Embargo Period

5-9-2019

Degree Name

MA in International Education

First Advisor

Karla Giuliano Sarr

Second Advisor

Linda Drake Gobbo

Abstract

The short-term, faculty-led study abroad program is the primary study abroad experience for students attending LaGrange College in LaGrange, Georgia. Over time, the program became less focused on its mission of providing an exploratory experience of culture, global issues and academic rigor and became more of a one to three week “trip”. The purpose of this study is to design a course that demonstrates a way to combine the academic content with intercultural learning showing how a short-term faculty-led course can have a greater impact on the student and their personal and professional goals. This course, entitled L’Art de Vivre: Engaging in French Culture, Language and Arts, is modeled after an exhibition that occurred at Cooper-Hewitt National Museum of Design and focuses on the topics of the French language and decorative arts. The decorative arts are traditionally studied as an art history topic, but students can also engagement with these objects through hands on research and learning directly from the artisans and companies that created and produced these objects for centuries. This experience is accomplished by placing students in an internship with the Comité Colbert, an organization whose members are French companies that create the quintessential French l’art de vivre through their luxury products and services. Through this partnership, students are immersed in the French language and culture exposing them to cross cultural perspectives and historical trends and styles that influenced French art, society and culture. This study follows the course development from determining the learning theories and curriculum design concepts to the logistical support required to organize the learning experiences to the final evaluation.

Disciplines

International and Comparative Education

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