Out of class activities and studying abroad

By listening to the students describe and discuss their out-of-class activities, international educators can learn from the students’ first-hand experiences and use the insights gained to generalize about what constitute the most salient categories of activity for complementing the educational process studying abroad. The emphasis throughout is on the students’ perceptions–that is, an ethnographic view of the role of out-of-class experiences studying abroad through the eyes of the student participants. And since the objective is to identify the categories of activity that will form the basis of an experiential component, the focus is on what the students did rather than on what they learned (i.e., process as opposed to outcomes). By listening to the students and learning from them, we can identify those broad categories of activity on which to focus in developing a systematic pedagogical approach to integrating the experiential, out-of-class component into the overall education studying abroad enterprise.

Learning about other cultures can occur on one of several levels. As noted by Judith Hansen, James Spradley has distinguished five levels of learning through which an individual progresses in any enculturation process."  These range from learning about, through understanding, believing, and using the belief to organize or account for behavior, to the ultimate level of ‘internalizing the belief so thoroughly that it is a part of [one’s] tacit knowledge and a violation would be unthinkable’".  The final stage is the end product of an effective enculturation process; it provides the individual with the cognitive frame of reference that is unique to the cultural milieu within which that individual was raised. The student going studying abroad and the members of the host culture will have undoubtedly reached that stage in terms of their respective but different cultural backgrounds.
Depending on the level of experience with the host culture, the student will probably be at Spradley’s first stage of learning in terms of the new culture. As one of their objectives in designing and implementing studying abroad programs, educators will naturally want to find ways in which to supplement what students may have already "learned about" the host culture.

Another objective will be to find ways in which to promote movement from the "learning about" stage to the "understanding" stage. Understanding implies some degree of insight into the behavior patterns that characterize the host culture, which is a first step toward an awareness of the cognitive differences that are responsible for generating different behavior patterns. Ultimately, the learning objective is for the student to gain insight into the nature of those cognitive differences. Barnlund summed up the task effectively and succinctly in the introduction to his studying abroad of communicative styles in the United States and Japan. 

The study abroad Evaluation Project and work abroad

The most comprehensive study to date on the impact of education work abroad has been the work abroad Evaluation Project (SAEP), the results of which were published in two volumes by the European Cultural Foundation in 1990 and in a separate single volume dealing specifically with American undergraduates). Initiated in 1982 as a follow-up to the report issued by the President’s Commission on Foreign Language and International Studies, the SAEP focused on "what difference, if any, work abroad makes to students as undergraduates and in their later lives," with special attention to effects on "(1) students’ proficiency in foreign languages; (2) their knowledge of and concern about other countries and cultures and international issues; (3) their knowledge of and attitudes toward their home country; and (4) their career objectives and accomplishments"

The research team used a variety of questionnaires and test instruments to obtain data from over 400 participants in work abroad programs sponsored by four American institutions ( University of California, University of Colorado at Boulder, University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and Kalamazoo College) and thirty institutions in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Sweden. The basic research questions were: "(1) Who chooses to work abroad? Or, how do the students who work abroad differ from those who remain on their home campuses? (2) What changes occur in the two groups of students over the time span of the junior year? (3) What aspects of the individual and/or the sojourn work abroad contribute to variation in the changes observed? (4) What are the long-term effects of the work abroad experience?". In addressing the third question, the project made an indirect attempt to identify a link between outcomes and program characteristics, thus providing some degree of insight into the nature of the process that generated the outcomes. As in the case of prior studies, however, the focus was primarily on outcomes.

The SAEP concluded, among other things, that language proficiency appeared to increase substantially, especially in the area of speaking skills; that those who studied work abroad demonstrated a greater increase in interest in international affairs over the course of the junior year than those who remained at home; that those who studied work abroad showed a dramatic increase in their level of knowledge about the host country, especially in the areas of cultural life, customs and traditions, social structure, and social issues; that "the expectation that the work abroad experience would result in increased levels of self-confidence and sociability was not supported"; and that both the work abroad group and the domestic comparison group exhibited a decline in "domestic orientation." The latter is difficult to interpret, since the work abroad group was already less "domestically oriented than the comparison group prior to the work abroad year".

Linking Outcomes to Processes looking for work abroad

As noted earlier, Hensley and Sell concluded from an analysis of their data that there was a significant increase in the level of self-esteem among the participants in Kent State University’s 1977 spring semester program at the United Nations European Headquarters in Geneva. They also discovered that there was an apparent correlation between that attitude
change and the closeness of contact with non-Americans. By doing multiple regression analysis of two independent variables (enjoyment of the experience and closeness of contact with non-Americans), they found reason to believe that the closer the contact with non-Americans, the greater the increase in self-esteem.

While their primary concern is with outcomes, their research data provide indirect insight into the link between those outcomes and what was going on as an integral part of the education looking for work abroad program. Smith made the most direct effort to establish a link between attitude changes and specific programmatic factors. Based on self-perceived changes among Kalamazoo College students who went to Africa, France, Germany, and Spain during the 1966-67, 1967-68, and 1968-69 academic years, he found that the factors that seemed most directly related to changes in attitude, values, and interests were: the extent of exposure to non-Americans, the presence of an American subculture, overall course differences, program satisfaction, helpfulness of hosts, and the relevance of courses to the students’ majors. Of special significance was the discovery that students who lived with host families felt that they had undergone the greatest degree of change.

The looking for work abroad of Hull and Lemke focused on the affective development of students. Their report drew on data collected from an Individual Opinion Inventory that they administered to a broad range of students from a wide variety of higher education institutions between May 1974 and September 1975. looking for work abroad did not appear to have a significantly greater impact than off-campus domestic looking for work abroad in terms of the participants’ perception of change. For purposes of this looking for work abroad, their most important finding was that participants in off-campus programs generally, whether domestic or foreign, tended to attribute greater significance to the noncurricular or experiential component of their programs than to the academic component.

In his analysis of the long-term effects of participation in an Antioch program looking for work abroad, Abrams found that 53 percent of the respondents to his self-assessment questionnaire considered looking for work abroad to be one of the most important experiences of their lives. An equally high percentage felt that they had gained a significant degree of cross-cultural understanding from participation in a looking for work abroad. By cross-referencing the responses to the duration of the participants’ programs and whether they participated in the looking for work abroad component, Abrams concluded that both a longer stay and engagement in a looking for work abroad assignment tended to generate greater perceptions of significant impact.

Entering study abroad programs

What seems most critical is to find ways of gaining entrance into the assumptive world of another culture, to identify the norms that govern face-to-face relations, and to equip people to function within a social system that is foreign but no longer incomprehensible. Without this kind of insight, people are condemned to remain outsiders no matter how long they live in another culture. Social institutions and customs will be interpreted inevitably from the premises and through the medium of their own culture. Whether they notice something or overlook it, respect it or ridicule it, express or conceal their reaction will be dictated by the logic of their own rather than the alien culture.

By adapting various learning theories and models to the education study abroad programs activity, educators seek to facilitate students’ efforts to learn about another culture’s distinctive behavior patterns and to understand the cognitive bases of those behavioral differences.

Among the learning theories that are especially relevant to education study abroad programs are some of the recent developmental approaches. Progression through life cycle phases, ego development, moral development, and intellectual development all interact as integral components of the higher education process.  Each of these developmental processes will be operational during a student’s period of study abroad programs, just as they are during the years spent on campus in the United States. Of special interest to the international educator, however, is a developmental model of intercultural sensitivity suggested by Milton Bennett. According to the Bennett model, students progress from ethnocentrism to ethnorelativism through a sequence of six hierarchical states, each with at least two developmental stages. 

Bennett hypothesizes that "constructive marginality" is the ultimate stage in the development of intercultural sensitivity. At this stage the individual is "outside all cultural frames of reference"  where "there are no unquestioned assumptions, no intrinsically right behaviors, nor any necessary reference group". This model of cultural development assumes that relativism is an essential penultimate stage: Only after the individual is able to see cultural phenomena in relative terms can that individual make judgments that transcend narrowly prescribed boundaries. One of the conceptual premises of these study abroad programs introduces a necessary transitional step in the progression from ethnocentrism to ethnorelativism.

Penn State:  studying working abroad

At Penn State the need to foster an understanding of differences among various human groups prompted the University Faculty Senate to conduct an extensive curriculum review and ultimately to adopt a cultural diversity requirement as part of the general education program that all students must complete in order to receive either a baccalaureate or an associate degree. Motivated initially by the Faculty Senate’s perception of a need to promote appreciation for ethnic differences among domestic groups, the requirement in its final form included the option of studying working abroad differences among the world’s diverse cultures. In recognition of the extent to which studying working abroad can support the latter, the senate legislation allows students to fulfill the requirement by enrolling for a semester of studying working abroad on an officially sponsored Penn State education studying working abroad program. The value of education studying working abroad has also led Penn State’s College of Business Administration to require a semester of studying working abroad as an integral part of its new international business major. And the International Council, Penn State’s advisory body to the provost, has recommended that the university seek to ensure that 20 percent of those who ultimately receive a baccalaureate degree from the institution will have studied studying working abroad at some point during their undergraduate careers.

Participants in education studying working abroad programs have the opportunity to immerse themselves in a "living laboratory" that forces them to become actively involved in the learning process on every level–intellectual, psychological, and emotional. This holistic dimension is what makes education studying working abroad uniquely suited to promoting an appreciation for cultural differences in today’s interdependent global community. With some notable exceptions, however, few institutions have attempted systematically to integrate that out-of-class component into the overall education studying working abroad enterprise. Although the on-site staff might provide occasional field trips and social events, students are left pretty much to their own devices when it comes to activities and experiences not directly related to the academic program.

Given the increased emphasis that is being placed on undergraduate education studying working abroad, it is incumbent on the academic community to develop a better understanding of the nature of this type of learning experience. To enhance the effectiveness of studying working abroad programs, we must acquire a greater appreciation of how students go about learning what they do while enrolled in such programs. In particular, we need to have a better understanding of that learning component over which educators have traditionally exercised the least control but that gives education studying working abroad its unique ability to foster cross-cultural understanding; that is, out-of-class experiences that bring the student into direct contact with the host culture.

Working abroad

At Penn State, where the present study was conducted, the growth in education working abroad has been equally dynamic. The number of programs administered by the university’s Office of Education Working abroad Programs has increased from twelve semester/academic-year programs and one summer program in 1979-80 to twenty-nine semester/academic-year programs in 1991-92, eleven summer or intersession programs, and nineteen programs offered through consortia administered by the CIEE. The number of students participating in those programs has increased from 244 in 1979-80 to 555 in the 1991-92 academic year–444 in semester/academic-year programs and 111 in summer or intersession programs, including seventeen in consortial programs.

Although the increase in both interest and participation has been encouraging, the relatively small number of undergraduates working abroad each year is still cause for concern among professional educators. For example, in drawing attention to the fact that over 350,000 foreign students enroll in American colleges and universities each year, the Advisory Council for International Educational Exchange noted that "citizens of other nations are learning more about us than we are about them and each year are doing so in increasing numbers"

More important than the disparity in numbers between foreign students in the United States and U.S. students Working abroad are the demands that will be placed on future generations by the level of national and cultural interdeendence inherent in the contemporary world: The higher education community recognizes that the educated person of the future will need a basic understanding of other nations and cultures in order to function effectively.
Former Senator J. William Fulbright made this point eloquently in The Price of Empire

The vital mortar to seal the bricks of world order is education across international boundaries, not with the expectation that knowledge would make us love each other, but in the hope that it would encourage empathy between nations, and foster the emergence of leaders whose sense of other nations and cultures would enable them to shape specific policies based on tolerance and rational restraint.

In recognition of this growing need, a national movement has emerged in support of enhancing international education throughout the American higher education system. A number of educational organizations have begun to focus on education Working abroad in particular by promoting the idea of a 10 percent undergraduate enrollment objective–similar to what is already being pursued by the European Community through its ERASMUS program (i.e., the European Regional Action Scheme for the Mobility of University Students).

Motivation to study abroad programs

The reasons that the study abroad programs students ranked about equally as being most influential in their decision to want to study abroad programs included desire for foreign cross-cultural experience, improvement of foreign language ability, desire to live in/make acquaintances from another country, interest in gaining another perspective on their home country, desire for travel, and enhancement of understanding of a particular host country. Ranked just below these categories was the expectation that the study abroad programs experience would improve career prospects. Becoming acquainted with subject matter not offered at their home institution was of only moderate importance in the students’ decision to study abroad programs. Of even less importance was that friends might be going on a s study abroad programs or that the study abroad programs experience would afford an opportunity to establish ties with one’s own family or ethnic heritage.

The comparison group students were asked how interested they were in study abroad programs. On a 5-point scale ranging from "extremely interested" (1) to "not at all interested" (5), 54 percent of the students marked either "1" or "2"; only 23 percent of the students marked "4" or "5." When asked to indicate if they would be willing to commit time and money by enrolling in study abroad programs, 66 percent of the comparison group indicated that they were at least moderately willing to do this. When queried further as to reasons for their nonparticipation in study abroad programs, 50 percent of the comparison group students indicated that it was unnecessary for their course of studies, 40 percent suggested that it would be inappropriate for their majors, and 46 percent thought that study abroad programs might delay their graduation.

In short, the primary reasons students gave for choosing to study abroad programs were related to their desire to experience new cultures and learn the language of the host country. Academic reasons seem to be of secondary importance for electing to study abroad programs unless the study abroad programs are integrated into the academic curriculum of the home university or college. Although a good proportion of the comparison group students reported that they were interested in study abroad programs, they indicated a variety of reasons for not applying to participate in study abroad programs. Among these were perceived lack of curricular relevance of study abroad programs and the perception that study abroad programs may delay their graduation from college. This suggests that greater number of qualified and academically motivated students would participate in study abroad programs were they more clearly related to students’ academic programs and the institution’s curricula. This underscores the importance of integration of study abroad programs into the academic core of the university. We will have occasion to return to this issue in the concluding chapter of this volume.