Fostering Multicultural Competence and Global Justice: an SIT Symposium Copyright (c) 2013 SIT Graduate Institute/SIT Study Abroad All rights reserved. http://digitalcollections.sit.edu/faculty_symposium Recent documents in Fostering Multicultural Competence and Global Justice: an SIT Symposium en-us Sat, 26 Jan 2013 12:07:59 PST 3600 New Social Movements and the State http://digitalcollections.sit.edu/faculty_symposium/peoplescultures/socialmovementsstate/5 http://digitalcollections.sit.edu/faculty_symposium/peoplescultures/socialmovementsstate/5 Wed, 11 Aug 2010 15:30:00 PDT The presentation introduces the phenomenon of new social movements (NSM) within the context of Moroccan politics, focusing on three cases: women, the amazighs (Berbers), and victims of state abuse. The major questions addressed concern the impact of the integration of the NSM in the political process on the Moroccan monarchy and on the prospects for democratization. While the focus of the analysis is on Morocco, the issues raised have a broader relevance to the Islamic world.

]]> Abdelhay Moudden PhD, Academic Director Frontiers of Internationalizing Higher Education http://digitalcollections.sit.edu/faculty_symposium/keynote/keynote/3 http://digitalcollections.sit.edu/faculty_symposium/keynote/keynote/3 Mon, 09 Aug 2010 08:30:00 PDT The host of this symposium, Adam is the President of World Learning and SIT. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from Bowdoin College and did work at Cambridge University before earning his Master’s and Ph.D. in sociology from Northwestern University.

]]> Adam Weinberg PhD, President Crossing Cultures: From Conversation to Participation http://digitalcollections.sit.edu/faculty_symposium/keynote/keynote/2 http://digitalcollections.sit.edu/faculty_symposium/keynote/keynote/2 Tue, 10 Aug 2010 08:30:00 PDT Mary Catherine Bateson is a writer and cultural anthropologist who has taught at Harvard, Northeastern University, Amherst College, Spelman College and abroad in the Philippines as well as in Iran. In 2004 she retired from her position as Clarence J. Robinson Professor in Anthropology and English at George Mason University, and is now Professor Emerita. Since the Fall of 2006 she has been a Visiting Scholar at the Center on Aging & Work/Workplace Flexibility at Boston College and is a special consultant to the Lifelong Access Libraries Initiative of the Libraries for the Future, with an emphasis on conceptualization, testing and implementation of her Active Wisdom model for community dialogues as a signature program of the Initiative. She serves on multiple advisory boards including that of the National Center on Atmospheric Research and the National Science Foundation, dealing with climate change. Her new book Composing a Further Life is due out on September 15, 2010.

]]> Mary Catherine Bateson PhD The Meaning of the Global Crisis and "Recovery" for Study Abroad: What Are We Preparing Students For? http://digitalcollections.sit.edu/faculty_symposium/keynote/keynote/1 http://digitalcollections.sit.edu/faculty_symposium/keynote/keynote/1 Wed, 11 Aug 2010 08:30:00 PDT There is universal consensus that we are at the end of an historical cycle. But the consensus vanishes when you try to identify the corpse: we cannot accept that it is not just another business cycle, as the pundits still proclaim, but neither can we assume the end of globalization, neoliberalism, capitalism or the modern era, as many critics currently argue. Raised with a promise of infinite prosperity, beyond business cycles, at 'the end of history' after the marriage of capitalism and liberal democracy, our students have suddenly entered an era of decreasing expectations and increasing uncertainty. How to reformulate their hope, any hope? How can they be inspired by what the people are doing, all over the world, when they take again in their hands their own lives and destinies, reclaiming their own definition of the good life?

Founder of the Universidad de la Tierra, Gustavo Esteva is also an SIT Study Abroad lecturer; and director of the International Honors Program called Rethinking Globalization. He has received an Honorary Doctorate in Law from the University of Vermont, the Premio Nacional for Political Economy, and the Premio Nacional de Jornalismo.

]]> Gustavo Esteva PhD, Director The City is the Classroom http://digitalcollections.sit.edu/faculty_symposium/internationaled/wedaugust11/6 http://digitalcollections.sit.edu/faculty_symposium/internationaled/wedaugust11/6 Mon, 09 Aug 2010 15:30:00 PDT For millennia, cities have been an integral part of human life. Today, with more than half the world’s population living in cities, they are at the core of survival on, and of, this planet. Urban centers are not simply the scenery for study abroad; the International Honors Program (IHP) embraces the consequential roles of cities in the world as the thematic heart of our study abroad program, Cities in the 21st Century. In this article, we discuss the content that is available when the city becomes the classroom. It is through a process of sustained observation, engagement, and critical thinking that students are empowered to question their assumptions, to cross social and physical boundaries, and to understand how cities work in practice. The IHP Cities in the 21st Century program explores the heart of how cities work, and thus how students in their personal and professional lives can influence the future of cities. The article describes the program and methods that we use and suggests how the intercultural context and interdisciplinary nature of this experience can be adapted to other models of international education.

]]> Mieka Ritsema PhD, Traveling Faculty, Cities in the 21st Century et al. Meeting the expectations of host communities: An examination of the cause of attitudinal change in host communities of study abroad programs http://digitalcollections.sit.edu/faculty_symposium/internationaled/wedaugust11/5 http://digitalcollections.sit.edu/faculty_symposium/internationaled/wedaugust11/5 Mon, 09 Aug 2010 15:30:00 PDT This research examines attitudinal changes in host communities after hosting students of the School for International Training’s Ghana Arts and Culture program (SIT-GHR). Attitudinal change, according to social psychologists, can be explained from two perspectives namely person-centered and situation-centered. The person-centered approach believes that attitudes change based on the free choice of the individual, while the situation-centered explanation identifies the environment wherein the organism finds itself as the cause of the person’s behavior. This research was based on the assumption that communities were expecting the programs they host to provide certain social amenities as a reward for extending a hand of friendship and an avenue to study.

The research was conducted in October 2009 with participants taken from four Communities that have hosted SIT-GHR programs for at least three semesters. 16 interviews were conducted to determine what might cause attitudes to change in host communities and the role that unmet expectations had on that change. The researcher also draws a lot from over a decade experience working with SIT-GHR.

The research concludes that host communities have an unrealistic expectation of the program they host. They anticipate that hosting will bring with it massive infrastructural development such as hospitals, schools, scholarships, computers and the provision of good drinking water. If this conclusion is valid, then study abroad institutions would have to undertake massive education campaign about program mandate to forestall unrealistic expectations of the programs they undertake. The above notwithstanding, it is also important that Study Abroad Institutions also set aside some fund to reciprocate for the life changing opportunities provided students during such programs.

]]> Philip (Yaw) Adu Gyamfi MA candidate, Bridge Year Program Director in Ghana Learning from Homestay Hosts http://digitalcollections.sit.edu/faculty_symposium/internationaled/wedaugust11/4 http://digitalcollections.sit.edu/faculty_symposium/internationaled/wedaugust11/4 Mon, 09 Aug 2010 15:30:00 PDT Homestay hosts play a pivotal role in many study abroad programs, including all of ours at IHP. We know that homestays are an important part of the learning experience for our students. We hear it anecdotally from alumni and read generally positive reviews of homestays in student evaluations. We talk about homestays as a program element that contributes to learning and fosters intercultural exchange, but we don’t really know what students are learning from their hosts or what kind of exchange is occurring. We have not typically incorporated hosts into the core of the academic program in the way that we do faculty and country coordinators, and we have not solicited their opinions and feedback on our programs. As a result, we have missed out on their valuable perspectives. We also have a very one-sided picture of the host-student relationship. We ask students to evaluate their hosts but never the other way around. We have some sense of how students are impacted by the homestay experience, but not how the hosts are impacted by the experience. We owe it to our host families to involve them more, to find more about their experiences with students, what they get out of it, and what they want from our programs.

The IHP Health and Community program has undertaken a project to interview and survey host families in order to accomplish the following:

1. Learn more about the host family selection and orientation process and find ways to improve pre-program preparation for families and students.

2. Explore the economic, social, philosophical and other impacts of hosting students on individuals and communities.

3. Find ways to foster greater reciprocal exchange of culture and knowledge between students and hosts, and involve hosts in creating stronger programs.

4. Strengthen IHP programs by exploring ways to integrate home stays into the learning objectives of each IHP progam.

The session will feature a presentation of the interview and survey process as well as the findings that resulted from this study. The second part of the session will be an open discussion about giving meaning and purpose to the homestay aspect of programs abroad.

]]> Alison Swartz MPH Candidate, Program Assistant et al. Hands-On or On-Hands: an Approach to Fine Arts Learning in the Senegalese Context http://digitalcollections.sit.edu/faculty_symposium/internationaled/tuesaugust10/13 http://digitalcollections.sit.edu/faculty_symposium/internationaled/tuesaugust10/13 Wed, 11 Aug 2010 13:30:00 PDT Everything in Arts is communal and participatory as the stage in the African context is different. There is always an exchange between performers and the audience. Our students during their hands-on workshop on Batik, Visual arts and music and dance share those wonderful moment s with their families the community of artists working with them. As stated by one British artist John Ruskin “Fine Art is that in which the hand, the head and the heart of man goes together”. Most of our students during these workshops find Fine arts as integrating and a liberating tool to culture learning. During this presentation we will share through slides show and quotes, sharing wonderful moments spent by our students during various workshops in doing things in different learning style where observing listen and doing are key elements of learning skills in Arts. If time allows two alumni of our last program will perform playing a Kora and a Djembe two traditional music instruments from Senegal and the West Africa region.

]]> Souleye Diallo MA, Academic Director New Lines of Inquiry: Arts-based Research for Bridging Cultures http://digitalcollections.sit.edu/faculty_symposium/internationaled/tuesaugust10/14 http://digitalcollections.sit.edu/faculty_symposium/internationaled/tuesaugust10/14 Mon, 09 Aug 2010 13:30:00 PDT This paper explores the implications for arts-based research (ABR) methods in fostering cross-cultural dialogue in international study. It reviews the academic arguments for and against the use of arts-based methodologies in qualitative research where more traditional, methodologies in the social sciences are combined with creative inquiry – narrative, poetic, dance, and visual forms of inquiry, for example – as well as the technical challenges and benefits associated with drawing on the humanities and arts as primary modes of inquiry; it explores the relevance and potential for ABR within the broader context of the study and use of the arts and humanities in cross-cultural contexts.

While ABR methodologies have yet to attain wide-spread currency within the framework of conventional social science research, the author proposes that the unique characteristics of arts-based methodologies -- articulated in a number of recent publications on the topic -- are particularly relevant for researchers in cross-cultural contexts and represent an important avenue of development for international education. She proposes that the language of creative expression drawn from the arts and humanities and the technical aspects of methodologies employing creative inquiry facilitate both cognitive and cross-cultural competencies for students that have critical implications for study abroad. Examples of student independent study projects and their reflections on methodology, process, and output are presented for discussion.

]]> Sarah Brock MA, Academic Director Ethnomusicology, Study Abroad and the Urban Perspective: The Case of Ghana http://digitalcollections.sit.edu/faculty_symposium/internationaled/tuesaugust10/12 http://digitalcollections.sit.edu/faculty_symposium/internationaled/tuesaugust10/12 Mon, 09 Aug 2010 13:30:00 PDT Through the lens of SIT Study Abroad’s Ghana: Urban Ethnomusicology program, this paper discusses two important aspects of urban-centered study abroad programs, thematically and spatially, in Africa. First, the city functions as an important location in African music studies for young undergraduates as it challenges preconceptions and theoretical orientations that young American students often carry with them to the continent. Music and the performing arts provide important data to students about the social, cultural, political, economic and other processes that shape and are shaped by urbanization and the city. Second, the SITSA model provides students with not only the intellectual engagement with African and urban music studies, but its experiential model, the core of SITSA pedagogical approach, facilitates a visceral, embodied and experience-based learning environment as well.

]]> Gavin Webb PhD candidate, Academic Director Paradigm Educational Materialist for the Pedagogy of the 21st Century http://digitalcollections.sit.edu/faculty_symposium/internationaled/tuesaugust10/11 http://digitalcollections.sit.edu/faculty_symposium/internationaled/tuesaugust10/11 Mon, 09 Aug 2010 13:30:00 PDT Since the second half of the twentieth century, postmodern theories of discourse and language ideology has seized the collective imagination of society and education, mainly through the curriculum, pedagogical models, constructivism and the massmedia. In Higher Education, these are accentuated after the eighties, which contributed to sacrifice the materialistic ideas and the postmodern position within a framework of irrefutable ideological bias. The market economy of neoliberal ideology spreads a unique style of absolute truth, education paradigms of language and discourse that dislocates and deconstructs reality, articulated with the massmedia, encourages alienation. Neoliberalism destroys the environment and deepends social inequalities. These facts, analyzed from the dialectical and historical materialism, has positioned the latter, as a valid research method of gaining knowledge and discovering reality, the world, life and nature, interpreting the exact sciences and humanities, and analyzing the rapid structural changes in economy, politics, society and education.

]]> Roberto Enrique Villaseca Muñoz PhD Candidate, Academic Director Toward an Action-Oriented Approach to Global Citizenship: Tools for the Young Global Citizen http://digitalcollections.sit.edu/faculty_symposium/internationaled/pedagogiesintled/4 http://digitalcollections.sit.edu/faculty_symposium/internationaled/pedagogiesintled/4 Tue, 10 Aug 2010 10:30:00 PDT We have reached a point in the evolution of global citizenship where the call to action is no longer critical, it is imperative. Sustainable change is the cornerstone of the effort to bring communities together to prioritize needs and implement intelligent growth. Development must be transformative, not palliative. Those who engage in education abroad have the unique and promising opportunity to address global issues and become active participants in the development process. Younger citizens often choose to pursue opportunities both small and large that contribute to safeguarding dignity while advancing growth. Students are often better positioned and more effective than policy makers in furthering activism and advocacy due to their passion, energy and open mindedness supported by the environments in which they work—namely, their universities. The growth and learning that occurs beyond the traditional classroom walls through experiential models can have an enduring impact on a young person’s future direction and life goals. Implicit in the nuanced experiences students face abroad is a dissolution of the ‘us’ and ‘them,’ an amelioration of divisive borders and a sense of acceptance that one is part of a global community. Often what follows is the realization that the student has a responsibility in shaping the future. To this end, therefore, many study abroad destinations offer students an opportunity to learn from ancient practices passed down through generations. This opening into relational rather than intellectual engagement leads to tenable solutions for social change. The visceral experience of cultural immersion promotes Bennett’s transition from ethnocentric to ethnorelative and, in doing so, creates seasoned and prepared global citizens ready to take action and contribute to a better future. Finite, tangible tools for young global citizens – from re-entry advocacy campaigns to armchair activism – will be discussed, and possible adaptations for diverse learning environments will be explored.

]]> Siena Fleischer MA, Manager of Administration – Latin America and Europe et al. How to Succeed in Study Abroad: Approaches to Language, Cultural Orientation, and Academic Performance http://digitalcollections.sit.edu/faculty_symposium/internationaled/pedagogiesintled/3 http://digitalcollections.sit.edu/faculty_symposium/internationaled/pedagogiesintled/3 Tue, 10 Aug 2010 10:30:00 PDT In higher education today, it has become increasingly commonplace to spend a semester or year abroad. However, the manner in which colleges and universities prepare their students varies greatly. Some provide pre-departure language and orientation; others do this in-country. And for logistical reasons, providers who recruit from various colleges often conduct language and orientation on arrival in the host country. Regardless of when and where institutions prepare students for the experience, they generally share common elements. These important commonalities will be explored as well as related questions like: What enhances student success during the sojourn and how is success measured? In addition to exploring common elements and sharing experiences, this session is designed to identify the variety of approaches used to language, cultural orientation, and enhancing academic performance. The session will be highly interactive and participatory. Participants will share experiences and exchange ideas in small groups and then report and synthesis their findings in the larger group. Topics of discussion will include, but not be limited to: 1) language study, 2) cultural orientation, 3) academic orientation, 4) family stay, 5) special in-country activities, and 6) re-entry efforts.

]]> Beatriz Fantini MAT, Director, Center for Intercultural Programs Environmental Sustainability: Challenges and Opportunities of Greening your Study Abroad Program http://digitalcollections.sit.edu/faculty_symposium/internationaled/pedagogiesintled/1 http://digitalcollections.sit.edu/faculty_symposium/internationaled/pedagogiesintled/1 Tue, 10 Aug 2010 10:30:00 PDT World Learning’s mission to “… create a more peaceful and just world” by necessity encompasses environmental dynamics, considering that the root causes of most social justice issues and violent conflicts can be traced to environmental degradation and disproportional access to shrinking natural resources. Thus our mission mandates that we employ an ethic of environmental stewardship in all our pursuits and put in place mechanisms to mitigate our environmental impacts.

“We shall never achieve harmony with land, any more than we shall achieve absolute justice or liberty for people. In these higher aspirations, the important thing is not to achieve but to strive.” Aldo Leopold

The value of environmental sustainability is widely recognized in higher education circles. Indeed, the majority of U.S. colleges have embraced campus sustainability initiatives by providing staff and resources, and over half of all schools have made a formal carbon reduction commitment. Extending these on-campus policies and practices to off-campus programs is a recent phenomenon that is not yet wide spread. Incorporating a practical sustainability agenda in study abroad is seen as difficult primarily because of the huge carbon footprint produced by air travel. Nonetheless, environmental sustainability policies and initiatives encompass more than just carbon emissions. In study abroad programs, environmental sustainability needs to address three areas:

• Program Design & Management: Environmental Impact Mitigation

• Curriculum: Environmental Literacy and Advocacy

• Communities, Stakeholders & Ecosystems : Environmental Stewardship

This session will highlight the key challenges and opportunities of running an environmentally sustainable program, with a focus on the practical over the theoretical, using examples from the Ecuador Comparative Ecology and Conservation program.

]]> Sylvia M. Seger MIM, Academic Director Service Learning as a Reciprocity Project: Providing Cultural Experience to Study Abroad Students with Low Language Proficiency http://digitalcollections.sit.edu/faculty_symposium/internationaled/partnershipintled/4 http://digitalcollections.sit.edu/faculty_symposium/internationaled/partnershipintled/4 Tue, 10 Aug 2010 15:30:00 PDT The task of providing meaningful field experiences in the host culture to students with low language proficiency is a challenging one. In the frame of a semester abroad program, education managers face two main obstacles: the short length of the programs to make service learning meaningful for the student as well as for the community, and the language barrier which limits students’ ability to interact with host nationals and/or carry out adequately many required tasks in any working situation. Nevertheless, these students are most needed of opportunities to practice the language and explore the culture in order to meet the objectives of any language immersion program abroad.

Building a community service learning component into the language class is an attempt to meet students’ needs by providing, from early on the program: a) the necessary language tools to interact with people in the work context and perform work duties; b) a field based learning structure that sets forth academic objectives, procedures and expected outcomes; and c) a network of organizations willing to accept students with low language proficiency and able to accommodate their knowledge and skills to perform tasks needed for the benefit of the people they serve (reciprocity)

The purpose of this presentation or panel discussion is to offer a framework for a “community service learning course”.. Such component enriches language content and cultural dimension and initiates students in field work in a foreign language. It also actively engages participants on reflection upon the host society’s challenges and needs, while doing a positive contribution to the local community.

The presentation will focus on:

• Examining the concept of “service learning” in the context of a host culture and limited language proficiency of students: Constraints and opportunities for both parties.

• Assessing the educational values of community service learning to develop the socio cultural dimension of language learning , and to facilitate students’ immersion in the host society and learning from the field.

• Elaborating on the necessary tools to improve students’ language and cultural skills to be able to perform adequately in a work context and carry out academic field work.

• Examining challenges and procedures to develop a network of local organizations that could sustain a stable structure of service learning within a given program and to whom the program provides effective contribution.

]]> Cristina Enríquez MA, Academic Director International Education and International Organization Relations: Challenges of Obtaining practicum opportunities http://digitalcollections.sit.edu/faculty_symposium/internationaled/partnershipintled/3 http://digitalcollections.sit.edu/faculty_symposium/internationaled/partnershipintled/3 Tue, 10 Aug 2010 15:30:00 PDT This paper examines the challenges that are being faced by the School for International Training (SIT) program in operating in a country that has experienced a plethora of international organizations in most of its districts. The paper locates the challenges in the wider framework of the operations of international education and draws on the current situation in Uganda’s selected districts to demonstrate how the competition between other international organizations (this includes educational institutions such as Universities and training wings of International Non Governmental Organizations) has narrowed the practicum catchment area for the SIT program. Divided into three sections, the first part provides a brief history of international education in Uganda tracing the operations of SIT and other key renowned institutions. In the second section, the challenges SIT faces are examined and in the last part recommendations are made towards addressing these challenges.

]]> Charlotte Karungi Mafumbo PhD, Academic Director Transnationalism in Study Abroad: Linking Theories and Practice http://digitalcollections.sit.edu/faculty_symposium/internationaled/partnershipintled/2 http://digitalcollections.sit.edu/faculty_symposium/internationaled/partnershipintled/2 Tue, 10 Aug 2010 15:30:00 PDT Transnational, multi-sited, academic excursions are a characteristic and compelling feature of many SIT semester and summer study abroad programs. This presentation seeks to couple the expanding interest in and scholarship on transnationality with the practices of study abroad. Characterizing its breadth and scope, transnationalism has been applied to research on such disparate themes as international migration, subjectification and place making, capitalist reorganizations of the local and global, travel, refugees, and politics extending beyond the purview of the nation-sate. Transnationalism, as such, “has provided a broad, flexible conceptual apparatus that has been adopted across disciplines to examine interconnections between global economic restructuring, the politics and cultures of diasporas, ethnicity and race, class, community, gender, and the nation” (Olsen and Silvey 2006:805). Despite this breadth, transnationalism and study abroad remain, for the most part, distinct areas of focus. What, if anything, might transnational theories offer both the conceptualization and implementation of multinational/multi-sited study abroad? How might we integrate potential theoretical insights from transnational scholarship with actually existing practices of transnational study abroad? How, in turn, might our programs contribute to ongoing and expanding interrogations of transnationalism? This presentation/discussion explores these and other questions with the goal of both enhancing the educational excursions SIT currently offers, while considering the ways in which we are actively practicing transnationalism.

]]> Tina Mangieri PhD, Associate Academic Dean for Africa Service Placements and Reciprocity on the Bridge Year Program in Serbia http://digitalcollections.sit.edu/faculty_symposium/internationaled/partnershipintled/1 http://digitalcollections.sit.edu/faculty_symposium/internationaled/partnershipintled/1 Tue, 10 Aug 2010 15:30:00 PDT The Bridge Year Program is a 9-month program that enables newly admitted undergraduate students from Princeton University to spend a year of public service in Serbia, with Princeton University support, before they begin their studies. The program in Serbia, implemented by SIT/WL, includes individualized community service placements in youth organizations in Novi Sad (September to December 2009) and Roma organizations in Niš (January to May 2010) as well as group activities including orientation, intensive language training, weekly debriefings, local educational excursions and enrichment programs. Students live with families in the community they are serving, and they receive on-site language training. Academic 2009-2010 was the first year of program implementation.

This presentation will be focused on the BY students’ lessons learned from their service placement experience in Serbia.

Each actor in this program had its own assumptions and expectations how service work would contribute to the local communities. On one hand BY program expected students to help the organizations in which they were placed. It is interesting to explore what is the meaning of help. On the other hand students had their own initial assumptions that they will change the world coming to some rural areas. These were their ideas before they actually came to Serbia when they didn’t know what the country looks like. It was interesting to observe the process of their adjustment and how their assumptions were changing.

The presentation will describe the type of placements and structure of the work, how organizations function in Serbia, whether they are donor driven, how students were becoming real members of their organizations, and how they were growing.

After experience in hosting students for their placements, NGOs in Serbia stressed importance of presence of the U.S. students in Serbia after so many years of isolation of Serbia. One of the Roma leaders in Nis, Mr. Osman Balic pointed out how these students were more influential and valuable than top diplomats in creation and re-creation of the public opinion towards Americans and the US in general, in breaking stereotypes. All organizations, both in Novi Sad and in Nis, agreed that students contributed a lot, even though they are only 18 years old, and lack professional experience or specific expertise. They all agree that these types of programs are important and benefits are multiple for all parties involved. Many organizations and homestay families had no prior experience in hosting International volunteers.

The manual for BY service placement will be presented, which was adapted from community youth work.

]]> Svetlana Kijevcanin MA, Bridge Year Program Director in Serbia Multicultural Competence: Exploring and Monitoring Its Development http://digitalcollections.sit.edu/faculty_symposium/internationaled/multiculturalworkshop/1 http://digitalcollections.sit.edu/faculty_symposium/internationaled/multiculturalworkshop/1 Wed, 11 Aug 2010 10:30:00 PDT Educators engaged in international, intercultural educational programs are responsible for maximizing the benefits of these experiences for participants. This requires a clear focus on the development of multicultural (or intercultural) competencies (MCC) in participants if students are to deal effectively and appropriately across cultures.

This session explores the development and assessment of MCC abilities. It is based on findings from an international research effort that examined a comprehensive construct of MCC, developed a tool for its assessment, and identified intercultural outcomes in participants as well as their hosts engaged in an intercultural exchange.

The session also explores the nature of multicultural competence -- definitions, characteristics, components, developmental levels, and the important role of language proficiency -- and highlights the need for intercultural educators to explicitly address, develop, and monitor MCC abilities in their participants.

]]> Alvino Fantini PhD, Professor Emeritus Love and Sex Abroad: Student Risks, Assumptions, and Expectations http://digitalcollections.sit.edu/faculty_symposium/internationaled/loveandsexabroad/1 http://digitalcollections.sit.edu/faculty_symposium/internationaled/loveandsexabroad/1 Wed, 11 Aug 2010 13:30:00 PDT SIT students, many of whom are young women, study in a number of countries around the world. Although their main focus in going abroad is to further their education through academic learning, our programs are very experiential, and we encourage integration with the culture through homestays, language learning, and interaction with the people. Our students are young, and relationships of a romantic nature are very important to them. Some students have serious boyfriends and girlfriends at home in the USA, and choose to remain faithful to their partners. Frequently however, students become involved in romantic/sexual relationships with host country nationals. This experience can be very positive for both individuals - unfortunately however, it can also place our students at risk, particularly when his or her expectations and assumptions are not those of their newly found sweethearts. These problems can vary from physical safety, including date-rape or coertion, to emotional pain and upset – any of which can directly impact the student's learning experience abroad.

In this session, which draws on the knowledge and experience of the participants as well as the facilitator, we will first examine how young North Americans are perceived in much of the world where SIT has its programs. We will discuss what draws young men and women into intercultural romantic relationships, including some of the potential pros and cons of this experience. We will also look at these situations from the perspective of host country nationals, and their own expectations and assumptions. Finally, we will develop strategies to assist our students in navigating these complex and potentially difficult situations, both in terms of their physical safety and their psychological well being. The conclusions drawn from this session will be applicable to the numerous countries in which we have programs. There will also be time to address any specific issues the participants wish to discuss.

]]> Leonore Cavallero MA, Academic Director