The Local as the Global: Study Abroad Through Place-Based Education in Costa Rica

• In Event: Cases of Places: Place-Based Education and International Environmental Ed Approaches

Abstract

Efforts to globalize U.S. higher education abound. To judge from institutional mission statements and strategic plans to the proliferation of new, globally-oriented centers, programs, and majors on U.S. college and university campuses, a central concern of U.S. higher education today is to equip students with the tools, knowledge, and dispositions for engaging in a globalized world. Yet what, exactly, institutions mean when they evoke the term, global, is often unclear. In this paper, we share data collected on a short-term study abroad program in Costa Rica in which learning about the local rather than the global was a primary goal. Preliminary data analysis suggests that students' ecological and social awareness increases when study abroad uses a place-based educational approach.

Authors

• Cora Ann Jakubiak, Grinnell College

• Paula Jean Mellom, University of Georgia