This article explores how Korean exchange students organized their studies during exchange programs in Swedish higher education. For most students, the programs became a disordered period in relation to their education. The value of exchange studies seems mainly to be extra-curricular. Drawing upon actor network theory, the article argues that the…

This paper aims to present a small group of pre-service English teachers' perceptions towards the overseas field experience programme jointly organised by a university in Canada and the teacher trainer institute in Hong Kong. The study involved seven Canadian Year 3 and 4 B.Ed. TESL students who participated in the investigated eight-week overseas…

This article--the first in the Council for the Study of Community Colleges (CSCC) Review Essays Series--reviews the literature concerning education-abroad opportunities for community college students. The article examines the benefits accrued to students through overseas study, briefly notes the history of education-abroad programs, and summarizes…

The focus of the study was the University of Dallas' Rome Program, a mid-length study abroad program on the university's campus in Rome, Italy. The program is designed to provide participants with the opportunity to encounter firsthand Western tradition by integrating the core curriculum through classroom teachings and class excursions, thus…

As globalization increases, organizations are seeking individuals that have developed intercultural competency (ICC) and are prepared to lead for the 21st century. Although there are competing definitions among scholars as to what characteristics (ability, attitude, awareness, behaviors, knowledge, skills, or values) make up ICC (Ang & Van…

Study abroad is often viewed as an ideal setting to improve target language proficiency due to opportunities for extensive contact with locals in the target language. However, research on study abroad demonstrates that this local contact and target language use can be quite limited, and that there is considerable variation in the linguistic…

With the goal of enhancing knowledge and skills related to cross-cultural aging, a linked service learning project was implemented through a partnership with an elderly community center in Hong Kong. The project linked Semester at Sea (SAS) study abroad students with gerontology students at Colorado State University through collaborative service…

The study investigated the costs and benefits of international education to Zimbabwean students studying in South African Universities. The objectives of the study were to investigate the actual and perceived benefits of international education to students. The study also investigated the impact of international education on the lives of students,…

In this study, I provide a discourse analytical and narrative-theoretical examination of four American undergraduate students' interview accounts of study abroad in France. The key finding is that all of these students accounted for the significance of their experiences studying abroad in terms that transcended the institutionally sanctioned…

This case study examined the phenomenon, through a basic interpretive approach, of 13 students who participated in a short-term study abroad program at a community college. Participants shared experiences from their programs that provided meaning to their lives and how that meaning has shaped their life socially, academically, professionally, and…

Internationalization plays an increasingly important role in many universities today. Not only do institutions engage in efforts to inject an international component into the curriculum and to expand study abroad, but also undertake more complex partnerships and forms of cross-border education, in some cases with significant risk. The expanding…

Although only 20 percent of teacher education students nationwide who completed their training and were certified during the 2009 spring semester were employed as teachers during the 2009 fall semester (U.S. Department of Education ED Review statistics, Nov. 20, 2009), 100 percent of Western Kentucky University (WKU) teacher education spring 2009…

This paper examines how a study abroad experiential learning course in diversity provided a cultural immersion experience for a group of social work students from a small private university in central Kentucky. The students participated in a three-week international education experience in Kenya and reported this experience helped them become more…

In July 2009, a group of over 80 FSL teachers from British Columbia (BC) participated in a two-week sojourn at the "Centre d'Approches vivantes des Langues et des Medias" (CAVILAM) in Vichy, France, as part of an initiative to address the critical shortage of qualified French language teachers in the province. After almost four decades…

Helping students and others facing the task of adapting to a foreign culture is becoming ever more pressing. The current study delves into sociocultural adaptation in order to clarify that process and provide information useful for educators, trainers, coaches, and others guiding those facing a sojourn in a foreign culture. A question to be…