TY - JOUR AU - Whalen, Brian PY - 2006/08/15 Y2 - 2024/03/28 TI - Introduction JF - Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad JA - Frontiers VL - 13 IS - 1 SE - Introduction DO - 10.36366/frontiers.v13i1.169 UR - https://frontiersjournal.org/index.php/Frontiers/article/view/169 SP - vi-viii AB - <p>This is an ambitious year for <em>Frontiers</em>. In addition to this eclectic volume&nbsp;of articles, we will be collaborating with the Forum on Education Abroad on two&nbsp;Special Issues: A History of Study Abroad, Beginnings to 1965 and our second&nbsp;Undergraduate Research volume. We are grateful to the IFSA Foundation for&nbsp;providing the funding that helps to make these publications possible. &nbsp;</p><p>Both the History of Study Abroad and the Undergraduate Research volume&nbsp;will debut at the Forum Conference in Austin, Texas, March 1–3, 2007. The&nbsp;History is written by Bill Hoffa, and it is landmark publication that provides&nbsp;insight into the development of study abroad as a field. Bill’s research and writing&nbsp;makes our work more meaningful, and we are pleased to be able to publish it.</p><p>The second Undergraduate Research volume contains a wide range of&nbsp;examples of student research conducted as part of study abroad. In this volume&nbsp;we are pleased to provide another perspective on this example of student learning:&nbsp;that of the on-site faculty advisor. We have asked faculty who advised and&nbsp;supervised the student research on-site to discuss the meaning of the research&nbsp;within the context of the local community in which it was conducted. The&nbsp;introduction to this volume by Paul Houlihan, President of the School for Field&nbsp;Studies, discusses the importance of considering the needs and perspectives of&nbsp;the communities in which our students conduct their research.</p><p>Our partnership with the Forum continues to produce important results&nbsp;that benefit the field of education abroad. We look forward to publishing&nbsp;a third volume featuring Undergraduate Research (2008) as well as Part Two of&nbsp;the History of Study Abroad in this ongoing collaboration. Other special projects&nbsp;are also being planned to benefit both <em>Frontiers</em> readers and Forum members.&nbsp;</p><p>This volume at hand reflects our commitment to publishing a wide variety&nbsp;of approaches to understanding study abroad. The lead article by J. Kline&nbsp;Harrison, “The Relationship between International Study Tour Effects and the&nbsp;Personality Variables of Self-Monitoring and Core Self-Evaluations” provides&nbsp;more data on the outcomes of short-term study abroad, in this case business&nbsp;study tours that are embedded within home campus courses. Harrison investigates&nbsp;the perceived effectiveness of these tours and the associated impact on two&nbsp;personality variables: “self-monitoring” and “core self-evaluations.” The results&nbsp;of this research inform us about the benefits of this type of study abroad and&nbsp;also about instruments that may be useful to employ in other studies assessing&nbsp;the impact of study abroad.</p><p>Our second article is from colleagues at the Lienhard School of Nursing&nbsp;at Pace University, Sophie R. Kaufman, David N. Ekstrom, and Lillie M.&nbsp;Shortridge-Baggett. Their article, “Assessing International Opportunities in&nbsp;Higher Education: A Matrix-based Assessment Tool,” presents a means to evaluate&nbsp;strategically international program opportunities on our campuses and within&nbsp;our organizations. The authors draw on their implementation of this assessment&nbsp;tool on their own campus to make a case for it. At a time when many of us are&nbsp;faced with often competing ideas for study abroad expansion, this tool may very&nbsp;well prove to be useful for helping us to make strategic decisions.</p><p>In her article, “Re-Reading Student Texts: Intertextuality and Constructions&nbsp;of Self and Other in the Contact Zone,” Karen Rodriguez, a Resident&nbsp;Director in Guanajuato, Mexico, expands our understanding of study abroad&nbsp;texts, identities, pedagogy and student learning. Using a student’s poem as&nbsp;her starting point, Rodriguez applies insights from critical theory to analyze&nbsp;the study abroad learning environment. Her article prompts us to consider the&nbsp;multiple ways in which our students are engaged in an ongoing textual interplay&nbsp;in which they are simultaneously writers, co-writers, and texts being written.&nbsp;</p><p>Jacqueline McLaughlin and Kent Johnson offer a fruitful way to frame&nbsp;the short-term study abroad experience in order to maximize student learning&nbsp;and the assessment of learning outcomes. In their “Assessing the Field Course&nbsp;Experiential Learning Model: Transforming Collegiate Short-term Study Abroad&nbsp;Experiences into Rich Learning Environments,” the authors aim to present a&nbsp;program model that facilitates critical thinking while engaging students in&nbsp;active scientific inquiry. Presenting a case study of their three-week course in&nbsp;Costa Rica, McLaughlin and Johnson provide an example of how to integrate&nbsp;curricular design with assessment practice.</p><p>In his “Ethnographic Inquiry: Reframing the Learning Core of Education&nbsp;Abroad,” Anthony Ogden uses case studies and theories about intercultural&nbsp;competency in order to propose that ethnographic inquiry become the core&nbsp;of our education abroad programs. Ogden takes us through the various facets&nbsp;of education abroad programs and discusses the value of integrating an ethnographic&nbsp;approach into each one to yield more effective learning outcomes.&nbsp;He emphasizes that to incorporate this learning paradigm does not require a&nbsp;complete overhaul of programs, but rather a reframing of them.</p><p>The final two articles in this volume offer differing viewpoints on study abroad&nbsp;in non-traditional locations. In his “Non-traditional Study Abroad Destinations:&nbsp;Analysis of a Trend,” Ryan Wells defines and discusses study in non-traditional&nbsp;locations by comparing the benefits of and rationales for these programs with those&nbsp;of study abroad programs in traditional locations. Wells concludes that based on&nbsp;his analysis study abroad in non-traditional locations appears to help individuals,&nbsp;institutions, and society to meet their respective goals for education abroad.</p><p>Michael Woolf presents a different view in his “Come and See the Poor&nbsp;People: The Pursuit of Exotica.” He argues that study abroad in non-traditional&nbsp;locations is proceeding without enough thought being given to the intellectual&nbsp;and academic reasons for it. Woolf asserts that what is attracting the&nbsp;development of study abroad in non-traditional locations more often than not&nbsp;is a fascination with the exotic, and that this is not a desirable or realistic way&nbsp;to develop such programs, especially when education abroad, more than ever,&nbsp;needs to be taken seriously.</p><p>I want to take this opportunity once again to thank our institutional sponsors.&nbsp;Their continued support of <em>Frontiers</em> makes it possible to publish what&nbsp;we hope are thought-provoking and useful articles that shed light on the work&nbsp;of study abroad. I want also to extend a special thanks to those colleagues who&nbsp;have served as reviewers of manuscripts for this volume. <em>Frontiers</em> is very much&nbsp;a collaborative effort and our continued growth and success is widely shared.</p><p><em>Brian Whalen, Dickinson College</em></p><p><em>The Forum on Education Abroad</em></p><p>I n t r o d u c t i o n</p><p>©2015 The Forum on Education Abroad</p> ER -