Finding Meaningfulness in International Learning Experiences: An Exploratory Study with Learners with Multiple Experiences Abroad

• In Event: Student Agency and Multiple Voices in Student Mobility

Proposal

Learning abroad, especially in higher education, has existed on the modern lifelong learning map for a variety of reasons and with diverse goals over several historical periods (Altbach & De Wit, 2015; De Wit & Merkx, 2012). Either as a medium towards cooperation or competition, sending learners abroad in order to enrich and recalibrate their perspective has been in the learning landscape for a while and continues to develop and transform. In the last decades, emerging neoliberal pressures have affected the domain of learning abroad and keep on pushing towards the direction of sending future professionals overseas in order for them to acquire valuable skillsets and competencies for their future career, sometimes also as part of a wider political plan like in the case of the European Union (Moscovitz & Zahavi, 2019; Rizvi, 2011; Thimmel, 2013; Waldow, 2018; Yang, 2020). These developments, and the emerging increased interest in learning abroad have fueled the further diversification of available programs and led to the emergence of new types of learning experiences abroad with a surprising range of different characteristics. Therefore, learners nowadays can choose among program types such as academic-based offers (degree-seeking studies abroad, semester abroad, research stays), volunteering, international workcamps, youth exchanges, school visits abroad, internships, youth travel, work & travel, apprenticeships abroad, voluntourism, au-pair, language courses etc. (Eurodesk Deutschland, 2018; Thimmel, 2013; Woloshyn & Grierson, 2015). These program types differ in terms of their characteristics (e.g., length, modes of instruction, accommodation during the stay abroad, extra- and co-curricular activities, language parameters) (Gozik & Oguro, 2020; Terzuolo, 2018), creating environments for different learning experiences abroad (Moore et al., 2020).
From a learning perspective, though, not all experiences result in learning, or learning of equal meaning and depth (Jarvis, 1987). The same applies for the international experiences that the above program types promise. Following Jarvis’ (1987: 169) definition of meaning as “a subjective interpretation of experience” and his model of learning processes which connects learning and meaning-making, this presentation will focus on answering the question ‘what makes different types of International Learning Experiences meaningful according to the individuals’ subjective interpretations’. To have a holistic approach to this topic and in order to be able to draw comparisons among different types of experiences, this research is based on in-depth interviews with individuals who have had multiple different experiences abroad.
Since the literature on people with multiple International Learning Experiences is extremely limited, an exploratory research design has been selected. Methodologically, phenomenology and thematic analysis are employed to identify patterns in the phenomenon of meaningfulness in International Learning Experiences. Therefore, the direction of the research follows a constructivist orientation to explore the individuals’ personal views. Interviews and visual data (based on Iantaffi’s, 2012 visual method of the ‘rivers of experience’) have been collected in English, German and Greek from different countries. The preliminary results will be available in the upcoming months in order to be presented at the conference.
The relevance to CIES 2024 and the topic of protest is based on the way individuals who have been abroad view the world through a new lens after they complete their several International Learning Experiences. How they find meaningfulness in those past experiences is linked to their future decisions and the viewpoint they adopt in life. Do they want to contribute to a better world? And if so, do all of the different types of experiences (formal and non-formal) have the same influence on them? Or are there specific types or patterns that make their experiences more meaningful than others, and therefore inspire them more to bring change?
The originality of this research is based on two pillars, a theoretical and a practical one. From a theoretical point of view, very few has been written on meaningfulness/meaninglessness stemming from learning abroad (e.g., Thomas & Kerstetter, 2020). Even though in some cases the learning processes have been investigated from several perspectives, there is a significant lack of literature that involves and compares different ILE types and learners with multiple ILEs. The investigation of the nature and development of learning and meaning under these special circumstances will contribute to shedding light on the above-mentioned topics from the multi-faceted perspective of different ILE types. Secondly, from a practical perspective, by investigating meaningfulness in the context of different ILEs, as well as their influence on the learners’ future life trajectory, it is possible to make connections regarding how to offer ILEs that are more likely to be meaningful for learners, bearing in mind the individuals’ and the ILEs’ characteristics. As Creswell (2013: 81) observes, examining a phenomenon from a phenomenological point of view and discovering the individuals’ common experiences can lead to the development of practices or policies.

Author

• Marianthi Kontelli, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), University of Toronto