Tomorrow morning, my son leaves for Rome. He is taking a May Term class with Providence Christian College and Geneva College. This trip and my prayers for him, his classmates, and professors have caused me to reflect back on some of my doctoral research on study abroad programs.
As Thomas Friedman notes in his book, The World is Flat (2005), we live in a global world, and, thanks to technology and transportation advances, it has become even "flatter" over the ten years since he published. The ease and ability to travel and communicate across borders is astounding. This global travel is not only vacations and business travel, nor is it only a part of the adult world, nor is it only for the wealthy. Students, from all backgrounds, are traveling internationally before they leave high school. One study (10 years ago) reported that 29% of students have traveled internationally before graduating from high school (Livermore, 2006); this number jumped to 83% when surveying students at research universities (Siaya & Hayward, 2003). Students also are given opportunities to travel globally through study abroad programs, and this is now an expectation of higher education today. North American students expect that learning in another country will be a part of their college experience, with 55% of seniors planning to study abroad while at college (Fischer, 2008). These figures support Friedman's claim that our world is flat (and becoming "flatter"), and not only in the business world but in education also.
As educators, we are committed to preparing our students to enter this brave, new, global world; as the Harvard College Curricular Review stated, the college "must aim to prepare students to live as citizens of a global society" (2004). This is true for educators in both K-12 and Higher Education. One of the ways that high schools and colleges prepare students to live in this global world is by taking students across borders.
My dissertation focused on study abroad, international service-learning, and short-term mission trip research, culminating in a phenomenological study of a college short-term mission trip. The findings of the study highlighted components of effective educational international trips. These are listed below (I'll expand them in future posts).
1. Be Learning-Centered. Everything a school does should foster learning and should be guided by student learning outcomes. Leaders should be as intentional about planning the trip as they would be with classroom lessons. International trips with students are not vacations; they are powerful learning experiences. Also, team members (and leaders) must leave the American arrogance in America and plan the trip with humility ... they should plan/expect to learn from the people and culture that they will be visiting.
2. Learn Before the Trip. I know most learning will happen on the trip; however, pre-trip learning is essential to optimize the learning on the trip. Although most instructors may focus on the culture/history of the country, equally important are lessons about culture shock (and reverse culture shock), cross cultural interactions, ethnographic techniques, and group dynamics. Learning before you go seems obvious for a school trip, but with the busyness at the end of the year, many summer trips leave with little or no preparation.
3. Involve Cultural Guides. An ideal cultural guide is someone from the country (or one who has spent significant time in the country), who knows the local language, who also knows American culture, and has an educator mindset. It is best for the cultural guide to be a part of the entire trip, as cultural interpretation can be needed at any time, but an initial orientation and frequent check-ins may also work well.
4. Choose Team Leaders Carefully. Just as the success in a classroom is closely tied to the strengths of a teacher, the success of an international trip depends on the leaders. Team leaders should have experience with travel to the country (or, at least, region) of the trip and success in working with students outside of the classroom. It is one thing to teach a class to students one hour a day, and it is quite another thing to spend 24 hours a day for a number of weeks in a foreign country with students. Poor team leaders can destroy an otherwise amazing trip for students; effective team leaders can make any trip an amazing learning experience for students.
2. Learn Before the Trip. I know most learning will happen on the trip; however, pre-trip learning is essential to optimize the learning on the trip. Although most instructors may focus on the culture/history of the country, equally important are lessons about culture shock (and reverse culture shock), cross cultural interactions, ethnographic techniques, and group dynamics. Learning before you go seems obvious for a school trip, but with the busyness at the end of the year, many summer trips leave with little or no preparation.
3. Involve Cultural Guides. An ideal cultural guide is someone from the country (or one who has spent significant time in the country), who knows the local language, who also knows American culture, and has an educator mindset. It is best for the cultural guide to be a part of the entire trip, as cultural interpretation can be needed at any time, but an initial orientation and frequent check-ins may also work well.
4. Choose Team Leaders Carefully. Just as the success in a classroom is closely tied to the strengths of a teacher, the success of an international trip depends on the leaders. Team leaders should have experience with travel to the country (or, at least, region) of the trip and success in working with students outside of the classroom. It is one thing to teach a class to students one hour a day, and it is quite another thing to spend 24 hours a day for a number of weeks in a foreign country with students. Poor team leaders can destroy an otherwise amazing trip for students; effective team leaders can make any trip an amazing learning experience for students.
5. Learn After the Trip. Due to students being homesick and eager to see their families, educational trips often end with little to no reflection on learning. Time should be set aside to debrief and reflect. Additionally, students should be challenged with "how now should we live" type of questions. The research, unfortunately, points to little change of behavior after returning from a "life-changing" international trip. Intentional reflection, discussion, and challenge by the team members and leaders help the lessons learned to stick with the students.
While there are many other elements to crossing borders with students, these five are essential to making the trip an effective learning experience. In fact, I would say if you don't have each of these elements in your trip, don't go.
Great point about the learn after the trip... that would seem to cement the learning that occurred abroad. And that cultural guide would be huge!! Well said!
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