Integrating Study Abroad into the Undergraduate Liberal Arts Curriculum: Eight Institutional Case St

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Yet, while some studies have noted that students of color benefit from study abroad experiences see [ 7 ] , little is presently known about the racialized experiences of students while abroad and when they return to their universities. Using a mixed methods approach, the current paper serves as a case study and explores whether students of color and white students attending a university in the Southern United States have similar experiences when studying abroad and whether these experiences, in turn, affect their attitudes and behaviors related to diversity, particularly racial diversity, when they return to their home campus.

Although extensive research on education abroad, curriculum integration, and the internationalization of higher education has been conducted by scholars around the world, few studies have been conducted by researchers outside the US on the intersection of race and education abroad. Consequently, the use of race as a category of inquiry may be unique to the United States.

Even so, because student engagement in international higher education is on the rise globally and interaction with intellectual and cultural difference is among the prime motivators for this increasingly internationalized approach among universities around the world, the current study may be of interest to scholars both within and outside the United States.

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Indeed, the field has occupied itself with basic questions and assumptions about the efficacy of study abroad in fostering positive developmental goals in student participants [ 8 ]. Students have a more sustained interest in world news and affairs as a result of studying abroad [ 10 , 11 ]. Likewise, students who study abroad are more likely to develop enhanced critical thinking and problem solving skills than other students [ 12 , 13 ].

Within the last decade, the field of education abroad has been challenged to clarify desired outcomes, to produce reliable assessment strategies, and to discern appropriate methods to effectively test for stated goals [ 14 , 15 ]. Impressive work has been conducted and practitioners in the field now have access to sophisticated conceptualizations of a variety of outcomes for study abroad [ 16 ].

Likewise, educational and pedagogical goals in study abroad programming have in general become more thoughtful and holistic [ 17 — 19 ]. No longer is the belief held that study abroad will always, and by definition, produce positive learning outcomes [ 20 , 21 ]. Rather, in focusing on particular outcomes, the assessment of study abroad has simply become better, while involving increased expectations of student participants [ 22 , 23 ].

Thus, while goals of intercultural competence, global awareness, and openness to difference are all still among the traits and skills we hope that students develop, the field has created a much more articulated notion of what is meant by those terms and goals [ 24 ].

Still, very little work has examined the effect of study abroad on student engagement with racial diversity specifically. Using this scale, Wortman [ 26 ] and others e. Those students who were fully integrated into their host culture and who studied abroad in English-speaking countries particularly reported increases in openness to diversity.

Unfortunately, attitudes, openness, and behaviors pertaining to racial diversity are rarely explicitly assessed for an exception see [ 20 ]. It is worth noting that our study focuses exclusively on US students who study abroad and thus our discussion centers solely on outcomes associated with education abroad in the context of US-based higher education. Data for our analysis come from an online survey with both closed-ended and open-ended questions. The respondents were American undergraduate students at a small fairly selective predominantly white liberal arts institution located in the Southern United States.

We administered an online survey in the spring of In March, returning study abroad students were contacted via email by the Office of Intercultural Learning to participate in an online survey on the relationship between their study abroad participation and their attitudes and experiences towards difference. The survey included approximately 65 closed-ended questions. The selected questions were guided by themes in the literature. For example, we incorporated a revised version of Pascarella et al.

In addition, we included questions about reported willingness to engage more or less frequently with people from different backgrounds along five dimensions: For each of these dimensions, we asked a set of four questions. There were eight additional questions that focused on the frequency of interracial interactions in a variety of campus settings.

The Racialized Impact of Study Abroad on US Students’ Subsequent Interracial Interactions

I am hostile to the implications of this survey. Particularly given the focus of the survey the effect of study abroad on engagement with diversity among students in the American South , the response rate is arguably acceptable. Although this aggregation is less than ideal, it is a strategy employed in other study abroad research e.

Finally, the majority of respondents participated in a semester-long study abroad program with the most common destinations being Europe and Latin America.

Our analysis relies on a mixed methods approach. Because our sample size is so small, we could not conduct predictive analyses. Therefore, we used Mann-Whitney tests for most of our analyses and, in two cases, we used a chi-square test because of the shape of the dependent variables i. We chose the Mann-Whitney test because it is the nonparametric test that should be used when the dependent variables are ordinal scales and parametric assumptions are not met [ 39 ].

The Mann-Whitney test measures whether the two group medians are equal, but we also provide the mean and standard deviation in our tables to provide the reader with further information about central tendency. We supplement the quantitative information with qualitative survey responses. Relying in part on the thematic analysis model discussed by Braun and Clarke [ 40 ], we engaged in a thorough and rigorous analysis of the qualitative data.

As part of the process of qualitative analysis, the authors carefully read through the responses to the open-ended questions.

We then discussed the themes we each found within and across racial groups, identified common patterns, compared these data to the quantitative findings, and placed applicable qualitative data into themes that matched the quantitative patterns. Following this process, we included relevant quotes to highlight, and provide context for, the quantitative themes.

Finally, we integrated our findings with existing pertinent literature. We examined seven demographic and program variables including gender, race, economic class, length of stay, type of program, academic stage first year, sophomore, etc.

For each of these variables, we used Mann-Whitney tests to compare the medians between groups of students relative to the forty-eight experiential, attitudinal, and reported willingness-to-engage-with-diversity variables. Of the seven demographic and program variables, race was by far the most meaningful. That is, there was a statistically significant difference between white respondents and respondents of color for nineteen of the forty-eight experiential, attitudinal, and reported willingness-to-engage-with-diversity variables.

The other six demographic and program variables each had three or fewer out of forty-eight statistically significant differences on the attitudinal and behavioral variables of interest. Table 3 includes the Mann-Whitney tests results for five of the nineteen statistically significant variables. As the findings indicate, there is a statistically significant difference between students of color and white students for all five variables such that students of color are more likely than white students to report that studying abroad has had an effect on their willingness to engage with racial diversity on campus.

While these quantitative findings are extremely compelling, we still do not have a clear understanding of why they exist. We turn to our qualitative results for potential explanations. We place our findings into three categories: Here, we code positive effects as stated increases in the frequency in which respondents engage with racial diversity.

A neutral effect is one where the student reports no change in their engagement with racially dissimilar others and a negative impact is one where respondents reveal that study abroad has actually led to a decrease in the frequency in which they interact with members of different racial groups.

In general, we find that while a large percentage of white students and students of color credit study abroad with having a positive effect on their interactions with racial diversity, students of color are more likely than white students to state that study abroad has had such a positive effect. In addition, white students are more likely than students of color to state that study abroad has had no effect on the frequency with which they engage with other racial groups.

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Finally, a small number of white students and none of the students of color disclose that study abroad has had a negative impact on the frequency with which they engage with racial diversity. Students of color are more likely than white students to report that as a result of their study abroad experiences, they interact more frequently with people from different racial backgrounds on campus generally as well as in particular settings.

Interestingly, in their descriptions, white students are more likely to mention their increased willingness to initially interact with people from different racial backgrounds. Some students of color express similar sentiments as those conveyed by white respondents. They talk more about the ways study abroad has enhanced their ongoing understanding of others or strengthened their interests in interactions across racial groups.

Specifically, there is a statistically significant difference between students of color and that of white students such that students of color are more likely to say that as a result of studying abroad, they seek out a greater diversity of friends based on race. More so for students of color than white students, this enhanced understanding also leads to a reported increase in more enduring types of interactions.

Once again, there is a subtle difference in the responses of white students and students of color. White students are more likely to explain that study abroad has actually made them aware or piqued their interest in racial diversity for the first time.

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Another notable finding is that students of color are more likely than their white counterparts to report that their increased openness to racial diversity translates into seeing their university differently. Half of the students of color and nearly two-thirds of the white students report that their study abroad experiences did not alter their likelihood of interacting with people from different racial backgrounds.

For instance, a white student reports: I interact with people from different racial backgrounds the same as I did before the study abroad experience. Study abroad gave me an enjoyable experience culturally but my racial diversity [engagement] continues to be strong. For both white students and students of color in this category, the majority preface their comments with a qualifier about how they have always been open to racial diversity.

Study abroad did not really change it. I have always been intensely interested in different cultures and I continue to have the same passion. Our findings indicate that study abroad can also foster negative experiences. A minority two students of white respondents and none of the respondents of color actually report that studying abroad has negatively affected the likelihood that they will engage with people from different racial backgrounds. Another response that was unequivocally negative comes from a white student who reveals that she believes study abroad has detrimentally affected the ways she interacts with people from different racial backgrounds.

I work at a retail store. Before I studied abroad in Mexico , I made every attempt to speak with customers who did not speak English. I did not want them to feel uncomfortable. Responsibility Ross Lewin, editor. Physical description xxii, p. Find it at other libraries via WorldCat Limited preview.

Association of American Colleges and Universities. Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index.

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Contents Foreword, Allan Goodman Introduction: Defining Global Citizenship in Study Abroad 1. International Studies and Foreign Languages: Study Abroad and Language: The Liberal Arts and Global Citizenship: Brockington and Margarete D. Study Abroad and Nursing: Frost and Rosalind Latiner Raby Global Citizenship and Study Abroad: Strategy for Development of a Global City: It Takes an Entire Institution: Turning our Back on the World: Faculty Beliefs and Institutional Values:

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