The Impact of a Short-Term International Experienceon Undergraduate Students’ Cultural Competency

摘要

Historically, education abroad has been designed to provide students a full immersion experienceby way of semester or year-long study at a foreign university. However, this traditional format hasbeen redefined to include a variety of non-traditional international experiences, such asinternational service learning projects, internships, and short-term international experiences. Thepurpose of this phenomenological study was to develop a deep understanding of the livedexperiences of agricultural education undergraduate students participating in a short-terminternational experience. The overarching question that guided the study was: What were the livedexperiences of agricultural education undergraduate students during a short-term internationalexperience? As a result of the short-term international experience, students did not progress fullythrough all levels of development needed to be considered proficient in cultural competence.However, students demonstrated significant gains in cultural awareness and some gains in culturalunderstanding and cultural sensitivity. Finally, participating students verified some progresstoward building cultural communication competencies as a result of their experience.