The Reverberations of a Graduate Study Abroad Course in India

Abstract

Faculty in a transdisciplinary graduate program in holistic health studies, which is grounded in transformational learning led a study abroad course in India. The focus of the course is on perspectives of health and healing in India, including an understanding of Yoga, meditation, Ayurvedic medicine, and Tibetan medicine. The purpose of this phenomenological research is to describe the experiences of 13 holistic health studies graduate students who participated in this graduate study abroad course. Qualitative data were collected from students at the time of application to the course, 1 month after returning from India, and 1 year later. In addition, student applications, posttrip reflection papers, photographs, notes taken by faculty at a 1-year reunion, and results of an electronic survey were used as data. Results suggest that students experienced ''mind, body and spirit'' transformations with reverberations on personal, community, and global levels.

Theories, models, and best practices for decolonizing global health through experiential learning

“…Nevertheless, despite ambiguity and complexity, targeted activities within the global health arena can exemplify the overarching aims of the decolonization movement and become forces that influence increasingly larger spheres of global health practice and the larger contexts within which it functions. Global health education in general (Hawks and Judd, 2020;Krugman et al, 2022), and short-term, experiential learning activities in particular, such as study abroad programs (Ohito et al, 2021), are well positioned to actively articulate the many nuances of the global health endeavor, including the complex geopolitical, cultural, and economic contexts within which it operates, to 'boots on the ground' students from a wide variety of backgrounds pursuing a wide variety of disciplines in ways that can deeply transform understandings and future behaviors that contribute to decolonization efforts across many dimensions (Sathe and Geisler, 2017).…”