Thoreau said, “It’s not what you look at that matters; it’s what you see.” I imagine that when administrators look at the impact of study abroad programs, they see “transformational” and “life-changing” as major themes.
With respect to program participants, I think it’s time that we explore a fundamental question. What are students seeing while abroad and what can we do about it? I believe that this question is especially salient given the dynamics of the field in recent years. Getting U.S. students to commit to a deep, long sojourn abroad has steep competition. Curricula are increasingly packed while program costs have soared. Additionally, many U.S. universities have festival-like atmospheres where sports and major events converge, creating serious consternation in students about leaving their campuses for a full semester. In my college, program participation is heavily skewed toward the summer semester. IIE data supports this demonstrating that programs are trending shorter.
Although we may be constrained on how much we can impact collegiate dynamics (or shift the paradigm towards semester-long participation), we can – and must – do something about preparation for short-term experiences. In my opinion, visiting a place for a few weeks or less without a basic level of cultural understanding prior could run the risk of becoming academic tourism. Students have plenty to look at, but they may not be seeing. To see, you must understand the culture, its history, and current events. In my research, I categorize seeing as global competence: a phased model with stages of global awareness, global understanding, and the ability to effectively apply intercultural knowledge. On a truncated program timeline, if there’s only minimal knowledge of the host environment, we can at best hope students achieve some level of global awareness. But it is a much bigger lift to foster an in-depth understanding of the reasons behind local rituals, cuisine, and interpersonal interactions, for example. Participation in the culture is an even greater lift.
To achieve the goal of seeing while abroad, I suggest we fully embrace pre-departure preparation that emphasizes culture and language (when applicable). While foreign language department courses, humanities, and social science offerings on the regional culture are ideal, often they are not feasible for an entire cohort. We should consider alternatives. A decade ago, at my institution, I proposed an Italian for Study Abroad pre-course. It provides students with the cultural understanding and basic language skills they will need abroad to “learn by doing” through participation in the host culture. Over the years, I adapted the format to fit into a one-credit, asynchronous course students could easily add to their schedules before departure.
Many institutions do laudable work incorporating cultural topics into pre-departure orientations. However, for the words “transformational” and “life-changing” to continue to resonate we may wish to take a cue from Leonardo Da Vinci, who said “Learn how to see. Realize that everything connects to everything else.” Let’s strengthen pre-departure preparation and help empower our short-term study abroad students with the ability to see global connections.
