Volunteering as a potential space for transformative learning processes remains widely unexplored in the field of adult educational research. However, Filipp and Aymanns (2018) propose investigating the dynamic process of social interaction as transformative learning. Midlarsky (1991) argues that transformative learning is bolstered, among others, by ‘helping others’ as it provides a feeling of competence, relatedness and self-efficacy (Wilson, 200:216) and, thus, changes figures of self-world-relations (Koller, 2022).

Against this background, the proposal deals with transformative learning during social-interactive volunteering. Volunteering relies on interpersonal relationships, for the functioning of which trust is essential (van der Werff et al., 2019). Yet, longitudinal studies to adequately capture the dynamic nature of transformative learning processes remain sparse. Furthermore, there is a dearth of empirical evidence concerning the role of trust for transformative learning in dynamic social interactions. The present paper aims to investigate the role of trust in transformative learning processes.

The figures of self-world-relations and their change in transformative learning processes (Eschenbacher & Levin 2022; Koller, 2022) will be subject to episodic interviews (Flick, 2011) in a longitudinal design, that were conducted with volunteers from the initiation of their engagement until one year of voluntary activities. In particular, the proposal examines the following research questions:

A)    How do figures of self-world-relations of volunteers vary during volunteering?

B)    How does trust affect transformative learning during volunteering?

Rather than accumulating knowledge, transformative learning is characterized by profound changes in learners understanding of themselves, including their self-concept and identity (Eschenbacher & Levine, 2022:46). According to Mezirow (2000:22), this takes place in successive phases: Starting from the experience of a “disorienting dilemma” via “the exploration of options for new roles, relationships and action” towards “building competence and self-confidence in new roles and relationships” that deliver important theoretical guidance for empirical analysis.

Although there is a consensus that critical incidents are seen as an important trigger of transformative learning processes, there is still dissent concerning the nature of these critical incidents (Koller, 2022:18). While some concepts of transformative learning assume normatively negative incidents with terms, such as “crisis” (Koller, 2022) and “dilemma” (Mezirow, 2000), Yacek (2017:214) criticizes this perspective as an excessive preoccupation with negative attitudes Alternatively, the subjective experience of critical incidents emerges as a complex processing where biographical (Große, 2008:89) (e.g., previous experiences, educational attainment, trust dispositions) and socio-structural resources (e.g., supportive networks) determine how an incident is perceived as “critical” through which transformative learning is initiated.

A widely cited definition of interpersonal trust is the idea of one’s willingness to be vulnerable to the actions of another party (Dietz, 2011; Mayer, Davis, & Schoorman, 1995). Against this background, in this study, trust is seen to be a social lubricant of early-stage relationships (i.e., at the initiation of volunteering) as well as of ongoing relationships (i.e., after one year of voluntary activities). Regarding nascent relationships, the willingness to be vulnerable seems to be dominantly driven by different trust antecedents (Alarcon et al., 2018), such as the perceived trustworthiness of a trustee (Hoy & Tschannen-Moran, 1999; Mayer, Davis, & Schoorman, 1995) and dispositional factors of a trustor. Dispositional trust is aligned with intraindividual factors, such as trust propensity (Alarcon et al., 2018; Colquitt, Scott, & LePine, 2007), normative expectations (Schweer, 1997) or vulnerability (Hamm, Möllering, & Darcy, 2024), that become distinctive towards the decision to engage in trust behaviors (van der Werff et al., 2019).

In terms of the research questions, a qualitative-longitudinal methodical design was applied in the present study. In total, the sample consists of nine participants (diverse gender, age, socio-economic background and content of volunteering) who initiated their volunteering during the COVID-19 pandemic and were interviewed twice: immediately after their final decision to act as a volunteer (T1, October 2020) and nine to twelve months after their decision to volunteer (T2, December 2021). In (T1), retrospective accounts of their experiences, incidents and motives merging into different figures of self-world-relations during the pre-decisional phase of volunteering were recorded. At that stage, dispositional factors of trust, such as trust propensity, normative expectations, perceptions of vulnerability or trustworthiness of the volunteering coordinators were focused. In (T2), i.e. the post-decisional phase, where the elaboration of existing figures of self-world-relations as well as new figures of self-world-relations under the particular impact of experienced trust, was focused. To that end, the participants were asked - on the basis of their experiences with other people in volunteering, such as other volunteers or the volunteering coordinators - to report on their experiences during volunteering. Although some participants quitted their volunteering shortly after T1, we were able to maintain access to the full sample at T2 and thus secured essential data on the cases of the early termination of the volunteering activity. The sampling was enabled by gatekeepers, where the coordinators of the different voluntary organizations announced the study to potential volunteers. The data were collected by using episodic interviews (Flick, 2010; 2011). Such interviews aim at grasping implicit episodic knowledge, the analysis of which is intended to reveal both figures of self-world-relations and trust; this is stimulated in the narrative parts of the interviews. More targeted questions address explicit semantic knowledge in terms of the relevant concepts and explanations of particular views pursued by the research questions. The transcribed interviews were analyzed by means of evaluative qualitative content analysis using MAXQDA (Kuckartz, 2018; Rädiker & Kuckartz, 2019). The categories were generated both deductively and inductively. The deductive categories were derived from Mezirow’s theory of transformative learning (Eschenbacher & Levine, 2022; Mezirow, 2000) and relevant concepts of trust research, such as dispositional factors of trust (Hamm, Möllering, & Darcy, 2024; Mayer, Davis, & Schoorman, 1995; Schweer, 1997). The final category system also contains inductive categories grounded in the data, such as the impact of the ‘COVID-19 pandemic on volunteering’.

The study aims to investigate transformative learning in volunteering due to varying figures of self-world-relations of volunteers during their engagement under the particular impact of trust. With regard to research question A), the results of the qualitative content analysis indicate two types of transformative learning in volunteering, the elaboration of self-world-relations and the learning of new figures of self-world relations. Concerning research question B), the results of the qualitative content analysis imply a relevant impact of trust (i.e., trust dispositions at T1 and experienced trust at T2) on the process of transformative learning that will be presented in this contribution. With respect to both types – the elaboration of self-world-relations and the learning of new figures of self-world-relations – the subjective perception of critical incidents and their aftermath indicates challenged figures of self-world-relations which shape the motivation to initiate volunteering. The elaboration of existing figures of self-world-relations (e.g., solicitude for others) as well as the learning of new figures of self-world-relations (e.g., working as a therapist) indicate particular characteristics, such as new roles, relationships and actions as well as a critical reflection of existing figures of self-world-relations, that will be presented in this contribution. On the basis of dispositional trust factors at T1, such as individual trust propensity, normative expectations or habitual trust relationships in other areas of life, experienced trust to other volunteers or volunteer coordinators at T2 evolved into particular stages (Lewicki & Bunker, 1996), such as knowledge- or identification-based trust. At this, trust seems to be relevant for maintaining the transformative learning, in particular with respect to the impact of external disturbances on volunteering, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, the results of this longitudinal study deliver important implications for the dynamics of transformative learning in volunteering where trust has been revealed as an important determinant.

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