transitions in the south waikato labour market: an ethnographic study

four years. The time spent in this type of work range from a few hours every now andthen, to regular daily commitments.Two common themes in relation to voluntary work were schools – of various sorts –and children. In three cases, though associated with schools, people’s children werenot the prompt for this. One woman did reading recovery at the local school long afterher children had grown up. She had simply responded to a public call for volunteers.here was an ad in the paper. They wanted women to help with the reading.… The intermediate have a program that they run and they run tests on allthe new entrances into the School and they assess their level of reading andthose who are lower they get volunteer people from the district and we goin once a week and just help them to read. We hear them reading, helpthem figure out words.In very different circumstances, one man did a term of voluntary teaching as he triedto decide if he wanted to return to work as a teacher. For another woman, it was herniece and nephew, who kept taking time off school, that prompted her decision towork as a voluntary truancy officer.Helping and learning how to deal with the children that weren’t at School.... To help my nephew and niece … I love the work and I love the childrenup there and they need help. There are a lot of children up there who needsomeone to talk to like a mother.On top of working and studying at times, as well as caring for her own seven children,this woman kept up this role for many years.In the other cases, children proved the key to a parent’s involvement, with them takingon a range of roles, responsibilities and activities at Kohanga Reo, playcentres,kindergartens, and primary and secondary schools. This mostly involved mothers, whowere very active in pre-school settings – running programmes and committees,fundraising, as well as doing training and learning. As this woman explains, the rolescan be varied. She also notes that it is almost obligatory rather than simply voluntaryin some circumstancesI do computer work …Like if they want newsletters done up or if they wantinvitations made out. …Mind you play centre isn’t really voluntary. Thingslike today going along to kindergarten. Some times it is obligation andsome times it is a bit of a hand out. …[I started] when [our son] was about6 months old I started. So that is about 4 and a half years ago. …It’s sort oflike 3 times a week and the committee meet once a month.At primary school, women tended to act more often as teacher aides in the classrooms.In some cases, women had continuous periods of voluntary work as they moved withtheir children from pre-school to primary school.Men were less involved in this sort of voluntary work and they tended to be moreactive at primary and secondary level. They usually helped out at camps, on trips, andwith fundraising. This man’s comments illustrate why parents are drawn intovoluntary work with their children. As well, helping at the school, he was also a ScoutMaster. He got involved in this,…because my sons were there. The two oldest ones were involved andfrom there I became involved and it has taken up quite a bit of time. I’ve28