Student engagement in community development: A strategy for whole-person development

Title

Student engagement in community development: A strategy for whole-person development

Creator

Kar S.M.; George J.; Jiby Jose E.

Description

Student engagement in community development has been closely linked to enhanced learning outcomes and whole-person development. The Centre for Social Action (CSA) at Christ University emerged as a student-led student-driven initiative to promote volunteerism and engagement in community development that enabled the student community to identify and work on development initiatives. The objective of the chapter is to examine the factors that influence student engagement in community development initiatives and explore the factors that motivate them to volunteer. It also looks at their perception of the benefits for the two main stakeholders in the process, namely the students themselves and the community that they work with. This chapter uses a qualitative framework, and the data is collected through in-depth interviews and focus group discussions with current and past volunteers with CSA. The participants in the study have been selected using purposive sampling techniques and represent students who have worked on the major initiatives undertaken by CSA, namely the activity centre and the various social awareness and sensitization initiatives. The interviews and the focus group discussions have been conducted on virtual meeting platforms, and the data has been analyses thematically. The research design lends itself to a rich exploration of student perception of their engagement in community development, their motivation, the benefits that they perceive of their engagement with the activities for both themselves and other stakeholders, and how it ties into the construct of whole-person development at the individual level and whole-person education at a broader level. 2024 Nova Science Publishers, Inc.

Source

Models for Social Responsibility Action by Higher Education Institutions, pp. 247-264.

Date

2023-01-01

Publisher

Nova Science Publishers, Inc.

Subject

Community development; Student engagement; Volunteerism; Whole-person development

Coverage

Kar S.M., Christ University, Bengaluru, India; George J., Christ University, Bengaluru, India; Jiby Jose E., Christ University, Bengaluru, India

Rights

Restricted Access

Relation

ISBN: 979-889113251-1; 979-889113097-5

Format

Online

Language

English

Type

Book chapter

Identifier

https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85183082874&partnerID=40&md5=2b44917492727e537f10f8dec7137f81