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University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Study abroad as a critical global pedagogy: An analysis of a critical orientation towards the study abroad experience

Abstract

dc:description

This dissertation argues that study abroad presents an enormous opportunity for the vigorous interrogation of received traditions on a global scale, that not only augments skills and equips students with knowledge, but also enriches attitudes and strategies to understand and manage themselves and their global relationships. This argument is presented through a three-part scaling down approach that: 1) charts a course from the broad contours of globalization and education towards the role and purposes of study abroad as a practice, 2) analyzes aspects of global learning in conjunction with critical pedagogical approaches to learning, and 3) presents both theoretical and practical insights based on particular stories and details presented in the case study of an exploratory course titled, Global Learning: Study Abroad Exploration. This was a course designed as program of guided reflection meant to enrich student articulations of global learning afforded by the experience of studying abroad. This study’s case analysis demonstrates how students produced thickly descriptive narratives. Moreover, course descriptions and narrative details demonstrate how participants made detailed, critical, and concrete connections between specific international experiences and their discernments of an expanded worldview. In other words, this study demonstrates how a program of guided reflections for study abroad, that approaches student-centered learning as a critical global pedagogy, brings into greater focus the fundamental rationale of self-awareness and discovery; as people thinking and learning in situations that find themselves rooted in temporal-spatial conditions which mark them and which they also mark. This is a study that can provide practical insights that support institutional or programmatic approaches for study abroad as an educational practice, among others, in support of transformative and integrative global learning.

Degree

thesis:*
Name thesis:degree_name
Ph.D.
Level thesis:degree_level
Dissertation
Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
Educ Policy, Orgzn & Leadrshp
Grantor
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Year dc:date
2021

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • White, Kelly Christopher
Contributors dc:contributor
  • McCarthy, Cameron R
  • Mayo, Cris
  • Witt, Mary A
  • Dhillon, Pradeep

Subjects

dc:subject × 9

Rights

dc:rights
Statement dc:rights
  • Copyright 2020 Kelly White
Language dc:language
en

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Handle dc:identifier
http://hdl.handle.net/2142/109400
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/109400

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign
Base URL
www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh
Last updated
2026-07-22
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

White, Kelly Christopher. Study abroad as a critical global pedagogy: An analysis of a critical orientation towards the study abroad experience. Dissertation thesis, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2021. http://hdl.handle.net/2142/109400