[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":3,"doc-seo-599616-105":59,"doc-detail-599616-en":130},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",[7,13,18,23,28,33,38,43,48,51,55],{"id":8,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":10,"show_sort_weight":11,"slug":12},1,"Document","Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":14,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":15,"show_sort_weight":16,"slug":17},2,"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":19,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":20,"show_sort_weight":21,"slug":22},4,"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":24,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":25,"show_sort_weight":26,"slug":27},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":29,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":30,"show_sort_weight":31,"slug":32},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":34,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":35,"show_sort_weight":36,"slug":37},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":39,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":40,"show_sort_weight":41,"slug":42},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":44,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":45,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":47},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":46,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":49,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":50},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":53,"show_sort_weight":52,"slug":54},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":56,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":57,"show_sort_weight":24,"slug":58},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":60,"data":61},"ok",{"site_id":62,"language":63,"slug":64,"title":65,"keywords":66,"description":67,"schema_data":68,"social_meta":123,"head_meta":125,"extra_data":127,"updated_unix":129},105,"en","canadian-youth-volunteering-abroad-rethinking-issues-of-power-and-privilege","Canadian Youth Volunteering Abroad - Rethinking Issues of Power and Privilege","","Canadian youth volunteering abroad paper examines how institutions shape the ethical engagement and experiences of young Canadians in international development. It addresses growing scrutiny over whether volunteering, voluntourism, and backpactivism reinforce power and privilege, and who benefits from these initiatives. Using Institutional Ethnography, it maps relations between seven former volunteers, field staff, and organizations, applying Active Citizenship and Anti-Racism frameworks to assess equity, while advocating sustainable and equitable community partnerships.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":40,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/canadian-youth-volunteering-abroad-rethinking-issues-of-power-and-privilege/599616/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/canadian-youth-volunteering-abroad-rethinking-issues-of-power-and-privilege/599616.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"jayni","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-29","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":24},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"What core ethical concern does the paper raise about Canadian youth volunteering abroad?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"The paper examines how institutions influence the ethical engagement of Canadian youth volunteers and whether volunteering practices reinforce power and privilege rather than delivering equitable development.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"How does the study investigate power and privilege in volunteering experiences?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"It uses Institutional Ethnography to map social relations between seven former youth volunteers, field staff, and their organizations, and then applies Active Citizenship and Anti-Racism frameworks to assess equity.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"Why does the paper emphasize institutional structures rather than focusing only on individual volunteers?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"It argues that responsibility has been placed too heavily on individuals, while institutional pedagogy and organizational structures play a key role in shaping challenges and outcomes in international voluntary services.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},599616,1792192515,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":24,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":139,"language":140,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":144,"read_time":145},3985747859343,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_276721f389ce27ea32af1340a28f341c","Canadian Youth Volunteering Abroad: Rethinking Issues of Power and Privilege  \nMai Ngo  \nUniversity of Toronto  \nThis paper discusses the role of institutions in the ethical engagement of Canadian youth volunteers abroad. In recent years, researchers and practitioners in the international field have questioned the ethics of volunteering as part of development, with scrutiny on who actually benefits from volunteering initiatives. Since the 1960s, over 65,000 young Canadians have participated in volunteer abroad programs (Tiessen, 2008), and criticism has increased towards youth volunteers going overseas to fulfill their aspirations to“change the world”. This study considered how complex social relations and institutional structures in international development have shaped the issues of power and privilege of the young person’s experience in volunteering. The research used Institutional Ethnography (IE) as a method of inquiry, and mapped out the social relations between the experiences of seven former youth volunteers and field staff, and their organizations. Westheimer and Kahne’s Active Citizenship and Dei’s Anti-Racism theories were proposed as frameworks to examine the presence of equity in youth volunteer programs.  \nThe Individual and the Institution  \nSince the 1960s, over 65,000 young Canadians have participated in volunteer abroad programs; this number continues to expand each year as young people travel to developing countries for a variety of reasons that range from self-discovery and adventure to the desire to make a difference (Tiessen, 2008). As the number of young volunteers going abroad grows, so does their impact on the communities that they visit. International development critics have resurfaced terms such as‘Western imperialism’in the debate concerning volunteering overseas. The question ‘is volunteering another form of colonization?’permeates voluntourism or ‘backpactivism’.  \nThe research on international voluntary service (IVS) indicates that volunteers contribute to issues of power and privilege in international volunteering. The nebulous meanings of power and privilege can be put into context using Peggy McIntosh’s work White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack (1988). Her essay serves as an entry point into power and privilege while acknowledging that the definition of these two words are evolving and complex. McIntosh describes a political system that works“systematically to empower certain groups”(1988, p. 5), and privilege can be seen as dominance in a system due to one’s race, sex, gender, sexual orientation, class, physical or mental ability, and so on. Volunteers can exert power on the community in forms that include economic, racial, heterosexual, gender and political privilege (Lewis, 2006) .  \nYet there has been less focus on Canadian youth volunteers who make a conscious effort to counter the harmful actions that youth volunteers have the reputation for bringing with them. The comparison between these experiences leaves a gap in the depiction of international volunteering as either positive or negative. The focus on the institutional structures of volunteerism has been neglected, while the onus has been put on the individual. As long as individuals have the desire to go overseas, and governments are investing in youth as global citizens for social and economic capital, the solution of eradicating youth volunteerism overseas remains unrealistic.  \n© 2014, Current Issues in Comparative Education, Teachers College, Columbia University. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Current Issues in Comparative Education 16 (1), 49-61.  \nMai Ngo  \nThis paper considers the network of relations and institutional structures in IVS so that practitioners and organizations can rethink and restructure issues of power and privilege by focusing on institutional pedagogy rather than framing problems abroad solely as a result of individual power; it also uses Institutional Ethnography to explore the challenges faced by Canad","cbCaivpoZm04NBxG","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaivpoZm04NBxG","pdf",187315,13,"English","# The Individual and the Institution\n## Power, privilege, and critiques of volunteering\n## Institutional focus versus individual responsibility\n# A Brief History of Canadian Volunteer Sending Organizations\n## Post-WWII and international development roles\n## Government support and youth global citizenship","[{\"question\":\"What core ethical concern does the paper raise about Canadian youth volunteering abroad?\",\"answer\":\"The paper examines how institutions influence the ethical engagement of Canadian youth volunteers and whether volunteering practices reinforce power and privilege rather than delivering equitable development.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the study investigate power and privilege in volunteering experiences?\",\"answer\":\"It uses Institutional Ethnography to map social relations between seven former youth volunteers, field staff, and their organizations, and then applies Active Citizenship and Anti-Racism frameworks to assess equity.\"},{\"question\":\"Why does the paper emphasize institutional structures rather than focusing only on individual volunteers?\",\"answer\":\"It argues that responsibility has been placed too heavily on individuals, while institutional pedagogy and organizational structures play a key role in shaping challenges and outcomes in international voluntary services.\"}]","Canadian Youth Volunteering Abroad - Rethinking Issues of Power and Privilege | PDF",1792089121,33]