THE VIEWS OF SOCIAL WORK STUDENTS ON VOLUNTEERING: THE ANKARA UNIVERSITY SAMPLE

English (OpenAlex)

The objective of this work is to reveal the views of thesocial work students on volunteering. The research has been conducted withthe participation of 223 Ankara University Faculty of Health SciencesDepartment of Social Work students. Through complete inventory, the data weregathered from volunteering students; and analyzed with frequency distribution(f) and chi-square (X2) techniques. The female student count is 74%of the participants, whereas 26% are male. Additionally, 23.8% of the studentsare freshman, 30% are sophomore, 22.9% are junior and 23.3% are seniorstudents. The students’ perception on volunteering follows mostly as sharingquid pro quo, providing all kind of needs, emotional support and working at anenterprise free of charge. While 33.6% of the students have been involved incertain volunteering activities during the past year, the percentage ofstudents who have registered to one or more non-governmental organizations (NGO) are more than the half. Moreover,the fields where the students mostly attend to volunteering works are childrenwelfare, disability, youth and poverty. The reasons why the participants attendto volunteering activities are significantly love for people, the wish toaccomplish something for the society and gaining information and experience.The social work education has a positive affect onmost of the studentsregarding volunteering, due to course contents (field study, NGOs, poverty andsocial work, sociak work with disabled) and field studies. The participation offemale students during the past year is higher than the male students. Social workeducation influences the thoughts of students on volunteering in a positivedirection. Adding a different course on volunteering to the schedule, moreactive student societies and academicians and more effective coordination withNGOs may have more improving results on the thoughts and attitiudes of studentsregarding volunteering.