Do ‘global citizens’ need the parochial cultural other? Discourse of immersion in study abroad and learning-by-doing

The discourse of immersion is prevalent but little analysed in the field of study abroad. Linked generally to learning-by-doing, this discourse has significance for ‘intercultural education’. Based on text analyses of three guidebooks on study abroad, this article suggests four effects of the discourse of immersion: It justifies study abroad as different from, if not better than, classroom learning and tourism. It emphasises the difference between students’ home and host cultures and constructs each society as internally homogeneous. It constructs study-abroad students’ home societies as globalised and their host societies as immobile and parochial, creating a hierarchy when globalisation is valorized. Finally, it exoticises the learning-by-doing ‘teachers’ – the host people – by portraying them as parochial ‘cultural others’. This article suggests an uneven process where the call for production of ‘global citizens’ through study abroad constructs host societies as parochial and risks reproducing a colonialist hierarchy of exoticism through intercultural learning-by-doing.     

Letting the village be the teacher: a look at community-based learning in Northern Thailand

ABSTRACT

Higher education in the U.S. sees global learning as critical to student development. Over the last seventy years, study abroad has emerged as the method of choice for teaching global knowledge and intercultural competence. In this context, community-based global learning programs are a type of program where students live in communities to learn directly from people and place. Looking at a field studies program in Northern Thailand, this paper explores the educational mobility of study abroad and impact on host communities. It shares findings on the experiences of two communities who have hosted study abroad students for almost twenty years. Best practices and recommendations for faculty and institutions running community-based global learning programs are shared, including the centrality of community voice in curriculum, benefits of applying a range of pedagogical methods on course, the critical nature of adequately preparing students for cultural immersion, and compensating communities justly for their work.     

生命哲学的文化观照--鲁迅与陀思妥耶夫斯基死亡意识比较

通过对比鲁迅与陀氏的死亡意识,可以更加深入了解他们对待生的态度。鲁迅和陀氏都描写死、恐惧死,但在探索生与死这个哲学命题时,却表现了明显的文化差异。然而,他们又存在本质的一致,那就是他们在试图越超死的沉思中都将个体的生命与人类生命融为一体。     

论世界围棋规则的统一

世界围棋运动在东亚地区较为普及,水平也较高,其中主要国家为中国、日本,韩国。目前世界上主要使用三种围棋规则,即中国规则、日本规则和应氏规则。围棋要推广至世界,围棋世界规则的统一至关重要。统一世界围棋规则要遵循充分酝酿原则、继承性原则、超前性原则、争议搁置原则和最大代表性原则。借鉴国际象棋联合会、中国象棋联合会以及现代奥运会的创立经验,统一世界围棋规则当务之急是建立世界围棋联盟。     

山水画写生之“境”

山水画写生的宗旨是写“境”。当下山水画写生的“对景久坐”之法,是对传统的“偏而常之”的写生方法的一个丢失。21世纪具有中国特色的山水画写境之法,应当重倡写生的自然之境源于观物取象、写生的审美之境取之象外、境是山水画写生的终极目标等命题。     

金融危机后国外马克思主义研究新状况

本文所研究的金融危机是指2007年来发生于美国,然后横扫全球的国际金融和经济危机。此次国际金融危机首先爆发于金融领域,然后迅速扩散到实体经济领域,是一次金融和经济危机交互作用形成的资本主义的全面危机。从金融危机产生、发展直到现在,一直是各国专家学者们比较关心的问题。本文主要梳理了一些主要国家如美、英、德、法、意、西班牙、印度和日本的一些研究新状况。     

Learner subjects in study abroad: discourse of immersion,hierarchy of experience and their subversion through situated learning

This article investigates different kinds of learner subjects that study-abroad programs produce. It is based on discourse analysis and ethnographic fieldwork in May–September 2011, involving three students from a US college studying abroad short term in Europe. The discourse of immersion in study abroad valorizes a learning-by-doing, individual, reflective learner subject who learns alone by gaining everyday experience outside the classroom and by reflecting on it. Some students subverted this discourse and became group and classroom-based learner subjects; nonetheless, they all became reflective learner subjects. This article proposes critical analysis of the discourse and links that reflectivity to critical pedagogy.     

国外休闲教育的发展及启示

休闲教育的目标主要有:第一,通过休闲教育培养人们的休闲技能、休闲技巧和休闲鉴赏力,使人们有能力参与某些休闲活动,从而引发其对休闲活动的兴趣。第二,通过休闲教育确定正确的休闲价值观和休闲生活方式。休闲教育在许多国家已取得了显著成效,他们的经验值得我们借鉴,对发展适合我国国情的休闲教育具有十分重要的意义。     

抗战时期河南公费留学研究

抗战时期,地处抗战前沿的河南对留学工作仍旧十分重视。对留学生的考选及派遣制定了一系列的政策和规章制度,也及时派出了一批留学生。日军占领河南后,大部分地区沦陷,当地经济受到重创,教育工作受到一定程度的影响。这一时期,河南的公费留学呈现出人数不稳定、经费短缺以及注重实科等特点。但毕竟在战争中坚持了下来,为河南留学事业的发展做出了突出贡献。     

国外高校人才培养质量评估的初步研究

本文综合分析了国外高校人才培养质量评估的类型、主要指标、评估机构、评估程序及评估结果的运用,归纳了国外高校人才培养的质量评估的基本特点,为进一步开展高校人才质量评估研究,提供了范例支撑。