Exploring youth attitudes about volunteer travel and the potential to inspire critical consciousness and transformation
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Date
2019
Authors
Sikorski, Ellen
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Abstract
The growing trend of volunteer travel brings people from all over the world to different communities to work on various projects. Currently, literature surrounding this phenomenon has focused on the pros and cons of volunteer travel rather than examining how participants view their participation. The purpose of this dissertation was to explore how volunteer travel abroad influences and inspires participants to think critically about issues of power and privilege. More specifically, it examined the potential impact of a volunteer trip on tourists’ ongoing development of critical consciousness and the transformation of their attitudes. Gaining a greater understanding about volunteer travel has been significant, not only to add to the limited body of research surrounding short-term volunteer travel but also to provide insight into how these trips influence constructive attitudes and behaviours towards building a culture of positive peace, even long after a participant has returned home. The research was conducted using autoethnography, where I travelled alongside youth on a volunteer trip to Kenya, as well as semi-structured interviews with past participants. Through the course of my study, I discussed different volunteer travellers’ experiences and compared these accounts using critical consciousness and Transformative Learning Theory. The study revealed that the participants, including myself, exhibited changes in both attitudes and behaviours. While the degree of these changes varied, the fact that participants credit their experience abroad for these transformations is significant. Various conditions were identified which could be implemented in each volunteer travel trip to ensure these trips are being optimized to provide an experience which encourages these transformations.
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Keywords
volunteer travel, critical consciousness, youth, peace building