The Local as the Global: Study Abroad Through Place-Based Education in Costa Rica

Place as Pedagogy: Toward Study Abroad for Social Change

“…An emergent body of research in study abroad has shifted its focus from understanding student learning outcomes to analyzing dominant discourses and problematic trends in study abroad that (re)produce hierarchies of power and colonialism, perpetuate views of an exotic cultural “other,” and turn “global citizenship” into a commodity (e.g., Barbour, 2012; Doerr, 2012, 2013, 2016a, 2016b; Zemach-Bersin, 2009). Some of the dominant discourses in study abroad that have been deemed troublesome include a myopic focus on the global (Jakubiak & Mellom, 2015), the glorification of immersion (Doerr, 2012, 2013, 2016b), valorizing adventure (Doerr, 2012), and favoring personal growth over cultural interaction (Barbour, 2012). Some problematic trends in the United States include universities outsourcing study abroad to third-party vendors and private businesses (Barbour, 2012), privileging tourism over education (Michelson & Valencia, 2016) and the use of colonialist language (Barbour, 2012; Jakubiak & Mellom, 2015; Zemach-Bersin, 2009) in study abroad marketing, and “‘global citizenship’ used as a mantra that effaces the very issues of inequality, race, class, and other categories of difference it pretends to address” (Barbour, 2012, p. 73).…”

“…Some of the dominant discourses in study abroad that have been deemed troublesome include a myopic focus on the global (Jakubiak & Mellom, 2015), the glorification of immersion (Doerr, 2012, 2013, 2016b), valorizing adventure (Doerr, 2012), and favoring personal growth over cultural interaction (Barbour, 2012). Some problematic trends in the United States include universities outsourcing study abroad to third-party vendors and private businesses (Barbour, 2012), privileging tourism over education (Michelson & Valencia, 2016) and the use of colonialist language (Barbour, 2012; Jakubiak & Mellom, 2015; Zemach-Bersin, 2009) in study abroad marketing, and “‘global citizenship’ used as a mantra that effaces the very issues of inequality, race, class, and other categories of difference it pretends to address” (Barbour, 2012, p. 73).…”

“…What it means to “study abroad” is further troubled by tensions between the local and global, or what Jakubiak and Mellom (2015) have called a “myopic focus on the global” (p. 101). Much of these tensions are rooted in the multiple ways in which “global” is (or is not) operationalized.…”

“…Place is a productive framework through which to respond to Jakubiak and Mellom’s (2015) call for “a paradigm shift in higher education’s myopic focus on the global—particularly in study abroad programs,” for it is through “intense engagement with the specificities and dynamics of local places that students can come to realize the specificity and interconnectedness of all places ” (p. 101). My conceptualization of place, which may be described as a relational materialist approach, conceptualizes place as landscapes full of sociocultural and historical meanings to be engaged with, not as empty spaces to be colonized.…”

“…Building upon the first epistemological commitment of decentering the Western perspective, which involves an interrogation—not necessarily a rejection—of Western conceptions of the world, a pivot toward engaging with the local host country context can be used as a tool to begin the building of a global perspective. Considering tensions between the local and global are at least partly rooted in the way “global” is (or is not) operationalized (Jakubiak & Mellom, 2015), it is important for educators to reflect upon how they will define this construct and commit to it within their programs. Within this epistemological commitment, a global perspective is one that aligns with a recognition that an appreciation of the dynamism and uniqueness of local places is a pathway through which students can come to recognize the interconnectedness of all places—local and global (Jakubiak & Mellom, 2015).…”