Ethnographic Discovery Model and study abroad loans

December 22, 2007 | Filed Under Uncategorized |

Study abroad loans:  When applied to education study abroad loans, the developmental model and the experiential learning model both assume that the student begins with observed differences in behavior and customs when interacting with the host culture. Before the student can make any developmental progress or attempt to make any general inferences about the host culture, the student must first be aware of the differences that exist. Inferences can be made only when there are particular events or concrete phenomena on which to base those inferences.

Study abroad loans:  The next basic premise of this study relates directly to this sine qua non of cross-cultural learning: Students must first become aware of the differences that characterize the new cultural setting. To draw a parallel with the field of anthropology, where learning about other cultures is at the heart of the discipline, cognitive anthropologists need the empirical data collected by ethnographers before they can begin to make inferences about the cognitive bases of behavior.

To begin their venture toward understanding the host culture, students study abroad loans must collect data about observable differences in behavior. In effect, they must become amateur ethnographers as a first step in the experiential and developmental learning processes. The ethnographic discovery model for learning about another culture provides an especially apposite theoretical framework within which to see their fledgling efforts.
As is apparent from its name, this model of cross-cultural learning draws heavily on ethnographic methodology. Jacquetta Burnett suggested the model when she drew her analogy between the ethnographic method and second-culture acquisition. She suggested that the experience of the ethnographer is similar to that of an adult undergoing socialization into a new role. The important parallel with study abroad loans is that the ethnographer is in effect learning a new culture, just as we expect of the student study abroad loans.

Burnett asserts that by conscientiously analyzing the process by which an ethnographer discovers the inner workings of a second culture, educational anthropologists can gain "some insight into how a child is enculturated, more insight into how a youth or adult is socialized, and a great deal of insight into how an adult is acculturated into a second culture". While students study abroad loans are obviously not trained ethnographers, Burnett’s analogy suggests that students are in fact making use of ethnographic methods, regardless of how unsophisticated or elementary, in acquiring information that helps them gain insight into the nature of the host culture.