Cultural Immersion as a Context for Promoting Global Citizenship and Personal Agency in Young Adults

Immersive educational experiences are a form of experiential learning that typically involve intensive instruction, reflection, and exposure to complex social issues, often taking participants outside of their “comfort zones” to critically examine their own preconceived notions and biases. This chapter argues that well-designed, intercultural immersion experiences capitalize on key developmental areas in emerging young adults who are navigating diverse perspectives, exploring new identities, and searching for deeper meaning and responsibility. Emerging adults are primed to take advantage of such intercultural immersion opportunities, making even short-term experiences a viable option for intense personal reflection and growth. In addition to promoting healthy developmental pathways in young people, such experiences also benefit the civic well-being of communities by encouraging youth to become agents of social change.

Developing Educators' Global Leadership Competencies through Intercultural Immersion Experiences

The purpose of this chapter is to examine the global leadership competencies that today's school leaders should demonstrate and identify ways to promote them. In order to lead globally competent future citizens, educators need to develop key leadership competencies, including self-awareness, inquisitiveness, empathy, and social skills. It is also important for school leaders who work with people from different cultures demonstrate a high level of cultural intelligence, the ability to interpret unfamiliar cultural behaviors or signals and respond in an appropriate way. Scholars have emphasized that a professional abroad experience is an effective way to promote global leadership competencies, and this chapter introduces a program, Global Studies in Education-South Korea, designed to enhance such skills for educators. The program evaluation study demonstrating the impact of the program is also presented.