Exploring Black Student Teacher Motivation for Community Service Involvement

Abstract

Research in South Africa has paid little attention to black student motivation for voluntary community-service engagement. Motivation for community service engagement is probably the most important factor for student teachers, for consistent, sustainable service to their communities. The focus of this study was to investigate the motives of black student teachers' continued voluntary engagement after being exposed to community service learning. Semi-structured individual interviews were conducted with 4th year students to gather data. Inductive, content analysis was conducted to determine themes. We established that students are motivated by several factors that are self and externally directed - promoted by the availability of service opportunities in their environments. These motivational factors may also be individualistic and or collectivistic orientated. The factors that motivate students have implications for how institutions of higher learning develop their programmes for community service engagement for student teachers.