ERIC Number: EJ1380162
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2023-Apr
Pages: 20
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1085-4568
EISSN: EISSN-2380-8144
Sense of Place, Imaginative Mobility, and Intercultural Awareness through a Map Making Project in a Study Abroad Program
Per Urlaub; Eva Dessein
Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad, v35 n1 p305-324 Apr 2023
This article analyzes the perceptions of two undergraduate learners' regarding the educational impact of a collaborative map making project in the context of a summer study abroad program in France, focused on language learning. Over the eight-week long program, students created a digital map with textual and visual annotations that helped them to reflect on their prior associations with a location or landmark in the host country, the associations that members of the host country had with this location, and finally their own experience after visiting the location. The objective of this project was to help students to experience a more nuanced sense of place, to articulate imaginative mobility, and, as a result, to develop an increased level of intercultural awareness. The participants' reflections after the end of the program suggest that through the engagement with the tasks associated with the project students engaged in imaginative mobility and developed a more nuanced sense of place. In particular, the experience of eliciting perspectives from local informants had a positive impact on their development of intercultural awareness.
Descriptors: Study Abroad, Maps, Undergraduate Students, Student Attitudes, Second Language Learning, Second Language Instruction, Summer Programs, Cultural Awareness, French, Foreign Countries, Cooperative Learning, Imagination, Program Descriptions, Place Based Education, Educational Experience, Mobility
Frontiers Journal. Dickinson College P.O. Box 1773, Carlisle, PA 17013. Tel: 717-254-8858; Fax: 717-245-1677; Web site: https://www.frontiersjournal.org/index.php/Frontiers
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: France
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A