A qualitative study on incentive failure for college students in volunteer teaching programs

Introduction Volunteer teachers are an important supplementary force for the development of education in underdeveloped areas at present. Nevertheless, problems such as weak retention intention, low work enthusiasm and high turnover rate among volunteers cannot be ignored. It is important to examine how to effectively incentivize volunteers to participate in volunteer teaching. Methods This study focuses on the issue of incentive failure among volunteer teachers. From the perspective of qualitative research and based on the grounded theory methodology, the research team conducted in-depth interviews with 36 volunteer teachers and carried out participatory observation of the daily work of 11 volunteer teachers. Through constant comparative analysis of the data and repeated review of analytic memos, categories and subcategories were clarified using the three-stage coding process of open coding, axial coding, and selective coding, and a model of the mechanism of incentive failure among volunteer teachers was constructed. Results The findings indicate that the extrinsic motivating factors leading to incentive failure among volunteer teachers include insufficient organizational vitality, deficiencies in the institutional framework, and imbalance in societal attention, while the intrinsic motivating factor is difficulty in self-worth identity. This study constructs a mechanism model of incentive failure for volunteer teachers. Discussion Based on the above research findings, this study discusses strategies to improve the volunteer incentive mechanism and puts forward suggestions from the perspectives of organizational vitality, institutional regulation, social public opinion and school education.