| Popis: |
To counter contemporary discourses of terrorism and racism there is a pressing need to develop the intercultural capacity of our university students as future community leaders with global, open-minded perspectives, and the ability to relate interculturally. Institutions of higher education can respond by foregrounding opportunities for intercultural learning which increase students’ awareness and valuing of non-essentialist discourses, meaningful interactions, and relations with cultural others. Study abroad is seen as offering productive opportunities for engaging students in intercultural learning within tertiary education. Whilst study abroad is a term which can attract a number of different definitions (Coleman 2013), in this chapter, it refers to ‘a temporary sojourn of pre-defined duration, undertaken for educational purposes’ (Kinginger 2009: 11). Engaging in study abroad has been shown by research to result in students’ personal development, expressed as increased self-confidence, self-reliance, and openness (Potts 2015), along with intercultural learning including deeper understanding of their own culture and identity, greater awareness and acceptance of cultural differences, and increased intercultural communication skills (Jackson 2008). As graduates, their study abroad experiences have the potential to open diverse career pathways at home and abroad and contribute to their working effectively in international and intercultural contexts (European Commission 2015a). |
