Teacher Educators confront a professional future in which online instruction will play an increased role in student learning. As instructional activities are delivered online, a critical challenge for teacher educators will be to continue supporting those ideals key to the missions of many Schools and Colleges of Education—the creation of an instructional environment that is culturally responsive, committed to equity and inclusion, and able to support a diverse and “well” student body.
Within U.S. higher education, there has been concern expressed about the underrepresentation of racial/ethnic minority students in U.S. study abroad programs. Though as a whole these students participate in study abroad at lower rates than their Caucasian counterparts, the fact that study abroad participation is even problematized by race/ethnicity (rather than other social categories such as gender, socioeconomic status or field of study) and the manner by which this is done warrant critical investigation. Drawing upon Foucault's concept of problematization (1984, 1988), this paper examines the discourses and practices (both discursive and nondiscursive) that mark current study abroad literature in which participation by U.S. undergraduates is tracked, categorized and ranked by race and ethnicity. It further problematizes the taken-for-granted assumptions that masquerade as truths and inhabit the methodological and analytical practices that govern research on racial and ethnic minority students, and in the process, uncovers an overarching code of thought that permeates the literature. Ultimately, this paper seeks to challenge the “truths” and counter the assumptions upon which this code of thought is based by highlighting those voices only marginally recognized in study abroad participation literature. These voices provide a local and contextualized perspective on the factors contributing to the lower rates of participation among one racial/ethnic minority category: African Americans. Although the paper does not take up the topic of language learning in study abroad contexts, it does present the real world challenge of language-in-use. It addresses the material and subject effects that a problematization of study abroad participation by race/ethnicity has on students, research practices, institutional and governmental policies, and the allocation of resources related to language study and the promotion and support of study abroad.
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