This Is Not a Vacation: The Shadow Side of Study Abroad Programs for Faculty

2018 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 185-199
Author(s):  
Timothy M. Madden ◽  
Amy McMillan ◽  
Laura T. Madden

Study abroad programs (SAPs) are desirable experiential learning opportunities that can enrich students and faculty alike. Faculty participate in SAPs because their immersive learning contexts offer a variety of personal and professional benefits, including the chance to meet new research contacts, tour cultural sites, and get to know students in a more informal context. Despite these benefits, SAPs contain a substantial shadow side for faculty and involve unanticipated temporal, financial, and physiological costs. Additionally, risks—some of which can never be fully avoided—also remain sources of stress and anxiety. This study uses a qualitative approach to identify and shed light on these understated issues that are typically relegated to the shadow. Questionnaires and semistructured interviews with experienced SAP faculty leaders provide evidence for these elements, which is the first step in aligning faculty expectations with the likely realities that await them abroad. The study concludes with practices and strategies to mitigate some of the costs and risks that faculty may face before, during, and after their involvement in an SAP.

2020 ◽  
pp. 360-373
Author(s):  
Ye He ◽  
Kristine Lundgren

To internationalize the K-12 curriculum and instructional practices, there is an increasing need to provide study-abroad opportunities for practicing teachers. In this chapter, the authors describe the design of a recent Fulbright-Hays Group Project Abroad (GPA) program that offer practicing teachers from different grade levels and content areas the opportunity to bridge their local and global experiences. The intentional design of program activities at the pre-departure, in-country, and re-entry phases is detailed based on research regarding teachers' communities of practice, teacher change, and the cultural transition framework. In addition to program activities, the challenges faculty directors and participants experienced and the strategies employed to leverage these challenges into learning opportunities are discussed. Recommendations for similar study-abroad programs involving practicing teachers are also provided.


HortScience ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 473E-474
Author(s):  
Tim Rhodus

Study Abroad programs are designed to provide a variety of learning opportunities for students. Experiencing firsthand the culture, environment, and/or industry is often described as the most memorable benefit by those who study for a quarter or semester in another country. Unfortunately, it is difficult to share this learning experience with classmates and family members who are back at home. One solution that has been implemented with the College's Study Abroad program at The Ohio State Univ., is to design a web site that chronicles the experiences and activities of students while they are abroad. In addition to the photos and stories being contributed from abroad, classmates and other individuals from the home institution can submit questions and participate in threaded discussions with those abroad. For example, students at home can post questions regarding an upcoming tour location and utilize the responses and photos for a class they are attending. Finally, being able to review experiences from previous trips is an outstanding strategy for promoting the program to new students. Online experiences from the Dominican Republic and England programs are available at: http://cfaes.ohio-state.edu/studyabroad.


Author(s):  
Ye He ◽  
Kristine Lundgren

To internationalize the K-12 curriculum and instructional practices, there is an increasing need to provide study-abroad opportunities for practicing teachers. In this chapter, the authors describe the design of a recent Fulbright-Hays Group Project Abroad (GPA) program that offer practicing teachers from different grade levels and content areas the opportunity to bridge their local and global experiences. The intentional design of program activities at the pre-departure, in-country, and re-entry phases is detailed based on research regarding teachers' communities of practice, teacher change, and the cultural transition framework. In addition to program activities, the challenges faculty directors and participants experienced and the strategies employed to leverage these challenges into learning opportunities are discussed. Recommendations for similar study-abroad programs involving practicing teachers are also provided.


2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard B. Apgar

As destination of choice for many short-term study abroad programs, Berlin offers students of German language, culture and history a number of sites richly layered with significance. The complexities of these sites and the competing narratives that surround them are difficult for students to grasp in a condensed period of time. Using approaches from the spatial humanities, this article offers a case study for enhancing student learning through the creation of digital maps and itineraries in a campus-based course for subsequent use during a three-week program in Berlin. In particular, the concept of deep mapping is discussed as a means of augmenting understanding of the city and its history from a narrative across time to a narrative across the physical space of the city. As itineraries, these course-based projects were replicated on site. In moving from the digital environment to the urban landscape, this article concludes by noting meanings uncovered and narratives formed as we moved through the physical space of the city.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 5844
Author(s):  
Amy Roberts ◽  
Gregory S. Ching

The dialogue about study abroad is a contemporary trend. Since 2011, enrolments from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) have gradually increased and PRC students have now become one of the largest groups of incoming study abroad participants in Taiwan. In this study, investigators explored the characteristics of PRC students in comparison with other international students studying in Taiwan universities. Data were collected from 1870 study abroad students. Data collected include the various study abroad goals, prior study abroad experiences, the Short-term Study Abroad Situational Change Survey, the revised East Asian Acculturation Measures, the Study Abroad Acculturative Hassles, and their overall study abroad satisfaction. Data analyses included computation of the mean, frequency, cross-tabulation of respondents’ responses for identified questions, and various group comparisons. Implications suggest that the characteristics of PRC students are valuable and potentially transformative markers for sustainable cross-strait ties. Study abroad programs in Taiwan are noted as one piece of the emerging discourse for sustainable co-existence between Taiwan and the PRC. As such, PRC study abroad participants along with faculty and students in Taiwan universities have an opportunity to play a role in reshaping future exchanges as well as transforming themselves into stewards of a trans-Pacific community.


2000 ◽  
Vol 28 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 61-64
Author(s):  
Mohamed Saliou Camara

African scholars and activists often suggest that study-abroad programs to Africa be transformed to include an Africa-to-Africa exchange component. Their argument often includes discussion of the possibility that conventional study-abroad programs might perpetuate a colonial relationship between rich nations and those of the African continent rather that developing new relationships among African citizen diplomats. The following is an excellent overview of this debate.


2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yingjie Liu ◽  
Thomas Shirley

While all higher education was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, study abroad programs were uniquely challenged by the associated restrictions and limitations. This case study integrates a Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) pedagogy approach and virtual reality (VR) technologies into the curriculum redesign process to transform a business study abroad course into an online format. Using VR technology, U.S. students and their international partners in Germany, Brazil, and India created and shared cultural exchange virtual tours. The redesigned online study abroad course engaged students in active learning activities and cultivated students’ intercultural competence development.


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