What's the Subject of Study Abroad?: Race, Gender, and "Living Culture"

Abstract

Based on an ethnographic study that focused on the relations of students’ in‐ and out‐of‐class cultural learning during a 5‐week study abroad program in Spain, this article analyzes processes of teaching and learning in a Spanish culture and civilization class, the experiences of the only African‐American student on the program, and students’ responses to a class meeting in which race was overtly problematized. In contrast to the shared construction of cultural knowledge that characterized the class, discussion of race and gender was limited in its complexity, despite signs of new understandings among students. Given a need for all students to gain multiple cultural perspectives and growing evidence that peer groups constitute sources of identity and cross‐cultural understanding for students abroad, we suggest that study abroad curricula incorporate sustained discussion of students’ sociocultural differences and resulting particularities in their experiences in the host culture as part of the formal curriculum.

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