PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL-BEING OF VOLUNTEER TEACHER TRAINERS IN THE REMOTE AREA IN INDONESIA

Hanif Akhtar*
Faculty of Psychology Universitas Gadjah Mada, INDONESIA, hanif.akhtar27@gmail.com
*Corresponding author

Abstract
Indonesia is a wide country and it consists of thousands of islands. This condition makes many regions in Indonesia do not get the proper educational facilities. In addition, the quality of teachers in the remote areas is still poor. People who concern with the condition of education in the remote areas are still rare because of the limited access and high cost to get there. However, there is one group of volunteers who care about the condition of education in the remote areas of Indonesia called RUBI (Ruang Berbagi Ilmu). RUBI is a voluntary movement of professionals that focus on improving teachers' competence in the remote areas. The purpose of this study was to explore the motivation of the volunteer and to understand how the dynamics of the volunteers in achieving psychological well-being.

The research was conducted by a qualitative method using phenomenology approach. The respondents in this study were professionals who had already traveled to remote areas to become a volunteer teacher trainer. The results of this study indicated that becoming volunteer requires a lot of sacrifices, such as material and time. In addition, being a volunteer also has great challenges because they have to adapt to a new environment. However, despite these sacrifices and inconveniences, many volunteers feel addicted to get involved in this activity. There are many benefits perceived as volunteers such as 1) increasing insight and knowledge from any source and any region, 2) developing their competence, 3) gaining inner satisfaction and meaningful life, 4) becoming more widespread the social relations, and 5) becoming more positive and more grateful. In general, being volunteers in the remote area has affected the six dimensions of psychological well-being, that is self-acceptance, positive relationships with others, autonomy, environmental mastery, purpose in life, and personal growth. The dynamics of psychological well-being of the volunteer trainers are discussed further in this paper.

Keywords: psychological well-being, volunteer, remote area, Indonesia, qualitative