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Written for study abroad practitioners, this book introduces theoretical understandings of key study abroad terms including "the global/national," "culture," "native speaker," "immersion," and "host society." Building theories on these notions with perspectives from cultural anthropology, political science, educational studies, linguistics, and narrative studies, it suggests ways to incorporate them in study abroad practices. Through attention to daily activities via the concept of immersion, it reframes study abroad not as an encounter with cultural others but as an occasion to analyze constructions of "differences" in daily life, backgrounded by structural arrangements.
List of contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction Sample Questions
Chapter 1. The Global and the National: Does the Global Need the National, and If It Does, What's Wrong with That?
Recommended Readings
Sample Questions
Chapter 2. Culture: Is It a Homogeneous, Static Unit of Difference?
Recommended Readings
Sample Questions
Activity: Study Abroad Checklist
Chapter 3. "Native Speakers": Do They Really Exist, and Should Students Aim to Speak Like Them?
Recommended Readings
Sample Questions
Chapter 4. Immersion: Is It Really about "Living Like a Local"?
Recommended Readings
Activity: Daorba Yduts
Sample Questions
Chapter 5. Host Society and Host Family: Who Are They, and Who Shapes Their Lives?
Recommended Readings
Sample Questions
Chapter 6. Border Crossing: Do We Instead
Construct Borders through Learning and Volunteering?
Recommended Readings
Sample Questions
Chapter 7. Self-Transformation: Do Assessing and Talking about Self-Transformation Involve Power Politics?
Recommended Readings
Sample Questions
Conclusion and Departure: New Frameworks for Study Abroad
References
Index
About the author
Neriko Musha Doerr is an Assistant Professor at Ramapo College. Her publications include The Meaningful Inconsistencies: Bicultural Nationhood, Free Market, and Schooling in Aotearoa/New Zealand (Berghahn, 2009), The Romance of Crossing Borders: Studying and Volunteering Abroad (Berghahn, 2017, with Hannah Taïeb).
Summary
Written for study abroad practitioners, this book introduces theoretical understandings of key study abroad terms including “the global/national,” “culture,” “native speaker,” “immersion,” and “host society.” Building theories on these notions with perspectives from cultural anthropology, political science, educational studies, linguistics, and narrative studies, it suggests ways to incorporate them in study abroad practices. Through attention to daily activities via the concept of immersion, it reframes study abroad not as an encounter with cultural others but as an occasion to analyze constructions of “differences” in daily life, backgrounded by structural arrangements.
