THE CIVIC ACTIVISM OF SCOTTISH TEACHERS - EXPLANATIONS AND CONSEQUENCES

Voluntary activism has been argued to provide the basis for a pluralis t democracy. The paper investigates the reasons why teachers engage in voluntary activities outside their professional work. Being a well-ed ucated and geographically dispersed profession, teachers offer a socia l resource which many voluntary organisations rely on locally as well as nationally. Moreover, being educators, they are in a position to pa ss on the values of a civic culture to their students and to the wider community. The analysis uses data from a postal questionnaire survey of teachers in Scotland. Its main findings were that teachers were act ive in diverse organisations, and in diverse ways. The strongest corre lates of high levels of activism were being male or being female witho ut children, having a strong sense of personal political efficacy, bei ng more educationally experienced (for example, holding a promoted pos t and having taken a post-graduate degree), and (for the more politica l types of activism) being more left-wing and being more in favour of civil liberties. Respondents reported that activism had contributed in various ways to improving their professionalism as teachers, the most beneficial effects coming from the more political types of activism.