Cultural Immersion Experiences as Third Space: Learning and Becoming in the In-Between

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 29
  In Roundtable Session: Cultural Historical Activity Theory Ecologies of Learning and Boundary Crossing: Reimagining Social Futures, Redefining Language and Ability, and Renegotiating Cultural Identities

Abstract

We are interested in creating spaces of learning and research that are transformative, humanizing, and promote justice and equity. Toward this end, we bridge sociocultural scholarship with literature on third space and hybridity to explore how cultural immersion experiences might generate the conditions for new ways of knowing and being to emerge for students from non-dominant backgrounds. Our analysis focuses on students’ stories and photos to identify what the cultural space of the global immersion experience means to them. The emergent findings highlight cultural immersion experiences as a place of learning – third space – where students negotiate new possibilities and hybridities as they emerge within a sociocultural context. This work builds upon and extends sociocultural scholarship offering conceptual and methodological insights.

Authors

• Kristen P. Goessling, The Pennsylvania State University - Brandywine

• Allison Nicole Tucker, Lesley University