Learning Through Experience: Beginning Teachers' Reflections on Study Abroad in Ghana

• In Event: Learning About Culturally Responsive Teaching During International Field Experiences

Abstract

Although most study abroad experiences in education are semester-long student teaching programs, shorter programs are accessible to a wider range of students. However, there is little evidence of the impact of shorter programs. The context of this study is a two-week study abroad program at a P-12 school in the Eastern region of Ghana, West Africa. Students’ journal entries explore their experiences and reflections on their own developing understandings of culture, personal values and beliefs about education. Students’ reflections on themes of hospitality, socioeconomic differences, time, use of teacher-centered strategies, and their own personal characteristics indicated that this two-week study abroad program had a significant impact on the development of participants’ intercultural competence and intentions to be culturally responsive teachers.

Authors

• Michael DiCicco, Northern Kentucky University

• Lenore Kinne, Northern Kentucky University