THE IMPORTANCE OF PEDAGOGY: CRITICAL APPROACHES TO STUDY ABROAD DESIGN AND DELIVERY

Abstract

Scholars have realized the need for instructors, especially those with dominant/privileged identities, to interrogate their worldviews, perspectives, and power relations before facilitating educational experiences. This is especially relevant for practices such as study abroad which, although brimming with transformative potential, can also serve as a venue to reproduce and reify dominant and oppressive norms and ideologies. Through this qualitative case study of a technical writing course held in Germany and designed using critical pedagogy, we explored the ways that US engineering students made sense of home, host, and disciplinary cultures while abroad and the aspects of pedagogy that contributed to their engagement. Through our analysis we identified three kinds of reflection characteristic of engineering students' engagement and sensemaking: early cultural reflections, cultural synthesis, integrative reflections, and disciplinary cultural reflections. We also identified the deliberate pedagogical choices authors made to stimulate students' reflections and subsequent negotiations. Overall, insights from this study can provide pedagogical guidance to those designing and leading study abroad programs, ensuring they provide an experience that makes space for all students to have equitable outcomes and experiences. The insights from this study are also illustrative of the utility of qualitative case study approaches in assessing or researching study abroad trips or programs.