Skip to Main Content
 

Global Search Box

 
 
 
 

Files

ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

Parent volunteer patterns in schools: an ontological exploratory model

Fahey, Denise M.

Abstract Details

2007, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Educational Policy and Leadership.
While its importance and impact on students and schools has been the focus of much research, as a construct unto itself, parent volunteerism has received very little attention. In fact, there is no clear agreement as to what constitutes parent volunteerism or even an understanding as to what types of jobs are generally considered to be parent volunteer activities. Moving toward a definition, this study presents an ontology of four different subgroups of parents and how they elect to participate in either high risk or low risk volunteer activities for educational organizations. High risk activities include those tasks or jobs in which parent volunteers have access to sensitive student information, or assume responsibility for school-aged children, school-owned equipment, or government property. Low risk activities include those that typically do not place children, the school, or the volunteer in legal jeopardy. Each ontology contains three coefficients representing the relationship between the attributes for personal time availability, socio-economic status, and social and cultural capital and either High Risk volunteer tasks or Low Risk activities. Using Structural Equation Modeling of data taken from the Special Volunteer Supplement of the Current Population Survey of 2005 reveals that parent’s time availability and socio-economic status are not significant predictors of their self-determinations of the activities they performed as volunteers. On the other hand, social and cultural capital is a very strong predictor, especially for minority mothers. Other findings show that parents consider their volunteer activities as being strongly task-oriented, that fathers engage in more activities dealing directly with children, while mothers engage in more social activities such as serving on committees.
William Loadman (Advisor)

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Fahey, D. M. (2007). Parent volunteer patterns in schools: an ontological exploratory model [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1178296283

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Fahey, Denise. Parent volunteer patterns in schools: an ontological exploratory model. 2007. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1178296283.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Fahey, Denise. "Parent volunteer patterns in schools: an ontological exploratory model." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2007. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1178296283

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)