The Benefits and Limitations of a Short-Term Study Abroad Program to Prepare Teachers in a Multicultural Society

Abstract

This chapter describes a group study abroad program in which 12 U.S. participants (6 pre-service and 6 in-service teachers) traveled to South Korea to enhance their cultural awareness of Korea and to then develop curricula pertaining to Korean history, the arts, area studies, and literature. The authors describe what the program focused on and how the curriculum activities were designed and implemented. Further, an overall theoretical framework for the project and a summary of research findings is presented. Overall, findings note that the participants' level of perceived cultural awareness was not significantly altered through participation in the program. Additionally, this chapter reports whether and how participants' future perceived pedagogical practices were changed as a result of participating in this program. Suggestions for how to diversify the U.S. teacher workforce are also discussed.

Assessing the Efficacy of Extensive Reading during Study Abroad: A Time and Place for ER?

“…One of the weaknesses of this study was the small sample sizes for each group. This is common in examinations of highly customized short-term SA programs (An, Hong & Fuentes, 2017). The small number of participants in the present study created a large degree of overlapping variance between the groups, which can be seen in Figures 1 to 5.…”