Transforming the world and themselves: the learning experiences of volunteers being trained within health and social care charities in England

Abstract

This paper presents early findings from research that I am conducting, which began in September 2013 and is due to be completed in September 2016. The research aims to explore the learning of volunteers who are being trained to perform service providing roles in health and social care charities in England in order to gain a better understanding of and insight into the learning that occurs within this context and how it can be supported. In this paper I introduce the area of volunteer training as currently under-researched and propose the use of cultural historical activity theory (CHAT) as a framework that can contribute to insights into learning within this context. CHAT views learning as a form of individual and collective transformation and this paper argues that such transformations are possible within volunteer training. Findings from my research so far are discussed using CHAT to provide further insight into how individual and collective transformation is possible within health and social care charities based in England. The development of a shared objective, embedded within values and regulated by rules, is explained as driving forward the activity of training. Encouraging and engaging multiple voices within training activity are identified as a potential source of transformation, and also conflict. Although analysis of the research is ongoing, overall findings indicate that approaching volunteer training as a transformational process can create wider benefits for organisations, volunteers and their communities.