Degree Name

MA in International Education

First Advisor

Carrie Wojenski

Abstract

Seventy-eight percent of students who study abroad in college are White. The second largest racial/ethinc group to study abroad in college is Asian students and only eight percent of Asian college students go abroad. If the statistics look like this at the tertiary level, what could they possibly look like at the secondary level? Unfortunately, the overarching problem with secondary level international education travel (a broad term used to include short-term, semester- and year-long programs abroad) is that, unlike tertiary level study abroad, there is no standard reporting process. Therefore, it is largely unknown how many high school students are going abroad and the demographics of those students who actually do go abroad. Additionally, most high school students who travel abroad do so through third-party providers. Third-party providers are independent organizations that are not affiliated with any school and offer a variety of study abroad programs. Often these programs are costly and the providers cannot always offer financial aid. This has the effect of significantly narrowing the pool of potential applicants.

To explore this aspect of international education travel that has been largely ignored, this research study asks the questions “Who is going abroad at the secondary level?” and “Do third-party providers’ recruitment processes have an effect on the level of diversity among secondary level international education travel participants?” Using OneWorld Now! (OWN), a Seattle-based third-party provider, as a case study, the author examines OWN’s participant demographics, as well as its recruitment goals, activities and results to determine if and how it is achieving diversity among its participants. Both an organizational recruitment process framework and a data processing model are used not only to make these determinations, but also to demonstrate how other third-party providers’ demographics and recruitment processes can be analyzed similarly.

Disciplines

Disability and Equity in Education | International and Comparative Education | Other Education

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