Teacher Voices in secondary international travel programs originating in the United States: Perceived systemic barriers to faculty participation

Every year, teachers around the United States lead high school students on international excursions, with the goal of exposing students to new cultures, learn world languages, and promote global citizenship. Despite emerging research on the educational value these trips offer, teachers face significant challenges in developing and sustaining these travel programs. This study identifies systemic barriers that secondary teachers experience in both public and private schools in the United States. Supported by Hanvey’s theory of global awareness and Kolb’s theory of experiential education, this exploratory qualitative study utilized semi-structured interviews to collect teacher’s experiences in establishing international travel programs as well as data collected from travel provider’s websites and a teacher leader’s personal journal. Interview subjects were recruited from alumni of the Fulbright Teachers for Global Classrooms Fellowship, yielding 13 participants. The results of the interviews indicated that systemic barriers exist in seven distinct categories: 1) Administrative; 2) Personal costs; 3) COVID-19 and global concerns; 4) Emotional; 5) In-tour logistics; 6) Pre-tour logistics; 7) Student behavior. This study concludes with implications for teachers, administrators, and travel providers, as well as recommendations to lessen the impact of these barriers for future program leaders.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ed.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 dc:creator

• Dotson, Benjamin J

Contributors dc:contributor

• Witt, Allison
• Pak, Yoon K
• Huang, David
• Kang, Hyun-Sook

• student travel
• experiential learning
• global competency
• educational tourism
• educational travel
• barriers to student travel
• secondary education.

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2021 Benjamin J. Dotson

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/110640

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/110640