Transforming the Study Abroad Experience into a Collective Priority
Transforming the Study Abroad Experience into a Collective Priority
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将出国留学经历转变为集体优先事项
DOI：
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发表时间：
2009
期刊：
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通讯作者：
R. Lewin
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文献类型：
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作者：
R. Lewin
现在，学术使命声明、商业协会宣言，甚至联邦立法都宣布需要更多的美国学生出国。通过国际经验获得知识，技能和态度不再只是个别学生的兴趣。它现在已成为集体的优先事项。那么，为什么出国留学成为国家的优先事项呢？可能有无数的解释，但我们肯定都同意一个：全球化。正如托马斯·弗里德曼所说，世界正在变得“扁平”。随着通信技术的爆炸式发展和生产的跨国化，我们认识到受过教育的劳动力对其他文化的了解越来越多的重要性，这对美国保持经济竞争力至关重要。在9/ 11、伊拉克战争和阿布格莱布事件之后，我们认为向国外派遣学生是最有效的外交工具之一，既可以在短期内改善我们受损的声誉，也可以帮助解决长期难以解决的国际冲突。在环境、健康和贫困方面，我们知道，要找到解决我们星球面临的最棘手问题的全球解决方案，取决于能够跨界合作的个人军队。但是，面对这种戏剧性的增长和这些席卷整个社会的变化，我们实际上成功地培养了大量的全球公民吗？我们的学生是否正在迎接全球化的挑战和我们作为一个国家的优先事项？应对全球化的挑战让我们从坏消息开始开始。美国学生出国留学的比例远远落后于大多数高度工业化国家。作为所有美国学生的百分比，出国留学的参与率在过去十年中实际上并没有显著增加。我们的学生也倾向于在国外学习更短的时间，特别是与他们的亚洲和欧洲同行相比。我们很少有学生能够成功地实现出国留学的最低目标-获得跨文化能力。最令人不安的是，虽然我们看到前往全球化中心（如中国或印度）、国家安全利益地区（如中东）以及受全球经济影响最严重的国家（如非洲和拉丁美洲）的学生人数大幅增长，但绝大多数学生继续选择在富裕的欧洲国家度过他们的学期。我们的留学教育确实仍然遵循欧洲大旅行的传统，贵族学生前往欧洲各国首都，以补充他们的文科教育，并积累“旧世界”的宝藏。“我们在海外留学方面取得成功的地方是将其访问和吸引力扩展到我们学生团体的上层经济阶层之外。然而，在这种民主化的过程中，出国留学也经历了我称之为“民主化”的过程。“如果轶事信息有用的话，我们有太多的学生对在护照上盖上不同国家的印章比学习他们正在学习的国家的语言更感兴趣。本科生在寻找旅游和购物的最佳便宜货方面表现出更强的能力--他们本身的技能并不差--而不是在创建来自不同文化的同龄人网络方面，他们最终可能会与这些同龄人合作。许多人仍然把出国留学看作是一个学期的假期，是在全球化时代对高等教育苛刻要求的一种休息。事实上，他们可能会在海外学习中寻求逃避全球化的更复杂的影响，包括更具竞争力的就业市场，他们自己的民族身份的消失，以及恐怖主义威胁的影响，环境恶化，以及世界上最痛苦的人的困境。培养全球公民幸运的是，并非一切都如此黯淡。…
The need for more U.S. students to go abroad is now proclaimed in academic mission statements, business associations' manifestos, and even federal legislation. Gaining the knowledge, skills, and attitudes through an international experience is no longer just the interest of individual students. It has now become a priority of the collective. Why, then, has study abroad emerged as a national priority? There may be myriad explanations, but we can certainly all agree on one: globalization. The world is becoming "flat," as Thomas Friedman argued. With the explosion in communications technology and the multinationalization of production, we recognize the importance of an educated workforce becoming more knowledgeable about other cultures as essential so that the United States remains economically competitive. In the aftermath of 9/ 11, the Iraq war, and Abu Ghraib, we regard sending students abroad as one of the most effective diplomatic tools, both to improve our damaged reputation in the short term and to help resolve intractable international conflicts in the long run. In terms of the environment, health, and poverty, we know that finding global solutions to the toughest problems facing our planet depends upon armies of individuals capable of cooperating across borders. But in the face of this dramatic growth and these sweeping changes across our society, are we in fact succeeding in developing a mass of global citizens? Are our students meeting the challenges of globalization and our priorities as a nation? RESPONDING TO THE CHALLENGES OF GLOBALIZATION Let us begin with the bad news. The percentage of U.S. students studying abroad lags far behind that of most highly industrialized countries. As a percentage of all U.S. students, study abroad participation has actually not increased significantly over the last decade. Our students also tend to study abroad for ever shorter durations, especially as compared to their Asian and European counterparts. Fewer of our students succeed at even attaining the minimum goal of study abroad - the acquisition of intercultural competencies. Most disturbingly, while we witness substantial growth in the number of students going to centers of globalization, such as China or India, to areas of national security interest, such as the Middle East, and to countries most adversely affected by the global economy, such as in Africa and Latin America, the vast majority of students continue to choose to spend their semesters abroad in affluent European nations. Our study abroad pedagogy indeed still follows in the tradition of the European grand tour, whereby aristocratic students traveled to European capitals to supplement their liberal arts educations and to accumulate the treasures of the "Old World." Where we have succeeded in study abroad is extending its access and attraction beyond the upper economic tiers of our student bodies. In the course of this democratization, however, study abroad has also experienced what I would label "massification." Too many of our students, if anecdotal information serves, express greater interest in filling their passports with stamps of different countries than in learning the languages of the nations in which they are studying. Undergraduates show more facility at finding the best bargains for travel and shopping - not bad skills in and of themselves - than at creating networks of peers from different cultures with whom they may end up collaborating. Many still see study abroad as a semester off, a break from the grueling demands of higher education in the Age of Globalization. They may, in fact, seek in the study abroad experience an escape from the more complicated implications of globalization, including a more competitive job market, the fading of their own national identity as exceptional, as well as effects of terrorist threats, environmental degradation, and the plight of those most suffering in the world. FOSTERING GLOBAL CITIZENS Fortunately, not everything is so bleak. …