Publication Date

2024

Degree Name

EdD in Global Education

Primary Advisor

Sora Friedman

Second Advisor

Melissa Whatley

Third Reader

Deepa Srikantaiah

Abstract

This dissertation theoretically derives and qualitatively explores a novel framework called whole human pedagogy for education abroad. Drawing on Thompson (2017) and hooks (1994), as well as decolonial theory and critical pedagogy, this dissertation sets forth whole human pedagogy with four tenets—embodiment, emotions, belonging, and becoming—which collectively provide a framework for designing and analyzing education abroad programs. This qualitative study collected data from seventeen practitioners who work with undergraduate, U.S.-based, outbound education abroad programs via semi-structured interviews about their perspectives on theory and practice regarding whole human pedagogy. Findings offer preliminary confirmation of whole human pedagogy’s applicability to education abroad programming. Data gathered from participants informs several subthemes for each tenet—including embodied sensory engagement, emotional reflection, relational reciprocity, and personal transformation—as well as recommendations for application in program design, program leadership training, and institutional administration. Whole human pedagogy contributes to the field by proposing specific targets for improving the quality of learning interventions for education abroad while decentering Euro-US epistemological supremacy, which contributes to the decolonization of U.S.-based education abroad pedagogy.

Disciplines

Higher Education | Holistic Education | International and Comparative Education | Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

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