Start Date
9-8-2010 3:30 PM
End Date
9-8-2010 5:00 PM
Description
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.
Learning from Homestay Hosts
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.