Introduction
F R O N T I E R S: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study
Abroad continues to seek thought-provoking manuscripts,
insightful essays, well-researched papers, and concise book
reviews that may provide the profession of study abroad
an intellectual charge, document some of the best thinking
and innovative programming in the field, create an additional
forum for dialogue among colleagues in international education,
and ultimately enrich our perspectives and bring greater meaning
to our work.
In this issue, Frontiers focuses on one of the most
compelling themes of interest among international educators: learning
outside the home society and culture. Through the researched
articles, we hope to engage you in further thinking and
discussion about the ways we learn in other societies and cultures;
the nature of such learning and the features that make it
distinctive from learning in one's home culture; the methods,
techniques, and best practices of such learning; and the integration
of learning abroad into the broader context of the "internationalization"
of the home campus.
Brian J, Whalen's lead article in this edition of the journal
develops our theme by providing an overview of learning outside the home
culture, with particular emphasis on the role that memory plays
in this enterprise. Whalen examines the psychological literature
and uses case studies to focus on the ways in which students
learn about their new society and culture, and about themselves.
Hamilton Beck, on the other hand, presents an intriguing
study from the life of W. E. B. Du Bois. In examining his
Autobiography and Du Bois's three-year stay in Berlin
from 1892 to 1894 as a graduate student at the Friedrich
Wilhelms-Universitat zu Berlin, Beck uncovers an excellent
example of "learning outside one's home society and culture"
through the series of social, political, and ideological encounters
Du Bois experiences, reflects on, and then remembers. The
article ends with several "lessons" learned from late-
nineteenth-century Germany that remained with Du Bois for the
of his life, as shown in his Autobiography and his collection
of essays in The Souls of Black Folk. A team of field
study and study abroad specialists from Earlham College looks
at our theme through the use of ethnography and the
techniques of field study for students living and working in
Mexico, Austria, and Germany. The article demonstrates
through the observations of the students how effective
the use of field research methods can be in learning about
Mexican social relations and cultural traditions by working
in a tortilla factory, or about Austrian social habits and traditions
by patronizing a night club and its "intimate society."
We are reminded of other methods of strengthening learning outside the
home society and culture by the case study of the Canadian students
from Ontario who attended a teacher training program at the
University of Western Sydney in Australia. Barbara Jo Lantz's review
of a recent publication describing the usefulness of an "analytical
notebook" in learning outside the home society and culture
underscores the importance of journal writing as an integral
part of study abroad. While journals have been used before
in study abroad learning, Kenneth Wagner and Tony Magistrale's
Writing Across Culture points the international educator
in new directions and contexts in which journal writing enhances
learning. Finally, in our Update section, Wayne Myles
examines the uses of technology-including the Internet, homepages,
and electronic bulletin boards-as ways of advertising to,
networking with, and processing study abroad students and their
learning on and off our campuses.
Barbara Burn examines the internationalization efforts of our European
colleagues through her review of Hans de Wit's edited work
Strategies for Internationalisation of Higher Education, while
Aaro Ollikainen follows up an earlier article by Hans de Wit
( Frontiers , no. 1), with a detailed look at Finland's efforts
at internationalization. Joseph R. Stimpfl's thorough annotated
bibliography reminds us that there is a legacy of several
decades of critical thinking about study abroad and international
education to which we are indebted and on which we can build.
With this issue, the editorial board is pleased to begin
publishing two issues annually of Frontiers . We are
interested in interdisciplinary approaches to study abroad as well as
critical essays, book reviews, and annotated bibliographies. In
building on the work of previous research, and creating a forum
for a debate and discussion, we hope that we may begin to define
both theoretically and practically the contours of the frontiers
of study abroad.
Michael Monahan, Macalester College
Thomas Ricks, Villanova University
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