Faculty Perceptions of Graduate Education Abroad

• In Event: Poster session 2

Proposal

Background & Research Questions:
Education abroad programs have expanded in the United States as the result of studies calling for ‘global competence’ to be a priority for academic areas and disciplines (Lincoln Commission, 2005; Mullens & Cuper, 2012). While institutions have implemented short-term, faculty-directed programs to make education abroad more cost-effective and accessible (Chieffo & Griffiths, 2009), little is known about how curriculum is designed and facilitated. Even less is known about graduate, short-term education abroad. According to Dirkx, Janka-Miller, Vzvary, & Sinclair (2014), “relatively little is known about the philosophical, theoretical, and conceptual foundations that should inform the design, facilitation, and assessment of these programs and experiences” (p. 3).

While research highlights a variety of different learning outcomes associated with undergraduate education abroad—including intercultural competence (Deardorff, 2004; Hovey & Weinberg, 2009), global perspectives (Sobania & Braskamp, 2009), self-awareness (Damschroder, 2016), and professionalism (Long, Akande, Purdy, & Nakano, 2010) there is a dearth of knowledge for how faculty incorporate them into graduate programs. These guidelines neglect to account for the discipline specific knowledge that faculty use to design their education abroad courses. Thus, the current study explored the following research questions: (1) How do faculty make sense of and construct learning outcomes for graduate, short-term education abroad programs? and (2) Do faculty representing different academic disciplines and departments conceptualize learning outcomes of education abroad differently? As education abroad is a costly endeavor for graduate programs, it is critical to understand how faculty align the outcomes of these programs with professional goals, competencies, and epistemologies.

Theoretical Framework:
The current study drew from Weidman, Twale, and Stein’s (2001) theory of graduate school socialization which highlights how graduate students adopt values, skills, and knowledge deemed necessary to succeed in a given profession. However, I also accounted for Susan Gardner’s (2008; 2011) understanding of how academic disciplines are well structured organizations guiding socialization by setting curriculum, competencies, and course requirements. Thus, socialization across academic disciplines offers a way to understand how faculty approach graduate education abroad.

Methods and Analysis:
Drawing from Creswell (1994), I employed a comparative multiple-case study design, with three faculty cases, to compare faculty approaches to designing learning outcomes across different academic disciplines at a single institution. The setting was a large, doctoral research university located in the Midwestern part of the United States. Using criteria to justify my cases, I interviewed faculty from the College of Education, College of Business, and College of Social Work. Using participant interviews and document analysis, I concentrated on faculty thinking, actions, and operations that occurred within their disciplinary spaces for graduate education abroad.

Findings and Scholarly Contribution:
Three important themes emerged from the findings: (1) faculty across all cases prioritized graduate student knowledge and input when developing learning outcomes; (2) unpredictability of cross-cultural experiences required all faculty to shift learning outcomes; and (3) the scope of learning outcomes differed between academic disciplines. A major scholarly contribution includes a deeper understanding of faculty and disciplinary approaches to graduate education abroad.

Author

• Jacob Lemon, Michigan State University