Developing sustainability competences through facilitating youth motivation to engage in voluntary activities
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.34630/e-rei.vi14.7430Palavras-chave:
volunteering, youth, sustainability competencies, intrinsic motives, extrinsic motivesResumo
This article aims to investigate young people's motivations for participating in voluntary activities and identify the sustainability competencies they develop. The research question is: What is the relationship between young people’s motivations for volunteering and the development of sustainabilityrelated competencies? The following methods were used to achieve the aim: analytical and comparative literature analysis, quantitative questionnaire survey. Based on the literature analysis, hypotheses and a conceptual model of volunteering motivation facilitation for development of sustainability competences were formulated. A quantitative study was conducted in the form of a questionnaire survey. More than 803 young people participated in the survey. A large proportion of the respondents were young people from Lithuania, Latvia, Portugal, and other European countries (Poland, Greece, Bulgaria, Italy, Estonia, Ukraine, France, Spain, Romania, Netherlands, Finland, Czech Republic and Malta). The research showed that young people are motivated to participate in volunteering by the desire to help others and understand different cultures, communities and people's needs, as well as to contribute to solving social and environmental problems. Intrinsic motivations encourage people to take up volunteering and contribute to various volunteering activities. The results also showed that sustainability competences are developed through value-based social and emotional education, experiential learning, systematic thinking and civic engagement. Intrinsic motivation strengthens the personal connection with meaningful activities and shapes attitudes towards values, while extrinsic motivation creates practical opportunities and a social context for the realization of these values. Together, these factors form the basis for the comprehensive development of sustainability competences, which is very important in developing responsible, conscious and sustainable thinking.
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