Volunteers in Schools: A Renewal

Abstract

Many schools in Ontario have, or have had, volunteer programs. Most such programs are successful, although there is limited inter-school or interboard communication about them. Cussons and Hedges' (1978) study of educational volunteers in Halton Board has been only comprehensive study for Ontario. Given demands of curriculum in diverse populations, teachers are pulled in many directions. To accommodate students, additional personnel are required. Non-expert volunteers have not usually performed professional tasks. Problems with volunteers have included issues of insecurity specified as Concern about trouble makers . . . whether parents should serve as volunteers in their children's classrooms . . . confidentiality, fear of having another adult in classroom (Cussons & Hedges, 1978, p. 12). Although Ontario Teacher Federation, Ontario Ministry of Education, and local boards were uneasy about volunteers, formal policy had to wait until Education Act (Ontario Ministry of Education, 1987): board may permit a principal to assign to a person who volunteers to serve without remuneration such duties in respect of school as are approved by board and to terminate such assignment (p. 171). These provisions concern legal obligations but not volunteers' qualifications and duties. Cussons and Hedges reported that teachers worried about the legality and practicality of sharing with [volunteers] some of lower level instructional functions of (pp. 12-13). Although non-educational volunteer functions were non-controversial, implications of dividing teaching responsibilities between teacher and volunteer were problematic. Accounts of volunteer programs typically support volunteerism. Perras (1973) suggested that all persons assisting teachers be defined as paraprofessionals, reporting that in most schools, volunteers supervise field trips and help prepare teaching material. In 23 Ontario schools, volunteers helped in main instructional program, working, for example, with children on remedial reading exercises or on mathematics drills. Perras argued every province should enact legislation to enable employment of teacher aides, including orientation programs and annual inservice sessions. Similarly, Jackson's (1975) study of volunteers in National School Volunteer Program said of volunteering that it offered greater opportunity for adult contact with students, [and that] volunteers have helped to personalize and humanize school experience (p. 15). According to Jackson, anyone