Immersion: Not Just for Students Anymore

Abstract

Offering community-based global immersion experiences for faculty and staff members provides transformational learning opportunities. This study explored perspectives of faculty and staff participating in university-sponsored immersion programs as professional development and their subsequent influence on both classroom instruction and immersion experiences for students. A qualitative descriptive method was used to capture the experiences of community-based global immersion in faculty learning communities. Perspectives shared through individual interviews illustrated the personal and professional development through engagement in community-based global learning. Faculty and staff reported how dissonance prompted internal transformations to new or modified perspectives. Most significantly, participants identified an increase in compassion for students from diverse backgrounds. Furthermore, through the shared experience, relationships among faculty and staff developed across disciplines, unifying efforts toward strategic goals of providing community-based global immersion for students. These experiences have the potential to foster students’ holistic development, thus furthering the university’s mission of preparing students for future civic engagement.