Diagnostics of the Volunteering Participants' Agency in Education

The article discusses the diagnostics of students' agency in volunteering. The authors consider agency through metacompetencies and analyze the concepts "agency" and "metacompetency" in relation to students participating in volunteering. Based on the theoretical studies analysis and expert interview results, the authors substantiate the educational resource of volunteering for developing students' agency as a basic criterion for the quality of metacompetencies. At the first stage of the study, to identify empirical signs of the agency quality of students participating in volunteering, the authors conducted four focus groups and a phenomenological analysis of reflective texts by students of Tomsk State University based on the results of their volunteering in non-profit organizations of the local community. The indicators of the students' agency and their characteristics in volunteering were identified. Within the framework of the second stage, the authors implemented a program of pedagogical support of the theoretical construct. The program was implemented as an optional course (2 groups of students, N = 40). A questionnaire was developed to measure the indicators of the students' agency associated with their motivational, reflexive, and regulatory-activity formations. The results show the psychometric properties of the questionnaire. Statistical analysis was performed using the methods of descriptive statistics, comparative analysis, and correlation analysis. The authors also used the following questionnaires: the self-organization of activity questionnaire by E.Yu. Mandrikova, the satisfaction with life scale (SWLS) by E. Diener, the emotional intelligence questionnaire EmIn by D.V. Lyusin, and the self-determination and well-being scale by B. Sheldon, adapted and modified by E.N. Osin. The average scores of the students' agency level questionnaire increased significantly after completing the course. The results of the pilot study will be used as the basis for clarifying the developed construct in the next stage of developing the questionnaire of the level of students' agency development in volunteering. In particular, the results of the theoretical study indicate a complex multidimensional structure of agency. Therefore, further research will be aimed at improving the methodology for identifying scales of the questionnaire and studying the validity of the authors' questionnaire and the possibilities of its refinement and optimization.