Integrating Study Abroad Into The Curriculum

With the increased interest in study abroad from government, educators, employers and students, the question is: is study abroad engendering the desired intercultural competencies and intellectual development?To achieve this goal, this book proposes two strategies: structure study abroad to bridge the separation of academic learning from experiential and intercultural learning; and integrate study abroad with the undergraduate curriculum.In proposing this integration, the editors take into account the need for institutional change, and recognize faculty members’ concerns about maintaining the integrity of the curriculum, teaching in areas outside their expertise, and keeping up with ever-evolving institutional missions.This book opens with two chapters presenting different theoretical perspectives relevant to the integration of study abroad into the curriculum. The following nine chapters provide examples from a variety of disciplines – from anthropology and religious studies, to literature, urban studies, biology and public health – and within such contexts as distance learning, service learning, and the senior thesis. The concluding chapter considers faculty development activities and institutional structures and policies that support curriculum integration. While the examples are drawn from Beloit College and Kalamazoo College – liberal arts colleges with substantial study abroad enrollments, and nationally recognized for their innovative practices – readers will recognize they are easily adaptable to their own institutions. The two colleges achieved their curricular innovations with limited financial resources, and in the context that most of their students are dependent on financial aid. The transformational ideas and practices described here provide material for reflection and campus conversations for anyone concerned with developing global citizens and well-educated students, and offer a blueprint for implementation.

Co-published with This volume focuses on two questions. First, how can education abroad be embedded into undergraduate education so that students experience it as an integral component of their education and something they help shape, rather than as time away from their education and as a commodity to be consumed? Second, how can colleges and universities maximize the educational value of education abroad by forging stronger connections between it and other undergraduate experiences? The volume argues that learning abroad be positioned within the work of the larger institution and students’ overall education.Organized within three sections, this volume makes the case that learning abroad must be positioned within the work of the larger institution and students’ overall education. In doing so, it questions many current assumptions and stimulates thinking about the power of an integrative approach to education abroad to lead to lasting educative value. An integrative approach requires that students be afforded multiple opportunities and ongoing support to draw connections with their learning abroad with other dimensions of their undergraduate education.Chapters cover topics such as the additive value of integrating multiple HIPs with education abroad to span disciplinary boundaries and promote an array of soft or operational skills; the importance of maintaining the disruptive quality of the encounter with the foreign to enrich study at home; issues of commodification and reciprocity; increasing access to study abroad to community college--particularly adult--populations; facilitating students’ social and intellectual development, identity formation, and reflective practice; rethinking orientation programming to emphasize the continuity of learning pre-, during- and post-education abroad; asking fundamental questions about the purpose of education abroad to rethink assessment and its purposes; the faculty role in the internationalization of the curriculum; and developing more intentional relationships with in-field partners and international educational organizations to more effectively connect leaning abroad with other dimensions of undergraduate education.For everyone involved in international education – whether SIOs, faculty, department chairs or deans – the critical questions and new perspectives offered here will inform and shape the growing movement to integrate education abroad with the overall undergraduate experience.

This book deals with an issue of increasing concern to college educators--the relationship of study abroad to the home campus curriculum. All too often, American undergraduates find that their study abroad experience has little relation to their home campus studies. The eight case studies presented herein provide the insight necessary to help college educators and administrators successfully internationalize their students' degree programs. The contributors describe activities undertaken at eight colleges and universities as part of the Articulation Project. Launched in January 1987, the project was designed first to identify the factors, circumstances, and attitudes that prevent study abroad from being an important and integral part of the total undergraduate degree program. A second goal was to identify and encourage institutional strategies and policies aimed at eliminating or at least reducing these obstacles. The underlying aim of the project and the goal of this collective work is to strengthen international studies and encourage the internationalization of undergraduate education in the United States by making study abroad more important to and recognized within it. Educators committed to these ideals will find this volume essential reading.

The number of English language students in American schools has dramatically increased in recent years, creating a greater awareness of cross-cultural issues and considerations in education. Globalization as well as an increase in international exchange student programs has proven that pre-service teachers can benefit from traveling abroad and working with students from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds. Advancing Teacher Education and Curriculum Development through Study Abroad Programs is an authoritative reference source for the latest scholarly research on the value of travel abroad programs for pre-service educators, addressing the benefits and opportunities available when teachers gain cultural awareness and a better global understanding. Highlighting theoretical foundations, curriculum innovations, and specific challenges to overcome in the implementation of such programs, this book is an essential reference source for school administrators, university professors, curriculum developers, and researchers in higher education.

Recent decades have seen unprecedented growth in the number of students travelling abroad for the purpose of short-term academic study. As such, attention is turning to the role that education abroad can have in enhancing student learning and producing global-ready graduates. This volume provides a succinct and accessible analysis of the existing research and scholarship around the world on a range of important areas related to contemporary education abroad, providing practitioners with important implications for programming and practice. Focusing on fourteen key topics relating to education abroad, this accessible desktop compendium not only synthesizes what is already known, but also indicates which topics need further research and how the existing literature can be applied to daily programming and practice. Extending beyond student learning outcomes to look at essential topics such as institutional outcomes, program models, and host community outcomes, this volume covers major trends in contemporary research as well as an assessment of the methodological and design challenges that are common to education abroad research. The fourteen distinct topics address the broad themes of participation, programming, student outcomes, institutional outcomes and societal outcomes, and include chapters from a broad range of widely acknowledged and respected international experts. Bridging the gap between scholarship and practice, this accessible guide is essential reading for anyone working in higher education today and involved in shaping and managing education abroad programs. It is useful for all who want to understand and leverage existing research to inform education abroad programming and practice.

This book deals with an issue of increasing concern to college educators--the relationship of study abroad to the home campus curriculum. All too often, American undergraduates find that their study abroad experience has little relation to their home campus studies. The eight case studies presented herein provide the insight necessary to help college educators and administrators successfully internationalize their students' degree programs. The contributors describe activities undertaken at eight colleges and universities as part of the Articulation Project. Launched in January 1987, the project was designed first to identify the factors, circumstances, and attitudes that prevent study abroad from being an important and integral part of the total undergraduate degree program. A second goal was to identify and encourage institutional strategies and policies aimed at eliminating or at least reducing these obstacles. The underlying aim of the project and the goal of this collective work is to strengthen international studies and encourage the internationalization of undergraduate education in the United States by making study abroad more important to and recognized within it. Educators committed to these ideals will find this volume essential reading.

What if our students learn the most when they’re far from campus?Integrating Worlds demonstrates how high-quality off-campus study epitomizes integrative learning, both supporting and enhancing the entire undergraduate experience.While off-campus study (both study abroad or study away) occupies a marginal position on most campuses, it has the almost unique capacity to bring together a high concentration of high-impact educational practices. When we combine global learning with collaborative work, shared intellectual pursuits, learning communities, and more, these practices reinforce each other, exerting a multiplier effect that can potentially result in the most intense learning experience our students will have. It can energize and inspire them for the work they will continue to undertake on their home campus.It thus becomes crucial for us to identify or design high-quality programs that will achieve these goals. Moreover, we need to reimagine off-campus study as an integrated portion of the undergraduate arc—one that begins well before our students depart and continues long after they return. In this way, we help them understand the interconnectedness not only of the world, but also of their own education.At the same time, the authors recognize material constraints and educational imperatives. Off-campus study costs money; its complexity makes it difficult to assess; it overlaps increasingly with internships and civic engagement; and by its nature, it is more subject to external forces than the on-campus experience. In careful, practical ways Integrating Worlds advances suggestions for dealing with these issues.This book urges educators to go beyond the episodic ways we currently link on-campus curricula to off-campus experience. While of interest to specialists in international or intercultural education, it speaks most directly to faculty, deans and provosts—many of whom may have little (or dated) experience of study abroad and who thus feel unprepared to address this issue of pressing importance. As our disciplines and institutions face the complexities of a rapidly changing world, this book seeks to fuel the necessary conversations.