Impacts of a Short-Term International Engineering and Business Consulting Practicum
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.36366/frontiers.v36i3.858Keywords:
Business, consulting, engineering, practicumAbstract
Increase in short-term programs is one of the biggest shifts in study abroad over the past twenty years. With prior research in this area showing many positive but also mixed impacts, skepticism persists about the ability of short-term study abroad to change students’ views on cultural differences. The aim of this study is to characterize if and how students’ views on cultural differences in the context of international client work change after a practicum-based faculty-led short-term study abroad program in Argentina. Twenty-four students who participated in the program responded to short-answer questions before and after the program. These responses were open-coded, and themes were identified. Results show that, before the program, students largely identified surface-level cultural differences from an ethnocentric perspective. After the program, students were more ethnorelative as evidenced by their discussing the deeper cultural context and values of Argentina and their willingness to adapt.
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