Reflecting on Reflecting

In an attempt to better prepare future teachers to fight against social injustice, support their culturally and linguistically diverse students and wrestle with social and educational complexities around the globe, many education programs have increased the number of study abroad programs and international service learning projects. In this qualitative study, we explored seven preservice teachers’ experiences related to humanizing pedagogy after participating in a study abroad program combined with an international service-learning project in a South African rural community. Analyzing multiple data sources such as interviews and reflective journals, we discovered that the preservice teachers grappled with the political, social, economic, and educational differences they encountered during the international project and wrestled with conflicting ideas and beliefs about poverty and language. They identified their relationships with students as catalysts to address these educational issues and their need to reverse systemic inequities. They built caring relationships with students in the community and developed additive perspectives the focused on the students’ community cultural capital. The preservice teachers expressed deep critical reflection and a desire to promote a more fully human educational world where students have the opportunities to enact their agency, their creativity, and their language and culture.

The pressures of internationalisation have generated a high competitive market on Malaysian construction industry. However, the competitive and saturated of domestic market has driven many Malaysian contractor to undertake international projects. Without any denial, participation in international projects is a challenging task. It requires Malaysian contractors to develop strategy to enable them to operate successfully abroad. Therefore, the objectives of this research is to examine the key challenges for Malaysian contractors to undertake international construction projects thus identify strategies for Malaysian contractors to undertake international construction projects. To achieve the objectives of this research, quantitative method were adopted by using questionnaires. Questionnaire were distributed to participants from well experienced management team of G6 and G7 companies that have vast involvement in international projects. The findings of this research revealed that skilled worker shortage, high cost of financing of international project and limited experience with similar projects are the top three key challenges encountered by the Malaysian contractors in international construction project. The research identifies risk management and forming joint venture are the key strategies for Malaysian contractor to undertake international projects. In conclusion, this research can assist Malaysian contractor who wish to embark in international projects in supporting the current Construction Industry Transformation Programme (CITP) and the 4th Industrial Revolution in construction industry.

International service-learning: an opportunity to engage in cultural competence.

In recent years, there is a growing trend of engaging engineering students on international development projects in developing and underdeveloped countries. One such example would be International service learning projects (IESL) associated with the EPICS (Engineering Project in Community Services). There are also several other engineering organizations dedicated towards the needs in developed and developing countries such as Engineering without Borders, and Engineering for Sustainable World. These programs require engineering students, young professionals, and faculty members to get directly involved in international development initiatives and projects in the developing and underdeveloped countries. Traditionally, in the Service-learning literature, most of the studies have focused on the learning outcomes, perspectives, and experiences of the students in the domestic service learning programs. Although the research in domestic service learning program grounds in theory and the implications and results are valuable and useful, because of the complexities of cross-cultural differences associated with IESL programs, these findings may not be suitable and applicable for international service learning (IESL) programs. Through this paper, we report the lesson learned by the students and the faculty members engaged in an IESL program. Our initial findings suggest the intended as well as unintended lessons learned by the students and the faculty members engaged in the IESL program. We believe that the findings from this study will contribute to the growing literature of the engineering service learning research. The findings from this study can help the students and the faculty members engaged in IESL programs to set up a better understanding of the expectations from the IESL programs. The findings will also be useful for those service learning programs who engaged with International community partners. Last but not the least, these findings can provide insight for improving IESL program structures and may also inform further investigations of other international partnerships by providing a baseline of presented four international engineering service learning partnership in this study.

The extra costs (hidden costs) incurred in international engineering projects are an element of great relevance from the perspective of project management. These costs have been analysed generally from case-specific perspectives, being necessary the development of a theoretical model that contemplates these hidden costs studying and explaining their nature. In this sense, it is interesting to take advantage of the growing literature on hidden costs associated with offshoring experiences (and originated in the new reshoring trend). Those offshoring experiences have great similarity with international projects as the problems faced come from the same international-related factors. Thus, this paper explores into that literature developing a theoretical model for the analysis of hidden costs applicable to international engineering projects. The model is based in the analysis of the causes of those costs, the processes affected and the final impact on performance. It is finally contrasted and validated with its application to three real cases of three international projects developed by companies of the energy sector. The model is this way proved to be a suitable theoretical basis for the study of hidden costs in international experiences, and the starting point for the definition of risk analysis models to prevent these costs.

Historically, education abroad has been designed to provide students a full immersion experience by way of semester or year-long study at a foreign university. However, this traditional format has been redefined to include a variety of non-traditional international experiences, such as international service learning projects, internships, and short-term international experiences. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to develop a deep understanding of the lived experiences of agricultural education undergraduate students participating in a short-term international experience. The overarching question that guided the study was: What were the lived experiences of agricultural education undergraduate students during a short-term international experience? As a result of the short-term international experience, students did not progress fully through all levels of development needed to be considered proficient in cultural competence. However, students demonstrated significant gains in cultural awareness and some gains in cultural understanding and cultural sensitivity. Finally, participating students verified some progress toward building cultural communication competencies as a result of their experience.

Written reflection is a tool commonly used by faculty to assess student learning in service-learning courses, which are frequently offered as short-term international experiences. This article discusses a qualitative analysis of students’ written reflections on a short-term, international service-learning project that was conducted to determine whether undergraduate students bridged their engagement to the development of civic or social responsibility. Results of the analysis revealed that students demonstrated nominal progress toward civic responsibility when not specifically prompted by assignments. Multiple themes emerged from the analysis related to students’ goals, challenges, and lessons learned. Based on the findings, the authors recommend that faculty, to encourage students’ development of civic responsibility, be prepared to help students set goals and work through challenges, and to play an active role in supporting and guiding students in processing their experiences in a transformational manner.

Purpose The first aim of this paper was to discuss the learning experience of university students who participated in a service-learning project on sustainable water management. By investigating the students’ engagement in a real-world, community-based project, this study also aimed to provide insights into the effectiveness of service-learning as a pedagogical approach for sustainable development education. Design/methodology/approach This paper presented a service-learning project organized by The Hong Kong Polytechnic University on improving water quality in low-income communities. An overview of the project was provided, including the curriculum design, project contents, implementation process, as well as students’ assessments, evaluation and feedback. Based on students’ assessments, the outcomes and impacts of this project were discussed. Additionally, several barriers were identified during this project, and corresponding suggestions were proposed to improve the service quality and increase its positive impacts. Findings The students established 12 water filtration systems to improve the water quality in a needy village overseas. Apart from the benefits to the service recipients, the participating students experienced personal development and civic engagement measured in 10 aspects, including the application of classroom learning, adaptive problem-solving, creative thinking, community contribution, commitment to helping the disadvantaged, empathy and compassion, concern for those in need, moral commitment to civic affairs, multi-perspective analysis and informed decision-making. Originality/value Although the recorded project was not the first international service-learning project on water sustainable management, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first time that the whole procedure of the service-learning project was documented as a compulsory credit-bearing subject in Hong Kong universities. With the water sustainability project example, this paper shows how to integrate service-learning subjects into university curricula and what benefits and challenges they could bring.

International service-learning projects are an effective educational tool for universities striving to meet the ABET engineering criterion, while also providing transformational experiences to their students and a service to needy populations in the world. This paper discusses the benefits of international service-learning projects for students, the international community, and the university. The year-long process of development and piloting of the first international humanitarian engineering service-learning project within the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh is presented. Also, the ABET engineering criterion are then discussed, with specific attention to the criterion that are harder to address with traditional engineering education. This pilot project was a collaboration between the senior design course, a local chapter of Engineers Without Borders, and various domestic and international entities. The benefits of international service learning projects are discussed, in the hopes of catalyzing development of similar projects in the future.

A Descriptive Analysis of the Experiences of Nursing Students Who Participated in an International Service-Learning Project in Haiti.

The construction industry is labor-intensive, and employees' mental health has a significant impact on occupational health and job performance. In particular, expatriates in international projects under the normalization of the epidemic are under greater pressure than domestic project employees. This paper aims to explore the association of stressors and mental health in international constructions during COVID-19. Furthermore, test the mediation effect of psychological resilience and moderating effort of international experience in this relationship. A survey of 3,091 expatriates in international construction projects was conducted. A moderating mediation model was employed to test the effect of psychological resilience and international experience. Then, statistical analysis with a bootstrap sample was used to test the mediation effect of the model, and a simple slope was used to test the moderating effect. Moderated by experience, the slope of the effect of stressors on psychological resilience changed from −1.851 to −1.323. And the slope of the effect of psychological resilience on mental health outcomes reduced by about 0.1. This suggests that experience is one of the buffering factors for individual psychological resilience of expatriates to regulate stress. Theoretically, this study verifies the mediation effect of psychological resilience between COVID-19 related stressors and mental health outcomes and importance of an expatriate's experience in an international assignment. Practically, this study provides guidelines for international construction enterprises and managers to make an assistant plan for expatriates during this pandemic time and pay more attention to their psychological status. The research also suggests that the best choice for challenging assignments is choosing a more experienced employee.

Design thinking (DT) has been employed as a learning strategy with actual Engineering students at different university course levels. During these experiences, lots of situations arise and several solutions can be applied by the lecturers to drive the work sessions well focus on their objectives: to improve the learning experience of the students and to test the applicability of DT basis on improving their problem-solving abilities.DT fits perfectly on subjects organized as project-based learning (PBL) tasks, and the related experiences of the authors, and their academic teams, are exactly on such kind of activities. Along several years of R/P2BL (research/problem/project based learning) teaching, and after participating in some international innovative education projects focused on DT, a collection of experiences, identified problems, solving strategies, best practices and learned lessons have been compiled, and will be explained in this chapter.The basis of this chapter is the know how acquired during the collaboration in Erasmus+ international projects, working with students (and lecturers) from various European countries. The international experience in the ambit results to be an additional point, as it allows the authors to identify even cultural or anthropological characteristics that can help when boosting creativity by using DT techniques.The chapter is organized from different focus (both lecturers and students, but also employers), aiming to provide useful tips extracted from those commented previous experiences.

This article reports research findings on the effect of an international immersion service-learning project on the level and components of cultural competence of baccalaureate (BSN) nursing students. A triangulated methodology was used to determine changes in components and level of cultural competence pre- and postexperience. The theoretical model The Process of Cultural Competence in the Delivery of Healthcare Services was used. It identifies five central constructs in the process of becoming culturally competent: cultural awareness, cultural knowledge, cultural skill, cultural encounter, and cultural desire. The sample of 121 BSN nursing students was gathered from three southern California universities. Data were collected from 2009 to 2013. Using the Inventory for Assessing the Process of Cultural Competence Among Healthcare Professionals-Student Version© and Cultural Self-Efficacy Scale, constructs of cultural competency were measured in pre- and posttest participants who participated in international service-learning immersion experiences. A demographic survey and open-ended qualitative questions were completed at the posttrip meeting. Mean, frequencies, and correlations with demographic data and survey data were calculated. Pre- and posttrip means were analyzed. Qualitative analysis from six open-ended questions completed at the posttest were coded and themes emerged. The research findings demonstrated the impact of the international service-learning project on building cultural competency in nursing students. Quantitative findings revealed statistically significant differences between pre- and posttest surveys for two of the five constructs of cultural competence. Qualitative analysis supported the quantitative findings in cultural competency constructs found in the model. The research findings support nursing education program use of international service-learning immersion experiences to foster cultural competence in nursing students. Findings from student participants demonstrated and articulated that these program experiences strengthen the process of becoming culturally competent. The research findings support the inclusion of international service-learning experiences with debriefing and reflective learning as effective teaching strategies. Researchers have demonstrated that poor healthcare outcomes are a result of health disparities, which are then compounded by healthcare workers not being prepared to care for clients from differing cultures. The American Association of Colleges of Nursing identified innovative ways for nursing students to develop skills in cultural competency, which included international experiences. In nursing education, this study demonstrated that international service-learning immersion experiences are of value as they impact and improve cultural competency. Nurses graduating with enhanced cultural understanding will contribute to decreased health disparities and improved patient care quality and safety. Further research that examines nurses' cultural competency in the patient care setting who have had previous education in international nursing could further inform nursing education and contribute to the understanding of patient satisfaction.

In this thesis, I propose a humanized and socialized account of cosmopolitan global citizenship. Cosmopolitanism has merits and applicability in our globalized society, but its basis on universalism and impartiality can unjustly homogenize public discourse and limit citizenship activity. In my first chapter I interrogate these concepts and appeal to the capabilities approach to humanize impartiality, making cosmopolitanism more inclusive and diverse. In my second chapter I use Iris Marion Young’s social connection model to highlight cross-border relationality and obligations as a basis for the praxis of cosmopolitan global citizenship. In my third chapter I apply the social connection model to bolster the concept of global citizenship as it is used in international service learning projects. Overall this thesis presents an argument for and a guide to working out the activities and obligations of cosmopolitan global citizenship, with the end of addressing injustice on a global scale.

This qualitative descriptive study used reflexive photography to evaluate the learning process of cultural competence during an international service-learning project in Guatemala. Reflexive photography is an innovative qualitative research technique that examines participants' interactions with their environment through their personal reflections on images that they captured during their experience. A purposive sample of 10 baccalaureate nursing students traveled to Guatemala, where they conducted family and community assessments, engaged in home visits, and provided health education. Data collection involved over 100 photographs and a personal interview with each student. The themes developed from the photographs and interviews provided insight into the activities of an international experience that influence the cognitive, practical, and affective learning of cultural competence. Making home visits and teaching others from a different culture increased students' transcultural self-efficacy. Reflexive photography is a more robust method of self-reflection, especially for visual learners.