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Newsletters:
In This Issue Current Issue Archives
November 2005
| International Education Report - November, 2005 - Full Issue … |
| Abroad and Outdoors: “Situated Learning” Brings Study Abroad Alive It’s all there in the pictures on the websites where schools promote their study abroad programs: the reflective young woman on the Great Wall; the group of backpacking kids on a hilltop; a young man squinting in the sun, with the Pyramids behind him. We take it for granted that students abroad are going to do sightseeing and that it is somehow an important part of their total experience. But there’s a growing group of practitioners who maintain that there is value in weaving outdoor experience more directly and consciously into the curriculum, and they’re developing pedagogical theory to support this notion. |
| Training Faculty to Lead Study Abroad Programs A person can be a fine teacher and an outstanding scholar but a real bust at keeping a group of twenty-year-olds out of harm’s way in a distant country. This is a problem for schools that offer faculty-led study abroad programs—a problem more and more schools are addressing with formalized faculty training programs. |
| As Others See Us: What International Students Say about U.S. Campus Culture In the recently published book My Freshman Year: What a Professor Learned by Becoming a Student, Northern Arizona University anthropologist Cathy Small observes U.S. undergraduate culture as a student rather than as a faculty member. Small, a professor in her 50s, entered her university as an undeclared freshman student and lived among other students in an on-campus residence hall. n addition to immersing herself in the undergraduate environment, Small conducted formal interviews with international students from Somalia, England, Japan, Germany, China, Mexico, Spain, the United Arab Emirates, India, Malaysia, France, and Korea. Through these interviews and through many informal conversations with international students, Small learned that it’s not always easy for an international student to understand U.S. socializing patterns and form friendships with American students. |
| Mid-Career Tips for Study Abroad Professionals Many international education professionals are finding themselves at mid-career without a map. Being a relatively new field, study abroad is still creating its place in the university, still working its way into the curriculum—and is still largely without career signposts for its practitioners. For a new generation of professionals in the field, it can seem that you have to make up your career as you go along. |
| Martha Johnson’s Unofficial Guide to Career Development What are your long-term career goals? As in any development process, start by defining your goals. What are they related to? • Position change/advancement • Office/institutional advancement • Office/organization growth and development • Specific duties/shift in responsibilities • Development of expertise • Involvement for personal fulfillment • Work/life balance... (Take mid-career development seriously with these insightful suggestions.) |
| From the Editor I’m a reasonably intelligent person. The chances are good that if you start from the beginning and take it slow, I will be able to follow an explanation of most things. But I have to admit that I have never gotten a checkbook to balance in my life. Even in this department, though, when the familial role has demanded it, I’ve usually been able to summon my wits and get some elementary hold on the problem. I thought that, with some help, this level of ability would be enough to see me through life. That was before my son decided to go on a study abroad program. |
| Quick Quotes Mark Scheid, director of international programs, Rice University What about your job keeps you up at night? As the field grows and prospers and gets higher and higher on the country's radar, I have a concern that, unless the field is able to set itself standards, the government will step in to "help us out." … |
