Community Outreach Programs Calculating Submission: The Behavior of Students when Participating in School

Abstract

The paper was an application of classical ‘Barney G. Glaser’s’ grounded theory methodology on participating in community outreach programs. The main aim of the study was to generate theory from data that will explain what is going on when students participate in outreach programs. The study’s objectives included the discovery of (1) the main concern of the participants and (2) their preponderant behavior in trying to resolve this concern. The whole research process was driven by data; meaning it started with data gathering, followed by comparative data analyzes with data collection, until a substantive theory was generated. In-depth and unstructured one-on-one and group interviews and discussions supplemented with documentary analysis were the methods employed to collect data. Altogether, forty-five students who participated in community outreach programs were interviewed. It was discovered that the students main concern was “getting through”- that is how to end, complete, and pass the community outreach program and achieved benefits or “preconceived self-gain” which unconsciously defined their participation in the community outreach program. To get through and achieved preconceived self-gain, students commonly exhibited “calculating submission” behavior where they measure the degree of participation in the outreach program they participated in vis-a-vis preconceived self-gain. Keywords - grounded theory, community outreach program, getting through, preconceived self-gain, calculating submission, behavior of students