Becoming Transcultural: Maximizing Study Abroad

Abstract

With rising demand for a workforce that can work cross-culturally (Mangan, 2011; Orahood, Woolf, & Kruze, 2008), it is not surprising that study abroad numbers continue to increase to a range of countries, destinations, and program types (Open Doors, 2012). However, while study abroad is often touted as the ideal means to incite linguistic and cultural competence, the reality of student learning is not a given (Alred & Byram, 2002; de Nooy & Hanna, 2003; Einbeck, 2002; Freed, 1995; Kearney, 2010; Kinginger, 2008; Kinginger, 2009; Rivers, 1998; Wilkinson, 2000). If higher education wishes to endorse study abroad as a means to acquire the crucial knowledge, skills, and attitudes of a globalized workforce (Miller, 2009), it is imperative that colleges and universities promote and integrate study abroad into the curriculum to foster the development of 21st century global citizens. In order to examine what businesses actually valued in hiring, Trooboff, Vande Berg, and Rayman (2007) surveyed employers and found not only that they valued study abroad as a form of international education, but also that they specifically valued many intercultural skills. However, on average, the respondents did not believe that studying abroad led to the enhancement of these skills, echoing the dominant discourse of study abroad being a frivolous endeavor for wealthy white women (Gore, 2005). Trooboff et al. (2007) noted that students need to be better trained to translate their experiences for their potential employers. In a similar vein, Root and Ngampornchai (2012) recommended that students be trained in intercultural communication to better help them articulate their learning. Nevertheless, Deardorff (2008) noted that intercultural training should not be limited to pre-departure orientation, but that a series of workshops or even a course could help address intercultural learning needs. While a number of courses of this nature have been offered either before departure or upon return (eg. With rising demand for a workforce that can work cross-culturally (Mangan, 2011; Orahood, Woolf, & Kruze, 2008), it is not surprising that study abroad numbers continue to increase to a range of countries, destinations, and program types (Open Doors, 2012). However, while study abroad is often touted as the ideal means to incite linguistic and cultural competence, the reality of student learning is not a given (Alred & Byram, 2002; de Nooy & Hanna, 2003; Einbeck, 2002; Freed, 1995; Kearney, 2010; Kinginger, 2008; Kinginger, 2009; Rivers, 1998; Wilkinson, 2000). If higher education wishes to endorse study abroad as a means to acquire the crucial knowledge, skills, and attitudes of a globalized workforce (Miller, 2009), it is imperative that colleges and universities promote and integrate study abroad into the curriculum to foster the development of 21st century global citizens. In order to examine what businesses actually valued in hiring, Trooboff, Vande Berg, and Rayman (2007) surveyed employers and found not only that they valued study abroad as a form of international education, but also that they specifically valued many intercultural skills. However, on average, the respondents did not believe that studying abroad led to the enhancement of these skills, echoing the dominant discourse of study abroad being a frivolous endeavor for wealthy white women (Gore, 2005). Trooboff et al. (2007) noted that students need to be better trained to translate their experiences for their potential employers. In a similar vein, Root and Ngampornchai (2012) recommended that students be trained in intercultural communication to better help them articulate their learning. Nevertheless, Deardorff (2008) noted that intercultural training should not be limited to pre-departure orientation, but that a series of workshops or even a course could help address intercultural learning needs. While a number of courses of this nature have been offered either before departure or upon return (eg. Brewer & Solberg, 2009; Downey, 2005), it appears that only one study to date examined the process of intercultural learning as it relates to study abroad (Anderson & Cunningham, 2009). The current study attempts to fill the gap in research by examining the effectiveness of a three-credit general education course in intercultural communication on the process of becoming interculturally competent. Additionally, it also examined the ability of post-study abroad students who enrolled in this course to articulate what they had learned while abroad in comparison with post-study abroad students who had not enrolled in the course. While most of the students (n = 33) participating in this study had enrolled in the course in intercultural communication were preparing to study abroad, there were also a number of participating students (n = 6) who had previously studied abroad. In this mixed-methods research, whose findings are reported in three separate, yet related, articles, answers to the following research questions were sought: 1. How does intercultural competence develop in post-study abroad students over the span of a semester-long course focused on the development of intercultural communication skills through critical reflection? The first article of this dissertation examines the process of unpacking the study abroad experience two students went through upon return to the home campus through the lens of experiential learning (Kolb, 1984), transformative learning (Mezirow, 2000), and ethnocentric versus ethnorelative worldviews (Bennett, 1993). The second article uses these same frameworks to investigate the learning process for four pre-study abroad students enrolled in this same course to answer the question: 2. Are there noticeable differences in the development of intercultural competence in pre-study abroad students who are enrolled in a semester-long course focused on the development of intercultural competence? Lastly, the third article examines how post-study abroad students articulated their learning abroad differently by answering the question: 3. Are post-study abroad