Left out of the global loop

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Left out of the global loop
States of denial and African American
undergraduate students participation in U.S.
college study abroad programs.
Jennifer Simon and Dr. Denise Donnelly,Georgia
State University, Atlanta GA, USA
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Topics of Discussion

• Study Abroad in the U.S. Historical Overview
• Minorities and the state of Study Abroad today
• The African American situation
• Why Study Abroad matters
• What accounts for African American exclusion?
• Theoretical overview
• Program proposal (GSU case study)
• Overcoming barriers to exclusion
  

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Study Abroad in the U.S. Historical Overview

• Studying abroad is the act of a student pursuing
  educational opportunities in a foreign country
• Began in 1600s in New England colonies
• Catered to wealthy, white upper class students
• Junior year model began -1920s
• Federal government funding of study abroad- 1950s
• Public universities began to embrace study abroad
  in the 1980s -1990s
• Led to a rapid increase in enrollment
• Minority involvement increased for the first
  time

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Minorities and the state of Study Abroad today

• Minority involvement still low nationally (out of
  191,321 students who studied abroad in the 2003/4
  period, only 16.3 of minority students
  participated) Open Doors 2005 report
• - At Georgia State University (GSU), a large
  public research, educational institution, located
  in Atlanta Georgia, out of 410 students who study
  abroad, less than a third (137) are minorities,
  even though minorities comprise 45.9 of the
  population of the 27,267 students in 2004
• Nationally, African American participation is
  among the lowest compared to all racial groups in
  the U.S. (they only comprise 3.4 of students who
  studied abroad in 2003/4)

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Why Study Abroad matters

• How do Students benefit?
• Multitude of benefits have been documented
• Career (Opper, Teichler and Carlson, 1990)
• Interpersonal (Hembroff and Rusz, 1993)
• Educational (Carlson, Burn, Useem,
  Yachimowicz,1990)
• Minorities will lack the skills to play vital
  role in political and economic future of the
  nation.

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How do host communities benefit?

• Little research conducted on impact of
  international students on host communities
• Lessens stereotypes
• Widens the perspective of locals
• Locals gain international awareness (especially
  if international students participate in
  community service programs) (Ward, 2001)

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How do universities benefit?

• Contributes to vital research and innovative
  collaborative activities
• Increases international networks and partnerships
• Promotes Intercultural interaction among student
  population
• Widens intellectual perspective (Ward, 2001)
• Enhances the reputation and international profile
• Financial benefits

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What accounts for African American exclusion in
study abroad?

• Personal barriers
• - Low Socioeconomic status (SES)
• - Lack of finances
• - First to go to college
• - Lack of interest
• Criticism of personal barriers
• - Posey (2003), majority of study abroad
  participants in his study were white, occupied
  the lowest SES category, and used their financial
  aid to study abroad
• - Carroll (1996), black students expressed
  high levels of interest to study abroad but were
  the most likely group to say that they perceived
  barriers, such as lack of information and support
  from the institution

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What accounts for African American exclusion?
(Contd)

• Institutional barriers
• - Exclusion from formal and informal networks
  of information
• - Narrowness of study abroad program
  organization
• - Lack of Administrative and faculty support
• - Inadequate marketing and recruiting

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Theoretical Overview

• Existence of a State of Denial
• - African American students offered similar
  opportunities as whites
• - Based on the equal educational opportunity
  policy of public schools
• What fuels this denial?
• White privilege the unearned benefits that
  flow to whites in the American racial order-as
  well as the lack of awareness of this privilege
  by whites (McIntosh 1989 Wildman 1996
  Rothenberg, 2000)
• - How this privilege works - Certain criteria
  considered to be normal to study abroad
  administration and faculty unintentionally
  disadvantage African Americans and other races
• Free time
• Sufficient financial support
• Exposure to networks of information
• Membership in certain organizations

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Theoretical Overview (contd)

• Color blindness assumes that society is
  organized along race neutral structures", and
  silences discussions of persistent racial
  inequality and asserts that race no longer
  matters (Bonilla-Silva 2001, 1997 Bonilla-Silva
  and Forman 2000)
• Examples of this in study abroad
• - Administrators assume not pursuing study
  abroad is believed to be a function of students
  limitations and not inadequacies in the
  institution
• - Black Students see a lack of minority
  personnel and support and limited access to
  information
• - Black Students see culturally insensitive
  advisors and faculty who do not accommodate
  issues such as racial concerns
• - Faculty see Eurocentric focus of the
  curricula as normal
• - Black students see their culture and
  heritage as being not as important as European
  Americans
• Ideology goes against the goal of the public
  school system to enable every student to have an
  equal opportunity to achieve their full
  educational potential

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Program proposal(Georgia State University Case
Study)

• Goal of Office of International Affairs Increase
  study abroad participants from 410 to 700 in
  coming years.
• Our goal Increase African American
  participation, promote internationalization as a
  consist part of curricula
• Plan Provide sociology study abroad program
  linked to a Freshman learning community (FLC)
  with rotating destinations in non-traditional
  geographical locations.
• - Northern Ireland, Ireland and a Caribbean
  location
• The Northern Ireland component would be linked to
  a course called Race, Religion and Conflict
  provides an understanding of pertinent global
  issues
• The trip would be for two weeks in the May
  semester
• Rationale for locations Northern Ireland
  Faculty expertise, history of Northern Ireland
  Catholics similar to U.S. blacks situation, civil
  rights movement, social inequality

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Program proposal(Georgia State University Case
Study) Contd

• Caribbean Cheaper, closer to the U.S., melting
  pot of races, can link a multitude of topics with
  various specialties and disciplines such as race
  and ethnic relations, social inequality (such as
  looking at how tourism industry impacts locals
  and tourists), history, sociology among others
• Rationale for FLC Interdisciplinary approaches
  being utilized, smaller classes, curricula
  integration
• Rationale for length of trip Costs less and
  caters to a variety of non-traditional students
  (Vondrova, 2003)

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Recruitment strategies for African American
students

• Spend the time to identify and find workable
  financial aid options and get the information out
• Use returned African American students as peer
  counselors
• Use professional role models as examples
• Have an easily accessible network of returned
  students
• Network with long term or African American
  permanent residents abroad and minority student
  organizations in the host countries campus
• Have African American recruitment staff and
  diversity officers at their disposal

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Recruitment strategies for African American
students (contd)

• Market to both parents and students when they are
  just entering university
• Bring up issues of privilege and race during
  orientation sessions
• Have more targeted recruitment for African
  Americans
• Have more collaborations between faculty and
  study abroad office in recruitment effort
• Be more aware of and sensitive to culture
  specific inquires and concerns

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Overcoming barriers to exclusion

• Acknowledge that there is problem
• Facilitate awareness of the applicability of
  study abroad
• Manage cost of programs
• Have culturally sensitive and supportive faculty
  and advisors
• Strengthen international initiatives in
  departments
• Make information about study abroad more
  available in a wider range of forums
• Incorporate dialogue that acknowledge race,
  power, and privilege in host countries as part of
  formal curricula
• Widen the range of choices in program length,
  country
• Design a more culturally inclusive curricula that
  is connected to studying abroad