Fostering intersubjectivity and empathetic engagements in short-term education abroad: Reflections on decolonizing transnational education arrangements
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.36366/frontiers.v38i1.1195Keywords:
Central America, decolonizing approaches, intersubjectivity, neocolonialism, short-term education abroadAbstract
This article interrogates the assumed benefits of short-term education abroad programming within the context of colonial frameworks and neoliberal sensibilities. Reflecting on transnational programs we have run, and especially one in the Honduran Bay Islands, we apply Adkins and Messerly’s (2019) framework to decolonize education abroad to consider interventions that foster intersubjectivity and empathetic engagement. By decentering the student-as-tourist, ahistorical trend of education abroad to instead privilege local people in design and implementation, programs can be positive for both students and the communities that host them.
Abstract in SpanishEste artículo cuestiona los presuntos beneficios de los programas de educación en el extranjero de corto plazo dentro del contexto de los marcos coloniales y las sensibilidades neoliberales. Con una reflexión sobre los programas transnacionales que hemos dirigido, y especialmente uno de las Islas de la Bahía de Honduras, aplicamos las ideas de Adkins y Messerly (2019) para descolonizar la educación en el extranjero con el fin de considerar intervenciones que fomenten la intersubjetividad y el compromiso empático. Al descentrar la tendencia ahistórica del “estudiante-como-turista” en la educación en el extranjero para, en su lugar, priorizar a la población local en el diseño y la implementación, los programas pueden resultar beneficiosos tanto para los estudiantes como para las comunidades que los reciben.
Downloads
References
Adkins, R. & Messerly, B. (2019). Toward decolonizing education abroad: Moving beyond the self/other dichotomy In E. Brewer & A. C. Ogden (Eds.), Education abroad and the undergraduate experience (pp. 73-91). Stylus Publishing, Sterling, VA. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003444411-6
Alam, S. (2008). Majority world: Challenging the west’s rhetoric of democracy. Amerasia Journal, 34(1), 87-98. https://doi.org/10.17953/amer.34.1.I3176027k4q614v5
Arvin, M., Tuck, E. & Morrill, A. (2013). Decolonizing feminism: Challenging connections between settler colonialism and heteropatriarchy. Feminist Formations 25(1), 8-34. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43860665
Aguilar, L. (2022). Afro-Hondurans violently evicted from their ancestral lands on Honduras’ Caribbean coast. ContraCorriente. https://contracorriente.red/en/2022/11/07/afro-hondurans-violently-evicted-from-their-ancestral-lands-on-honduras-caribbean-coast/
Barkin, G. (2018). Either here or there: Short-term study abroad and the discourse of going. Anthropology and Education Quarterly 49(3), 296-317. https://doi.org/10.1111/aeq.12248
Bodinger De Uriarte, J. J., & Di Giovine, M. A. (Eds.). (2021). Study abroad and the quest for an anti-tourism experience. Lexington Books. https://digitalcommons.wcupa.edu/ctsmfaculty_books/2
Author 1. (2021). [Title omitted]
Brundtland, G. (1987). Report of the world commission on environment and development: Our common future. United Nations General Assembly document.
https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/5987our-common-future.pdf
Castiello-Gutiérrez, S. & Gozik, N. (2022). Decolonizing education abroad: Grounding theory in practice. In N. J. Gozik and H. Barclay Hamir (Eds.), A house where all belong: Redesigning education abroad for inclusive excellence (pp. 183–202). Forum on Education Abroad.
Chakravarty, D., Good, K. & Gasser, H. (2020). Exploring your world, exploring other cultures: How neocoloniality and neoliberalism inform U.S. education abroad programs. Equity & Excellence in Education, 53(1-2), 121-136. https://doi.org/10.1080/10665684.2020.1751009
Cooke, L. (2017). Carving “turns” and unsettling the ground under our feet (and skis): A reading of Sun Peaks Resort as a settler colonial moral terrain. Tourist Studies, 17(1), 36-53. http://doi.org/10.1177/1468797616685643
Davidson, W. (1974). Historical geography of the Bay Islands, Honduras: Anglo-Hispanic conflict in the Western Caribbean. Southern University Press.
Gozik, N. & Barclay, H. H. (Eds.) (2022). A house where all belong: Redesigning education abroad for inclusive excellence. Forum on Education Abroad. https://www.forumea.org/a-house-where-all-belong.html
Farrugia, C. & Sanger, J. (2017). Gaining an employment Edge: The impact of study abroad on 21st century skills & career prospects in the United States. The Institute of International Education. https://www.iie.org/publications/gaining-an-employment-edge-the-impact-of-study-abroad
Guttentag, D. (2009). The possible negative impacts of volunteer tourism. International Journal of Tourism Research 11 (6), 537–51. https://doi.org/10.1002/jtr.727.
Kasun, G. S., Marks B., & Jefferies, J. (2024). Decolonizing Study Abroad through the Identities of Latinx Students: A Manifesto to Reclaim Identities and Heritage. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003320111
Kirtsoglou, E. & Theodossopoulos, D. (2004). “They are taking our culture away”: Tourism and culture commodification in the Garifuna community of Roatan. Critique of Anthropology 24(2), 135-157. https://doi.org/10.1177/0308275X0404265
Kuh, G. D. & Schneider, C. G. (2008). High-impact educational practices: What they are, who has access to them, and why they matter. Association of American Colleges and Universities. http://hdl.voced.edu.au/10707/232146
Muppidi, H. (2004). The Politics of the Global. University of Minnesota Press.
O’Donnell, K. (2013). Bringing HIPs to scale: Turning good practice into lasting policy. In G. D. Kuh & K. O’Donnell (Eds.), Ensuring quality & taking high-impact practices to scale (pp. 1–14). Association of American Colleges and Universities.
Smith, A. E. B. (2013). Black chest: A vault of historical and cultural knowledge stored by the Black English-speaking people that reside in the Bay Islands and the Honduran north coast. Native Bay Islanders Professional and Laborers Association Press.
Stonich S.C. (1999). The other side of paradise: Tourism, conservation, and development in the Bay Islands. Cognizant Communication Corporation.
Taylor, S., K. [& Authors] (2024, March 26-30). [Title removed to anonymize draft]. [Conference presentation]. Society for Applied Anthropology, 82nd Annual Meeting, Santa Fe, NM, United States.
Tervalon, M. & Murray-García, J. (1998.) Cultural humility versus cultural competence: a critical distinction in defining physician training outcomes in multicultural education. Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved. 9(2),117-25. https://doi.org/10.1353/HPU.2010.0233
Thiam, C. & Sorila, H. (2023). White supremacy, global education, and decolonial futures. In A. Rizzotti & H. M. Cruz-Feliciano (Eds.), Voices from the South: Decolonial perspectives in international education (pp. 162-79). The Forum on Education Abroad. https://www.forumea.org/voices-from-the-south.html
Tuck, E. & Yang, K. W. 2012. Decolonization is not a metaphor. Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society 1(1), 1-40. https://doi.org/10.25058/2011274.n38.04
Wearing, S. & Wearing, M. (2006). “Rereading the subjugating tourist” in neoliberalism: Postcolonial otherness and the tourist experience. Tourism Analysis 11(2), 145–63. https://doi.org/10.3727/108354206778001512.
Zemach-Bersin, T. (2007). Global citizenship & study abroad: It’s all about the U.S. Critical Literacy: Theories and Practices 1(2), 16-28. http://www.criticalliteracy.org.uk.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Keri Brondo, Suzanne Kent
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
