The field of study abroad for language learning has drawn extensively on related fields such as applied linguistics and psychology to conceptualize learners' experiences, which then informs how practitioners go about designing programs for those learners. Research has encouraged practitioners to increase learners' access to the target language (e.g., through speaking partners, content courses), but it has also become clear that while access might be necessary, it does not guarantee learner engagement and growth. This dissertation explores two unique conceptual frameworks for understanding language learners and presents empirical research that demonstrates the kinds of findings that these frameworks can produce. The common subject of analysis involved the experiences of participants who struggled to engage in speaking during an Arabic study abroad program. The first framework emerged from a grounded theory analysis and characterizes participants' struggles as a clash of expectations that required negotiation. The findings fit well with a recent "ecological turn" in language learning, and a review of study abroad research from an ecological perspective suggested avenues of research that would further develop the field's understanding of access, engagement, and the learners themselves. The second framework built on interdisciplinary insights to present a hermeneutic moral realist account of the same participants who struggled to engage in speaking activities. This approach revealed a moral ecology of unstructured speaking with unique moral goods, reference points, and tensions that the participants had to navigate as they tried to find good speaking opportunities for themselves. This dissertation positions these findings within current second language study abroad experiences, offering an ecological perspective and recommendations for students and faculty alike.

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Cross-cultural knowledge and intercultural competence are highly valued qualities for 21st-century American college and university graduates, as these institutions endeavor to prepare students to live and work in an increasingly multicultural society. This task offers both a challenge and an opportunity for educators to design mechanisms to increase the global awareness and intercultural development of their student participants. The challenge is to create intentional learning experiences that avoid the pitfalls of perpetuating stereotypes and reproducing inequitable social relations. Faculty-led international travel courses provide an opportunity for program leaders to develop intercultural development curricula that are ethical, engaging, economically and environmentally sustainable, and pedagogically sound. This study examined how participants in a faculty-led short-term global service-learning course to Belize experienced and perceived cultural difference and how that professor attended to and sought to address cultural difference and issues of power, positionality, and privilege during that program. This study followed a convergent parallel mixed method design in which I collected and analyzed qualitative and quantitative data concurrently. This combination of methods yielded a more complete understanding of the learning process and intercultural learning outcomes of the student participants, as well as the pedagogical and programmatic features that encouraged the growth of intercultural competencies in each. The quantitative findings of this study indicated little change in the competency levels of the program's participants, whereas the qualitative data suggested that the Belize travel course students had experienced notable gains in cultural self-awareness and were better able to identify relevant cultural differences. Participants singled-out the immersive quality of the experience, the variety and multiple points of intercultural contact the program offered, relationships with the faculty leader, peers, and host community members, and the compassionate leadership of the faculty leader as critical factors in their intercultural growth. I found that emotions, cognitive dissonance, and critical reflection play key roles in the intercultural learning process. / Doctor of Philosophy / American society is becoming more diverse and ever more integrated with nations across the world. College graduates need to have the knowledge and skills to live and work with people from different backgrounds. Universities can prepare students better for this reality by helping them learn how to communicate and behave appropriately with people who are culturally different. One way to encourage this capacity, called intercultural competence, is for students to participate in courses that occur outside of the United States. To secure the possibility for personal and intellectual growth, it is important that professors who take students abroad carefully plan their courses. The purpose of this research was to investigate whether a group of students who went to Belize with a professor for a short service-oriented course returned with more knowledge about that country's culture and improved intercultural competence. I tested program participants before they left and after they returned to see if their intercultural competence improved. I also interviewed the students about what their experience was like and how their professor had prepared them and helped them to learn. I also talked with the program's faculty leader to determine why she had designed the course in the way that she did and whether she perceived that participating students had improved their intercultural competence. I learned several things from this research. First, the tests that students completed showed that there was not much difference in their before and after intercultural competence scores. Second, however, when I talked with participants, they did seem to have changed from going on this travel course even if the test did not show that they had experienced much growth. The students indicated they had learned a lot about themselves and about the people of the town in Belize they visited. Participants suggested that they spent a lot of time with local residents and that doing so had helped them to understand them better. Third, those experiences helped them to think about their own culture and what it means to be an American. Fourth, students bonded with each other and with their professor. As individuals and as a group, they reported experiencing a variety of emotions in reaction to the things they observed and experienced. All of these, difficult or not, helped participants to grow personally and to develop a more robust awareness of how residents of another culture view and navigate their everyday lives.

The multitude of existing research conducted within the field of study abroad programs generally reinforces the popular understanding that the practice not only broadens the mind, provides valuable experiences and enhances stagnating perspectives, but also contributes to a skillset that is becoming increasingly necessary for success in the globally focused world of today. Despite the evidence supporting their effectiveness, relatively few undergraduate students in the United States choose to participate in some form of study abroad program. The following analysis will examine the potential reasoning of why this is so. Through the administration of questionnaires and interviews along with a comprehensive review of existing research, the following pages examine the attitudes and inhibitions of undergraduate university students as they relate to studying abroad and to what extent these perceptions fall in line with the escalating importance of multicultural competence. Used as an exemplifying case of American undergraduate students, Michigan State University’s Eli Broad College of Business furnished the sample of participants used in this study. Largely supported through the data obtained from the conducted interviews, undergraduate students are seen to place a high value on the personal and cultural benefits acquired through study abroad participation while relegating academic focus to a somewhat tangential position. Factors such as a student’s previous international travel experience and awareness of available programs are seen to influence these perceptions to some degree. Despite the significant value placed on such programs, a large percentage of students express concern over a variety of barriers prohibiting them from pursuing enrollment. The financial commitments associated with the participation in a study abroad program were almost unanimously considered to be a serious burden on individuals. These concerns were supplemented and at times exacerbated by other factors such as a student’s availability of time, willingness to suspend important personal relationships and needed class credit. Covered in detail below, these findings are seen to support and corroborate much of the existing research that has been previously conducted within this field while providing additional insight by way of student testimony.

Significant health care disparities exist in the United States. Nurses can play an important role eliminating these disparities. International immersion experiences for undergraduate nursing students may provide long-lasting enhancements in cultural competency and improvements in professional practice. The purpose of this descriptive qualitative study is to explore how a faculty-led international immersion experience for undergraduate nursing students in public health nursing has influenced cultural competency and how this is perceived to have impacted the individuals' current professional practice. Campinha-Bacote's (2002) Process of Cultural Competence in the Delivery of Health Care Services served as a theoretical framework for the study. Participants were sampled based on their experiences in either Bangladesh or Uganda from 2011 to 2013 as part of an international immersion program for undergraduate nursing students. Participants were asked to provide a written response to three prompts. Analysis was guided by the method developed by Colaizzi (Polit & Beck, 2012). Seven individuals agreed to participate. The data collected was somewhat limited in terms of depth, but it did reveal the themes of positive personal and professional development as well as the self-perceived enhancement of one's cultural competency. These findings are discussed within the context of the literature reviewed. Finally, the methodology of this study is reflected upon and recommendations are made for a follow-up study. This study supports the idea that an international immersion experience for undergraduate nursing students is an overall positive experience and can benefit professional practice as well as enhance one's cultural competency. However, more research is still needed to assess specifically how professional practice is benefited and to what extent these benefits are maintained overtime.

Master of Science / School of Family Studies and Human Services / Bronwyn S. Fees / The purpose of this literature review was to examine existing literature related to international experiences of early childhood pre-service educators. Given the unique opportunity for study abroad as a potential part of the college or university curriculum, the present discussion focuses on the question: what is the relationship between international experiences and pre-service early childhood educators’ cultural competence? More specifically, the following sub-questions were examined: 1) How is cultural competence defined across the literature? 2) What theories are applied to understand the effect of international experiences on the cultural competence of pre-service educators? 3) What pedagogical strategies are most frequently applied to develop cultural competence among pre-service educators? 4) What evidence is provided that pre-service educators changed (if at all) as a consequence of international immersion? A systematic literature search was conducted to locate original published studies that reported on the cultural competence of pre-service early childhood educators after international experiences. Detailed analysis of the articles revealed positive outcomes on pre-service educators who engaged in international educative experiences. Pedagogical strategies such as immersion and critical reflection led to pre-service educators’ self-reports of gains in personal and professional growth, cultural awareness, cultural sensitivity, and cultural competence. These findings warrant consideration by higher education, teacher education programs, and practice and research organizations. Further research examining the longevity of impact of international experiences on early childhood educator cultural competence in the classroom is suggested.

This dissertation examined the effect of year-long study abroad program on the development of intercultural sensitivity among the Mainland Chinese high school students. The sample consisted of 50 study abroad participants and 50 students on home campus. The instrument Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) was employed to assess the intercultural sensitivity level of Mainland Chinese students before and after study abroad experience. The paired samples t-test results reveal that study abroad students did not make statistically significant gains in the overall intercultural sensitivity through participation in the year-long study abroad program. Although there were statistically significant differences in the posttest ethnorelative scales between study abroad students and students on the home campus, the study abroad students did not make significantly greater progress in their overall intercultural sensitivity between the pretest and posttest than the comparison group. The regression results indicated that the independent variable of total amount of previous intercultural experience significantly contributed to the development of intercultural sensitivity.On average, study abroad students participants were in the stage of Minimization as measured by IDI prior to study abroad and remained at the same stage by the conclusion of the study abroad experience. The findings imply that the study abroad program needs to provide support to increase students’ skills and sensitivity so that they can deal effectively with cultural differences.