Our era calls for purposeful teachers to reimagine a sustainable and just society. This study investigated the influence of volunteer teaching, a form of service learning, on teachers’ purpose development in the context of teacher education in China. The life purpose of volunteer student teachers was examined and compared with that of their non-volunteer peers using the Meaning in Life Questionnaire (N = 601) and two open-ended questions (N = 524). Student teachers also reported how their purpose was connected to their teaching career. The findings revealed that volunteer teachers exhibited a higher sense of purpose, and the nature of this purpose differed from that of non-volunteers. Volunteer teachers were more capable of incorporating their professional purpose into their personal purpose. This study suggests that service learning has the potential to strengthen student teachers’ life purpose and identity as moral teachers with a beyond-the-self orientation in teaching. © 2025 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
Author Keywords
Index Keywords
