Encountering Emotions During International Fieldwork: Using Innovative Pedagogies to Develop Emotional Intelligence and Resilience

Abstract

International fieldwork in Geography offers significant opportunities for experiential learning; however, there are physical and socio-psychological challenges as well. Students are confronted with unfamiliar environments, mild culture shock, challenging physical and climatic conditions, the stresses of group work and intensity of field presentations, or fatigue during field trips, and their influence on the affective domain. This results in differing individual behaviours and performances of students. This chapter examines how students' emotional intelligence can be utilized through innovative pedagogies to make sense of the encounters experienced by students (and staff) during international fieldwork. Using a case-study of undergraduate fieldwork in Barcelona, Spain, we examine how the use of student-led peer teaching and learning, facilitated by tutors, and supported by self-reflectivity exercises, can be harnessed to facilitate students' geographical learning. This approach also helps students' resilience to cope with the challenges as well as the opportunities. The use of reflective field diaries is a powerful tool not only for enabling students to observe and record the geography that they encounter but also to reflect on the meanings and positionality before, during and after being immersed in that place. Our studies show how the effective integration of peer learning with self-reflectivity enhances students' emotional intelligence and resilience, a deeper understanding of the geographies of a place, with the potential to achieve transformative learning.