Passport to Change

“This book is a much-needed practical guide that covers the nuts and bolts of short-term faculty-led study abroad programs. The focus is on programs that provide an outcomes-based curriculum in one or more academic disciplines and are deliberately designed for a specific cultural context. The framework of all the programs described in the book encompasses experiential learning, specifically the facilitation of such learning prior to, during, and after the study abroad experience.

As much as this book guides faculty through the development, delivery, and marketing for short-term study abroad programs, it is also about the student experience – of encountering oneself in another culture, from another perspective, and seeing oneself and others anew.

Short-term faculty-led study abroad programs are an important high impact practice for college students, and Passport to Change is an indispensable guide for all who believe in long-term student success.”

Hilary Landorf, Associate Professor, International & Intercultural Education; Director, Office of Global Learning Initiatives, Florida International University; and Executive Director - Comparative & International Education Society

“Passport to Change: Designing Academically Sound, Culturally Relevant, Short-Term, Faculty-Led Study Abroad Programs, edited by Susan Lee Pasquarelli, Robert A. Cole, and Michael J. Tyson, is a welcome arrival to the field and a much-needed catalyst for the further development of study abroad programs at institutions of higher education. In an era when the threat of closed borders, extreme nationalism, and a rising fear of culturally complex, globally-minded perspectives looms large for many academics, this well-developed project offers advice and encouragement with significant potential to enhance international programming across the spectrum of academic disciplines. Although billed as a much-needed practical guide, the volume effectively incorporates theory to support such guidance.

The focus of Passport to Change is short-term, faculty-led programming, although as a scholar with 20 years of experience facilitating various international programs, I found many elements of this book to be applicable beyond this intended scope. However, given that more than half of all U.S. students who study abroad do so through short-term programs, this focus is both welcome and warranted. While the contributors acknowledge several challenges inherent to short-term study abroad programs, they do not frame these as deficits.

Passport to Change approaches the field of education abroad as one that is central to the academic mission of higher education. Through the lens of experiential learning and teaching, the book offers timely perspectives on how to ensure academic rigor is at the core of any study abroad program, especially those faculty-led, short-term experiences that historically may not have emphasized learning as much as travel. This is a must-read resource for any team of faculty and personnel considering developing or enhancing such a program."

Teachers College Record

"Passport to Change will become an indispensable handbook for individuals and institutions developing faculty-led study abroad programs.The volume provides outstanding, clear, practical guidance for planning, implementing and assessing an academically sound, culturally relevant program. The volume’s exhaustive array of useful topics is informed not only by the best scholarship in the discipline, but also by the first-hand experience of seasoned faculty directors. With a keen eye to both detail and diversity, the volume also addresses a wide variety of program paradigms and destinations. Written in an accessible voice, the volume will be a welcome resource for experienced and aspiring study abroad directors alike.

Rebecca S. Thomas, Professor of German - Wake Forest University

"Pasquarelli and her colleagues offer a brilliant resource, helpful to anyone from the expert to the novice, from the scholar to the practitioner. The handbook provides a start-to-finish guide that outlines considerations for planning and realizing an experience abroad, yet each chapter is a standalone resource. The authors cover practicalities and intricacies of pre-planning, execution, and post-experience, and provide a solid grounding for building powerful curricular – and co-curricular – experiences abroad."

Michael R. Beazley, Ph.D., Dean of Rome Student Life - John Felice Rome Center

"Passport to Change is a thorough and interesting handbook to the expanding endeavor of short term faculty-led education abroad. This book is grounded in solid theory and best practice; it also provides relevant examples and stories that bring this topic to a useful, personal level. This book is worthwhile to read, whether you are an international education veteran or new to the field. It should also serve as an appropriate guide for university leadership, including presidents and provosts, as well as deans and curriculum committees. Its practical programmatic advice, combined with respect for rigorous academic design and integrity, make it a welcome contribution to our collective body of international education literature. The study abroad field will be better for this timely and well-presented work.

Joshua S. McKeown, Ph.D., Associate Provost for International Education and Programs - State University of New York at Oswego

Foreword by Hilary Landorf

Introduction—Susan Lee Pasquarelli, Robert A. Cole, Michael Tyson
Acknowledgements

Part I: Understanding the Nature of Faculty-Led Study Abroad Programs
1) Surveying the Landscape: The Process of Developing Faculty-Led Programs—Robert A. Cole

Part II: Designing the Curriculum for Study Abroad: Student Preparation, Experience, and Return
2) Defining an Academically Sound, Culturally Relevant Study Abroad Curriculum— Susan Lee Pasquarelli
3) Guiding Reflection on Cultural Experience: Before, During, and After Study Abroad—Victor Savicki, Michele V. Price
4) Designing and Assessing Outcomes-Based Faculty-Led Study Abroad Programs—Darla K. Deardorff
5) Designing the Curriculum for Interdisciplinary
Study Abroad: Sustainability Studies in Turkey— Bilge Gokhan Celik, Dale Leavitt, Michael Scully
6) Designing the Curriculum for Field Study Abroad: Marine Biology in Panama and Belize—Paul Webb, Brian Wysor
7) Designing the Curriculum for Global Service Learning Abroad: Power and Health in El Salvador—Autumn Quezada de Tavarez, Kerri Staroscik Warren
8) Designing the Curriculum for Internship Immersion Abroad: Language and Praxis in Spain—Candelas Gala, Javier Garcia Garrido
9) Designing the Curriculum for Cultural Studies Abroad: Intercultural Learning in China—Min Zhou

Part III: Implementing the Study Abroad Program
10) Marketing Short-Term Programs: No Students, No Program— Michael J.Tyson
11) Laying the Groundwork: Faculty Preparation for Teaching Abroad—Susan Lee Pasquarelli
12) Speaking from Abroad—Roxanne M. O’Connell

Contributor’s Biographies
Index

Susan Lee Pasquarelli

Susan Lee Pasquarelli earned her doctoral degree in Language, Literacy and Cultural Studies from Boston University in 1996 and is a professor of literacy teacher education at Roger Williams University in Bristol, Rhode Island, USA. Integrating multicultural literature across the K-12 curricula is the focus of her research and teaching.

For the past ten years, she led successful short term study abroad programs in Rome and Sicily as well as served on the RWU study abroad advisory board to enhance the proposal process for faculty led programs. Pasquarelli has published and presented research and best practices at regional, national, and international conferences on both the improvement of K-12 literacy instruction and faculty-led short term study abroad programs.

Robert A. Cole

Robert A. Cole is Associate Provost for Academic Affairs at Roger Williams University. He oversees global and international programs on his campus. He has been a conference program reviewer for groups such as NAFSA and the American Association of Colleges and Universities, and has presented at conferences on topics such as the Arab Spring and the role of liberal education in emerging democracies, estranging undergraduate ethnographers through fieldwork abroad, international internships, and situating general education abroad.

Cole was a participant on a U.S. Department of Education Fulbright-Hays grant for an immersion, capacity building, and a curriculum development project related to Egypt and the Middle East North Africa region, and a contributor to a US Department of Education (Title VI) Undergraduate International Studies and Foreign Language Programs grant.

He has also developed short-term faculty-led curriculum for students’ cultural immersion in The Netherlands, Belgium, and Northern Germany region. Cole holds a Ph.D. in Communication.

Michael J. Tyson

Michael J. Tyson is the Assistant Director for Study Abroad in Wake Forest University’s Center for Global Programs and Studies where he has served as the dedicated representative for all summer abroad programming since 2010. His responsibilities include managing up to twenty WFU short-term faculty-led programs annually, assisting faculty in their program development from inception to completion, and administering program details like marketing, the budgetary process, and student registration. He also advises all students interested in summer study abroad.

In addition to his programming and advising responsibilities, he manages the scholarship process for summer programs and acts as an evaluator for the university’s Fulbright Review Committee. He has led student service trips to both Jamaica and Russia and has also spent time teaching English in Mexico.

Mike holds a BA from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and a MEd from the University of South Carolina.