Crossing Borders with Students 6: Learn After the Trip

Reflection is essential for meaningful learning, especially following stretching life experiences like crossing borders. Many students are inspired to change some of their "American" beliefs and behaviors due to a cross cultural experience (e.g. materialism, waste, and American arrogance). However, upon return home, the American culture quickly rushes back to overwhelm them and convinces them to lead unchanged lives. Reflection and learning/discussion sessions following a trip helps to solidify the learning that occurs on a trip. In the introduction to this series on Cross Borders with Students, this point was summarized as follows:

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. 

Of course, reflection should occur throughout the cross cultural experience, as students will be observing and learning new things each day. This can be accomplished through individual journaling, conversations with team leaders and team members, and full group discussions each night. However, reflection and learning can be most powerful after the trip; setting aside specific time to challenge students and reflect on the experience is essential to facilitating this learning. As you plan a trip, don't forget learning after the trip.

I have found that simple, open-ended questions often lead to the best discussions and allow students to form their own conclusions about the trip.

1. Signature Photo -- Choose one picture that summarizes the trip for you and explain why.
2. Review the Trip -- Walk through the experience from the first day to the last, remembering and reflecting on what you learned.
3. Worldview Shift -- How do you see the world differently? What is one thing you learned through this experience?
4. Magic Wand -- If you had a magic wand and could change one thing about the trip, what would it be and why?
5. Highs and Lows -- When did you feel "high" and when did you feel "low" during the trip? or What was your favorite experience and your least favorite experience? 
6. How then shall we live? -- What do you want to do differently when you return home?  Challenge each other to commit to one thing and write it down for accountability.

Of course, these reflection activities can be used throughout the trip in journaling and group discussions, but revisiting them following the trip helps solidify the learning.

Structured Reflection Time

Learning after the trip requires some structured time because our natural inclination is to rush back home to see friends/family and return to our lives. This often happens with cross cultural trips ... they return without meaningful reflection, and the learning from the experience gets shoved aside as we are overwhelmed by American culture. Plan these reflection times/activities before your trip so that they don't get forgotten.

On the way home ... It is wise to build in time at the end of the trip to debrief, reflect, and recover from the experience. This can be done while still in the country (at a different location), in the airport (during an extended lay-over), or in an American city (but not your home city). I have seen each of these work well to encourage learning after the trip. Here are a few personal examples ...

• In the Country -- My primary research involved studying a team traveling to Vietnam; they spent most of their time in Ho Chi Minh City, but the final day was spent in a more Western hotel in Hanoi before flying home. Being "on their way home" allowed students to look back on their experience and reflect on their learning. They were able to rest and relax, and the Western hotel allowed them to begin the process of returning to American culture.
• In the Airport -- While not as advantageous as a fancy hotel, a reflection time can happen during extended lay-overs in the airport. One trip that I led to Cambodia had our team with a lay-over in Seoul, Korea for approximately 8 hours. The airport in Seoul has many luxuries that many airports do not have, like showers, excellent wi-fi, and comfortable seating areas that helped us relax and reflect. Although lay-overs in airports do provide the time needed to reflect, it does not facilitate reflection as much as an overnight stay in a hotel.
• In an American city -- Leading one trip to the Dominican Republic, I planned an overnight stay in Atlanta, our lay-over city. We were arriving in Atlanta in the evening and were schedule to leave an hour or two later; however, I was able to delay the return trip until the next day and secure hotel rooms for the night. We were able to reflect on the trip together, begin our transition back to American culture (including eating some unhealthy American food), share photos, get hot showers, and a good night sleep before returning home. While some "lay-over" cities may be more appealing than Atlanta, I would recommend not staying too long (everyone is ready to get home) and not becoming tourists. It would be tempting to see New York City if this was your lay-over city, but you want to stay focused on the carefully planned cross-cultural trip (e.g. the best thing about the trip to Rome shouldn't be seeing the Statue of Liberty).

Pair and Share -- Learning does not have to happen with the team; in fact, one thing that I learned through conducting my research is the therapeutic learning involved in sharing the experience with someone who did not attend the trip. In my phenomenological research, I am always surprised by how appreciative the students are just to share their experience with me. I am also shocked to hear that many students haven't shared the full experience with another. This has led to one of my "requirements" for the students in teams that I lead; I have students choose someone not attending the trip to be a "prayer partner" for them during the trip and a listener after the trip. Students need to find someone who is committed to spend an hour or two just listening as they share about the entire trip ... the full "day by day" experience (with pictures) and what he/she learned. These are powerful conversations that provide an opportunity for personal learning and reflection.

3-6 Months Following -- Often students return from cross-cultural trips committed to thinking and living differently; unfortunately, research has shown that 3 - 6 months following a trip little has changed. By reconnecting with the team after a few months, team members can challenge each other to continue in their commitment to live differently. As mentioned in the "how then shall we live?" point above, writing down one thing that each team member is going to do differently will help this reflection time. It is also a perfect time to reconnect and enrich friendships that were developed on the trip. Obviously, 3 months works well for high schools and colleges; early summer teams can meet after the school year begins.

Cross cultural trips can be such powerful learning experiences, but most trips let the learning fade away after the trip. Intentionally setting aside time for reflection can solidify this learning. If you cross borders with students, remember to continue to learn after the trip.

Crossing Borders with Students 5: Choose Team Leaders Carefully

One of the first steps in planning an international trip with students is choosing adult team leaders for the trip. This is an important first step; however, it is sometimes difficult to find individuals who want to give up their vacation time to lead a group of students. Unfortunately, this too often translates into trips being poorly led, i.e., getting stuck with leaders who "are available" rather than the best individual to lead the trip. It is not always the best to settle for those who volunteer, especially if they don't meet certain standards. When I began this series on Crossing Borders with Students, I briefly explained this point in the introduction. Here is the brief summary on the importance of team leaders ...

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.

Many teams will have multiple team leaders, depending on the size of the team. Ideally, each of the team leaders would be fully equipped to lead a team, as they will definitely impact the experience, but at least one of the team leaders should have the following qualities.

Travel Experience -- Team leaders should have travel experience to the specific country before leading. If they have never traveled to the country, then travel to the geographic region would be beneficial; if they haven't traveled to the country or region, they should, at the very least, have international travel experience. Team leaders should not be experiencing the full effects of "culture shock" while trying to lead a group of students through that same "culture shock" experience. I know that there will always be a first time someone travels to a foreign country, and there will be times when the team leaders will be learning right alongside of the students; however, that is not ideal. It would be worth the money to send a team leader on a weekend "vision trip" to help plan the trip. (The importance of this point can be lessened if the trip has excellent cultural guides established.)

Problem-Solving Ability -- Issues arise when you cross borders with students. Someone will get sick, something will get lost/stolen, a scheduled activity will get changed, and each member will experience culture shock (each at a different level). Team leaders must be able to problem solve, think on their feet, counsel students, and adapt to change without stressing out. Team leaders who cannot "roll with the situation" end up stressing out themselves, causing undue angst among the team members, and potentially ruining the trip. To be honest, some teachers (and adults) are wound too tightly to be a team leader on an international trip with students; their anxiety and stress because everything is not going exactly as planned will infect the students and poison the trip (okay ... that may be a little harsh, but I've seen a hyper-sensitive team leader "freak out" and take all the joy out of the experience). Team leaders need to relax, be willing and able to adapt to changing situations, and handle problems with grace and confidence (at least outwardly).

Experience with Students Outside of the Classroom -- Students are different outside of the classroom, and some adults don't like students outside of the classroom. Many teachers go into teaching because they are comfortable with the structured learning and control that they have over students. They don't enjoy spending time outside of school with students, in fact, they spend their nights and weekends avoiding places where they might run into students. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but these teachers probably are not the best candidates to lead a trip to a foreign country. However, the opposite is also true; many teachers love to connect with students outside of the classroom and enjoy spending time just hanging out and visiting with students. Coaches, obviously, have experience with students outside of the classroom in practices and rehearsals and they have experience with them on bus rides and potentially overnight trips. If  coaches enjoy this aspect of their jobs, they have the experience to be excellent team leaders. However, many teachers/professors go into the profession so that they can impact the students outside of the classroom and are excellent mentors and friends to students ... find those individuals to lead your trips.

As I mentioned, the success of the trip depends as much on the team leaders as success in the classroom depends on the quality of the teacher. Don't settle for whoever volunteers; be intentional and choose team leaders carefully.

Crossing Borders with Students 4: Involve Cultural Guides

Cultural guides are essential in crossing borders with students. This has become increasingly more apparent through my research of cross-cultural trips and through my personal experiences in leading teams. Often, the cultural guides (in addition to the team leaders) "make or break" the trip ... at least, in regards to student learning. Here is how I described this point in the introductory post to this "Crossing Borders with Students" series.

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.

My Research
In my dissertation research, I studied a college short-term mission (STM) trip to Vietnam. Unfortunately, this trip had inexperienced team leaders without a cultural guide in the country. The main task of this STM trip was to work at an orphanage for children with disabilities, definitely a powerful learning experience. Unfortunately, the director of the orphanage left shortly after the students arrived, leaving them without a cultural guide for their 6 week stay.

I realized the powerful impact of a cultural guide when speaking to the students after the trip. Many of them mentioned how relieved that they were when they met an American professor who was spending the summer in Vietnam as a Buddhist nun. She spent time with the students talking to them about the culture and religion of Vietnam, how it differs from America and the West, and what they should be looking for during their time in Vietnam. This short conversation made such an impact on the students and how they viewed the rest of their trip. She embodied an excellent cultural guide and helped to facilitate learning on the trip; she knew both the Vietnamese and American culture, she spoke the language, and she was an educator. These are the characteristics of effective cultural guides.

My Experience
I have been fortunate to have excellent cultural guides on the trips that I have led.  Here are three examples of effective cultural guides.

• Dominican Republic -- The organization that I use for these trips, Students International, has an excellent model for student trips, especially in regard to cultural guides. They have full time staff members (both American and Dominican) who stay with the team to educate students on culture and help navigate the visit. The students spend time working with local Dominican staff members in their occupation.  Additionally each work site has an intern who is a college student to help the STM team members at the work sites.
• Cambodia -- My trip to Cambodia was not with an organization, but we had an amazing cultural guide, one of my graduate school professors who was living and researching in Cambodia for two years. He was able to arrange housing for our team next door to his family and accompanied us to most of our educational site visits.
• Tijuana, Mexico -- Mexico doesn't seem too foreign to most people living in America, but one of my trips was to Tijuana. It was just a weekend trip, but what made it unique and an amazing learning experience is that we had a student who grew up in Tijuana serve as our cultural guide. Instead of staying on the "tourist track," we were able to go behind the scenes because of our cultural guide.  What a different learning experience as we were able to see what life in Tijuana, Mexico is really like.

The above examples demonstrate the variety of cultural guides; they can look differently ... people from the country or from America, college professors or college students.  However, they should all have the following characteristics.

Characteristics of a Cultural Guide
As I alluded to above, an effective cultural guide needs to have the following characteristics:

1. Experience Living in the Country -- While the cultural guide does not have to be from the country, he/she must have spent considerable time living in the country.
2. Knowledge of the Local Language -- In order to be able to truly navigate the culture, a guide must have a working knowledge of the local language.
3. Knowledge of American Culture -- Although guides can be from the country, effective cultural guides should have lived in American and have a strong knowledge of American culture. In order to understand what visiting students are experiencing, the guide must understand the American mindset.
4. Learning-Centric Mentality -- The best cultural guides are educators (or at least someone who thinks like an educator). A guide must keep learning as the main objective, and look for teachable moments to pause, share, and reflect on an experience.

College Profs Make Great Cultural Guides -- You probably guessed that I would think college professors (and K-12 teachers) can be great cultural guides for all of the reasons listed above ... as long as they have experience living in the country. Many colleges run their study abroad programs with this mindset; they will pay a professor to live overseas the entire year and host semester-long programs for their students. Additionally, these professors can teach online classes for the college when not hosting students in the country.

• American missionaries living in the foreign country would also be great cultural guides as many have support networks ... and they would love to meet with students to share their experiences and ministry.

Team Leaders Do NOT Make Great Cultural Guide -- It is true that team leaders, especially those who are educators, can also serve as a cultural guide for their trip; however, I would not recommend it. Team leaders need to deal with the trip logistics and group dynamics, and these aspects will suffer if the team leaders try to do too much. Ideally, cultural guides and team leaders are two different individuals ... now, experienced team leaders (as I will discuss in the next post) are equally important to the success of the trip.

Problems will arise. In addition to capitalizing on the teachable moments, cultural guides can help to adjust productively to problems because they have local knowledge to problem solve. For example, in Cambodia, our shuttle bus did not arrive to pick us up from the airport. Thankfully, our cultural guide was there to meet us and arranged, within minutes, alternate transportation on tuk-tuks (another cultural learning experience). Without a cultural guide, we would have spent hours figuring out an alternate plan. Things like this happen all the time on cross cultural trips ... transportation breaks down, a wallet is stolen, a student gets sick, weather changes plans, a tourist site is closed, etc. I have heard and experienced numerous stories of teams losing an entire day because of logistical problems. When you only have a few weeks in the country, and you've spent a lot of money for the trip, you don't want to sit in your room for the day when something comes up (as it inevitably will); you need a cultural guide to problem solve on the spot.

Cultural guides enhance learning and allow the trip to run smoothly. If you don't have a cultural guide, it would be worth the money to hire someone (with the above characteristics) to accompany the trip. Be intentional about involving effective cultural guide throughout the trip ... it will make the trip more meaningful.

Crossing Borders with Students 3: Learn Before the Trip

I firmly believe that when students cross borders, they automatically learn. However, this learning can be deepened if they learn before the trip. A few weeks ago I began this "Crossing Borders with Students" series with an overview on leading effective cross cultural trips for students. This is how I described this point from the first post.

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.

Of course, the pre-trip meetings must include the logistics for the trip, e.g., packing lists, travel plans, emergency numbers, passports, etc. Unfortunately, pre-trip meetings often don't go deeper than these logistics. I do think that trip leaders embrace the fact that students will automatically learn when they cross borders, so they take for granted the preparation needed to optimize learning. In order to deepen the learning experience for students, consider the following elements before you leave.

History/Geography
The best way to show that you respect the country and its people is to learn about them before you enter their country. This is difficult for "American-centric" students who think everyone else sees the world as we do; unfortunately, this is a product of our educational system in which most students do not have a clue about the history and geography of our immediate neighbors (Canada and Mexico) let alone countries further from home. (Quick Quiz -- What's the capital of Canada? a) Vancouver, b) Toronto, c) Ottowa, or d) Montreal).

Each country has its own amazing history; learn it before visiting it. In our information age, to have a perfunctory and superficial knowledge of the country's history only takes minutes with a Google search; however, the more you learn the richer your experience will be in the country. Of course each country's preparatory learning will look different. When I led a group to Cambodia, we spent most of our pre-trip learning time with its recent history (genocide of 1970s) to prepare my students for our visit to the killing fields and concentration camps of the Khmer Rouge. We also spent time in the 12th Century for our visit to Angkor Wat.

          

It is even more powerful if the students do their own research. Transform your students into "docents for the day" to teach the rest of the class about the country. They will become the experts of their specific docent site or topic and be able to answer questions that may come up during the visit.

Language
Do your best to learn the language before you visit. Purchase a travel phrase book for the country, or do your own research and write down phrases from this list of 101 Survival Phrases for Travel. Another way to show respect for the people of the culture/country is to learn their language ... even a few feeble attempts at simple greetings will be appreciated. Conversely, not attempting the language, presents you as a "rude American."

Ethnography
When students enter a country with a learning-centered perspective, they become junior ethnographic researchers. Make sure that you prepare them in research methods. This needs to be intentional; provide training in how to become field researchers ... observing, documenting, collecting cultural artifacts, ethno-photography, and reflecting. I am always amazed (and discouraged) when student groups are not trained in these methods; unfortunately, this leads to students missing out on so much learning. Ethnography is also an important life skill (albeit a "soft skill") that will allow you to "read a room," better understand the culture of a company or neighborhood, and be a better listener and friend.

On trips with students, I have students journal each day ... usually with prompts as simple as "what is one thing you learned today?" or as complex as "what did you see that showed the religious nature of the people?" It is best to provide these prompts in the morning at breakfast so that students can keep their eyes/ears out throughout the day.

In addition to journaling, I also use a technique called "signature photos" to wrap up the trip. This usually is done on our way home (on the plane, in the airport, etc) and involves looking through all the pictures from the trip, choosing a favorite one, and sharing how that picture is especially meaningful to the student. This is a great time of informally reflecting on the trip, and it often leads to further group bonding.

Missiology
Many Christian schools and colleges will couple cross cultural trips with missions, even if they don't label the trip a short term mission (STM) trip. A vital aspect of these trips is to have students evaluate the religion and the role of Christianity in the country. Additionally, one of the objectives of this trip should be for the students to evaluate God's missional call on his/her life. In order to do this well, pre-trip learning should include missiology. What a great opportunity to learn about Christian missions ... study the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20), famous missionaries (especially to the specific country/region), the 10/40 window, unreached people groups, and missions organizations working in the field. Unfortunately, the American church loves its comfort and doesn't have a missions mentality ... even on STM trips!

In preparation for trips, my groups do the following things.

1. We read John Piper's book, Let the Nations Be Glad (at least chapters/excerpts), to build a missions mentality.
2. We watch this powerful video about missions (also with John Piper narrating) to start a discussion on our call to missions and unreached people groups.
3. We discuss what the Bible says about missions and what it means to be a "goer" and a "sender." It is my hope that students realize that Christians have to be one or the other in order to be obedient to God.
4. We debate the STM movement ... the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly American.

Other great pre-trip learning activities include Skyping with someone from the country, team bonding activities, eating at restaurants with authentic food from the country, learning about group dynamics, and discussing culture shock (and reverse culture shock). Including some of the above suggestions in your trip preparation will empower your students with the tools to learn more as they cross borders.

btw -- Ottowa is the capital of Canada.