? ; (3) What are the experiences of young Muslims who volunteer? ; and (4) How does volunteering shape the identities of young Muslims? . To address these research questions, a mixed methods approach was utilised, comprising of a questionnaire survey of 382 respondents and a series of 45 interviews amongst Muslims between the ages of 18 to 25. The motivations for volunteering amongst the respondents were primarily altruistic, challenging the depiction of youth volunteering as a route to corporate work. Muslim women were more exposed to discrimination within their own communities through cultural and religious expectations, particularly within more religiously conservative communities. Women were also more exposed to abuse from outside of their communities through Islamophobia. Volunteering amongst young Muslims provided a sense of belonging, eroded stereotypes and broke down barriers within society. The findings of this thesis provide empirical and conceptual contributions to literature on youth, volunteering and religion. The research expands the literature on young people beyond a focus on higher education, as well as providing analytical purchase to the understanding of vital conjunctures in relation to youth transitions. This thesis provides several conceptual contributions to research on volunteering, developing definitions of volunteering to reflect the diversity of formal, informal and embodied micro practices uncovered within this research project. This thesis offers new perspectives on the everyday lives of young Muslims in Britain through their engagement with volunteering

How can I produce a web-accessed video to educate volunteers on how they can contribute their time at club level in special olympics?

This report presents an action research enquiry using the avenue of living educational theory to examine how I expanded my practice as a volunteer in Special Olympics to develop as an non formal educator within this context. I describe how I embraced my own values in education during this study and chose to be led by them as I attempted to understand how my values influenced my learning and the learning of others. I designed two action reflection cycles of enquiry from June 2010 to June 2011 whilst working with my local Special Olympics Club in Drogheda, Co. Louth, Ireland. In Cycle 1, I record my experience in the production of a commemorative DVD of the Club’s participation in the Special Olympics Ireland Games held in Limerick in June 2010. In Cycle 2, I draw on my experiential learning from Cycle 1 and focus my research enquiry on the production of an educational web accessed video called Changing Lives. This video was divided into six segments so that it could be integrated into the induction module of Special Olympics Irelands online Moodle learning management system. I show how the use of video and visual methods can provide practical, evidence based explanations of practice from the volunteer action sphere in Special Olympics

Class diversity and youth volunteering in the UK : applying Bourdieu's habitus and cultural capital

This article utilizes Pierre Bourdieu’s theories of habitus and cultural capital to offer some explanation as to why there is a lack of class diversity in formal volunteering in the United Kingdom. Recent studies have shown that participation in volunteering is heavily dependent on social class revolving around a highly committed middle-class “civic core” of volunteers. This article draws on original qualitative research to argue that the delivery of recent youth volunteering policies has unintentionally reinforced participation within this group, rather than widening access to diverse populations including working-class young people. Drawing on interviews with volunteer recruiters, it is shown that the pressure to meet targets forces workers to recruit middle-class young people whose habitus allows them to fit instantly into volunteering projects. Furthermore, workers perceive working-class young people as recalcitrant to volunteering, thereby reinforcing any inhabited resistance, and impeding access to the benefits of volunteering

Episodic Volunteering in Sport Events : A Seven-Country Analysis

Given its ubiquitous nature, sport events are one of the most popular venues for episodic volunteering around the world. This article explores the rare dataset of volunteering in sport events in seven countries-Finland, Ghana, India, Japan, Switzerland, Tanzania, United States-to overview the differences and similarities identified in demography, volunteers' reactions to hosts' management strategies, satisfaction, and intention to volunteer again. Key findings include differences in the level of satisfaction, where responses among American volunteers were the highest. We also find that although well-organized management strategies such as quality training, communication, and proper appreciation led to higher satisfaction, these factors did not contribute to volunteers' intent to volunteer again. Such management style might be too impersonal with less autonomy on the part of volunteers that they may not feel needed in future events. Somewhat messy management might motivate volunteers to participate again.Peer reviewe

Sustainable Value Co-Creation in Welfare Service Ecosystems : Transforming temporary collaboration projects into permanent resource integration

The aim of this paper is to discuss the unexploited forces of user-orientation and shared responsibility to promote sustainable value co-creation during service innovation projects in welfare service ecosystems. The framework is based on the theoretical field of public service logic (PSL) and our thesis is that service innovation seriously requires a user-oriented approach, and that such an approach enables resource integration based on the service-user’s needs and lifeworld. In our findings, we identify prerequisites and opportunities of collaborative service innovation projects in order to transform these projects into sustainable resource integration once they have ended

Best practices and strategies used by church leaders to mitigate and prevent burnout among church volunteers

The purpose of this study is to explore successful strategies implemented by church leaders to mitigate and prevent church volunteer burnout. Volunteer training in the church must be set up for success relationally to create long-term sustainability. Burnout among volunteers and church leadership is common but effective training can help to prevent and mitigate burnout. The insights gleaned from the literature for preventing burnout can be incorporated into volunteer training programs within the church in order to provide long-term sustainability for volunteers. Armed with the findings of this study regarding insights gleaned from successful burnout mitigation and prevention programs used in churches currently, churches that are in need of these programs can become empowered to assist their volunteers with training. Qualitative research provided this study with a flexible framework to encompass the dynamic relationships that existed between church leadership, church volunteers, and burnout mitigation and prevention. Data was collected from 10 church leaders in charge of volunteer training within the Southern California area. Nine semi-structured interview questions were formulated from the four research questions in order to gather burnout prevention and mitigation data from these church leaders. The findings have strong implications for those developing and implementing burnout prevention and mitigation programs

The potential role of ePortfolios in the Teaching Excellence Framework

Current debates on HE policy in the UK are dominated by the evolving Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) which will soon involve the government establishing key metrics.  In this context, and seizing this valuable moment in policy formation, we here provide a brief foray into the multiple aspects of ‘teaching excellence’ (TE) as a basis to highlight both the complexity of identifying ways to measure it and the shortcomings of existing official developments.  In the absence of a clear conceptual understanding of the learning processes and the role of teaching which apparently underpins the TEF, we present a model of the learning process to which the indicators currently proposed by the authorities can be related.  We propose that ePortfolios can play a special role in the TEF in capturing the qualitative outcomes of learning processes which, importantly, reflect the student perspective in terms of goals, learning experiences and achievement.  These are both crucial yet missing elements of the proposals to date. Finally, we provide some examples of how information from ePortfolios could be used by HE institutions to enhance their institutional submissions to the TEF.

Recruitment Considerations for Christian, Dental, Short-Term Missions Relating to the Holistic Development of Dentists

A painful toothache often becomes unbearable and an unsightly smile can bring distress. Since tooth decay is the most widespread, chronic disease globally, mission trips by dentists can make an incalculable difference when they offer dental treatment to under-resourced people around the world. Dental ministration opens the door to a caring witness of God’s love where, as Jesus modeled, the physical touch may promote spiritual healing. Often, the recruitment of dentists for short-term, missions is challenging. This mixed-methods, phenomenological, research study was designed to explore the gap in dental, mission research concerning the recruitment of dentists as it relates to the benefits and the detractors of dental, short-term missions. The study utilized Christian dentists who returned 395 quantitative, research instruments from 15 countries, 44 states, and 43 Christian religious affiliations. Qualitative interviews with 60, short-term, mission-experienced, Christian dentists—who each averaged 55, short-term, dental missions—followed the quantitative study. The theory guiding this research was inspired by Lowe & Lowe (2018) who created a holistic model integrating six developmental aspects of personhood in the spiritual, intellectual, physical, moral, emotional, and social dimensions. Christian dentists revealed a relatively equal distribution in all of the beneficial motivators, highly endorsing participation in dental, short-term missions. The detractor responses were more diverse, with most Christian dentists affirming that their participation in dental, short-term missions would not be adversely affected by detractors

The affordances and contraints of distributive leadership in effecting school improvement in Saudi Arabian primary schools for boys : a focus upon school culture and values

This study addresses the concept of distributive leadership within the context of education. It explores and explains the values which underpin school culture and the extent and ways in which these values promote or inhibit distributive leadership. The research also considers the contrasts between Islamic values and the values that are purported to be promoted within distributive leadership. The main aim is to examine the relationship between school culture values and distributive leadership values, so as to suggest how improvement in schools can be furthered. Many scholars have postulated that distributive leadership could be the best solution for the improvement of leadership in schools (Harris, 2009; Hairon & Goh, 2014).;Nevertheless, the concept of distributive leadership is yet to gain consensus and, therefore, it can be said that it lacks a rational platform within the literature (Hartley, 2010; Woods et al., 2004; Gunter et al., 2008; Bennet et al., 2003; Bolden, 2011; Harris & Spillane, 2008). The formulation of a theoretical framework for the research can be done by focusing on the commonly accepted values of distributive leadership. For instant trust and accountability, sharing and empowerment (Harris, 2014; Day & Sammons, 2016), equality and justice (Torrance, 2013a; Harris, 2014), motivation and sense-making (Harris, 2014; Mascall et al., 2008), tender and autonomy (Tschannen-Moran &Gareis, 2015). To achieve these main aims, this research undertook a qualitative case study with triangulation tools in three primary schools for boys in Riyadh.This study addresses the concept of distributive leadership within the context of education. It explores and explains the values which underpin school culture and the extent and ways in which these values promote or inhibit distributive leadership. The research also considers the contrasts between Islamic values and the values that are purported to be promoted within distributive leadership. The main aim is to examine the relationship between school culture values and distributive leadership values, so as to suggest how improvement in schools can be furthered. Many scholars have postulated that distributive leadership could be the best solution for the improvement of leadership in schools (Harris, 2009; Hairon & Goh, 2014).;Nevertheless, the concept of distributive leadership is yet to gain consensus and, therefore, it can be said that it lacks a rational platform within the literature (Hartley, 2010; Woods et al., 2004; Gunter et al., 2008; Bennet et al., 2003; Bolden, 2011; Harris & Spillane, 2008). The formulation of a theoretical framework for the research can be done by focusing on the commonly accepted values of distributive leadership. For instant trust and accountability, sharing and empowerment (Harris, 2014; Day & Sammons, 2016), equality and justice (Torrance, 2013a; Harris, 2014), motivation and sense-making (Harris, 2014; Mascall et al., 2008), tender and autonomy (Tschannen-Moran &Gareis, 2015). To achieve these main aims, this research undertook a qualitative case study with triangulation tools in three primary schools for boys in Riyadh