Exploring the role of study abroad in decolonising geography curricula

Abstract

ABSTRACT Studying abroad has the potential to contribute to wider processes of curriculum decolonisation. More often than not, however, it can actually serve to recolonise and reproduce multiscalar forms of privilege, with the majority of programs seeing students either move between countries in the Global North or from the Global South to the North. In particular, our research has found that while students desire geographical distance from their study abroad programs, many seek cultural proximity and with it a sense of security grounded in simplistic and essentialist imaginative geographies. There is, however, a small but growing trend of North-to-South study, which arguably has greater decolonial potential, but, as we show, can often still lead to recolonisation through enclavic forms of engagement. Drawing on longitudinal mixed methods research, we point to three crucial sites of intervention which we relate to Kolb’s cycle of experiential learning – pre-trip, the trip itself, and post-trip – highlighting practical and transferable tips for study abroad staff to increase student’s capacities for reflexivity and experiential learning, and with it maximise the decolonial potential of studying abroad.