Environmental Study Abroad: The Added Value of Environmental Citizenship

• In Event: Roundtable Session (Monday I)
  In Refereed Round-Table Session: Integrating environmental sustainability in higher education: comparative perspectives

Proposal

The 2015 Sustainable Development Goals set their mission to “end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure prosperity for all as part of a new sustainable development agenda” (United Nations General Assembly, 2015). Accordingly, researchers and practitioners have been called upon to discuss how best to instill the knowledge, behavior, and attitudes necessary to meet the sustainability agenda. Within higher education, one approach is to increase study abroad programming that investigates the world’s largest environmental problems. The goal of these programs is to foster students who are globally and environmentally consciousness. However, just as it is important to create these programs, it is equally important to assess the impact of these programs on students, not only in terms of academic content but also in attitudes toward sustainability and the environment more broadly. Through exploratory qualitative research, this study invites former student participants of environmentally focused study abroad programs to examine their understanding of sustainability, environmental consciousness, and global citizenship influenced by their experience abroad. Using the framework developed by Tarrant (2010) to understand the role study abroad has in nurturing global citizenship and questions modified from Tarrant, Rubin, & Stoner (2014), participants were asked about three different levels of behavior in relation to their study abroad experience: (1) environmental concern, (2) support for environmental policies, and (3) ecologically conscious consumer behavior. Additionally, students reflected on the impact their experience had on their beliefs and behaviors. From the lessons learned from this research, I argue the importance of sustainable study abroad and that being environmentally conscious is an integral part of global citizenship. In order to put research into action, I also provide education abroad practitioners with techniques to make all programs environmentally sustainable. To that effect, I discuss how sustainable study abroad leads to globally and environmentally focused students and a better future for all of us.

Author

• Kara Michele Korab, University of Maryland