Many high school and university students return home from global programs and often report they have changed as a result of the experience. Global educators assume the act of participating in global education programs (such as high school study abroad) will open students’ eyes to the complexities of another culture because students have been exposed and immersed in a foreign culture. Advocates of study abroad believe students will reach new levels of intercultural understanding far exceeding what they would be able to accomplish at home. But what does that actually mean?
At School Year Abroad (SYA), we wanted to test the assumption that, after a year of living and learning abroad, students will have increased their intercultural competence, which is defined as “knowledge, beliefs, and skills that allow one to understand the point of view of someone from a group culturally or linguistically different from one’s own and act or communicate effectively and appropriately.” To that end, we engaged in a two-phase study.
In the fall of 2013, SYA students in Italy and Spain were administered the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) and the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking. A control group was formed with 70 students from SYA member schools in the United States. Pretests occurred in September 2013. All groups were tested again at the end of the 2013–14 school year to determine student progress on a scale that ranged from ethnocentric to ethnorelative.
At the end of the first year of testing, SYA students made modest gains, but so too did the control group of students who stayed home and were not immersed in the foreign culture. There was no significant statistical difference between the control group and the SYA students in understanding cultural differences. In contrast, SYA students demonstrated statistically significant growth in creativity as compared with the control group. Although data do not demonstrate a direct correlation, it was of interest to note that students who made the most gains on the IDI showed an average growth in creativity three-and-a-half times the average growth for the full group. Students who made the most progress on the IDI consistently used the local language, limited the time they spent with fellow Americans, and sharply decreased, or in some cases eliminated, U.S.-based social networking time.
Research suggests that limiting exposure to people from one’s own culture or passport country is an important step in maximizing the benefits of study abroad.
What explains the less-than-anticipated growth in understanding cultural differences? SYA students acknowledged the creation of “the bubble” that allowed them to select the local cultural activities and behaviors with which they felt most comfortable while avoiding those experiences that promoted true immersion.
Previous research indicates that students studying abroad often create a “third culture” that represents those characteristics from the target culture that students adopt without jeopardizing the safety net of their home culture. While functioning in the “third culture,” which is regularly mistaken for the target culture, students often believe they are experiencing genuine cultural immersion.
Based on the research findings, we tested, in phase two of our research, to see if implementing proven strategies/interventions could have an effect on student learning in intercultural competence. In the 2014–15 school year, we created a mentoring program with a small group of volunteer students at SYA France. The program included regular individual mentoring meetings, frequently scheduled group meetings, two to three immersion challenges each month, and guided reflection in English class via journaling prompts.
At the end of the year, the SYA Mentoring Group growth on the IDI was four times greater than the original SYA student group and 10 times higher than the control group.
We believe the results support the theory that schools can improve levels of intercultural competence by engaging students in a process of challenges and reflections abroad with a specifically planned curriculum and guidance from knowledgeable faculty. Programs that are most successful in creating increased cross-cultural understanding require comprehensive pre-departure learning, a reentry program, explicit instruction in the meaning of cross-cultural competence, mandatory cultural immersion, mandatory target language use/language pledge, clear goals, and guided cultural mentoring and reflection.
For schools that travel abroad for shorter periods of time, it is important to try to incorporate many of these curricular components to enhance cross-cultural competence. Based on this research, SYA is developing more intentional classroom and outside-the-classroom activities.