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The university is a place where students come to acquire knowledge and skills. It also is a collection of spaces where they can discover and develop their capacities to create and perform on a larger stage than family and neighborhood. Some of this informal learning is accomplished through living in a university community, where courses and curricula correspond to those at comparable institutions but spaces and places for informal learning vary widely. Here I analyze space and place at three universities, and in three study-abroad programs that expand spaces for formal education but vary in their ability to enlarge places for informal learning. How they envision and deliver the indirect education that builds resilience and fosters supportive and useful networks shows how formal and informal education combine to prepare students for future employment and fulfilling lives.
About the author
Mary Ann Tétreault is the Una Chapman Cox Distinguished Professor of International Affairs Emerita at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. Her publications include books and articles about democratization, social movements, gender, international political economy, human rights, and global education.
