Classroom on the Road: Designing, Teaching, and Theorizing Out-of-the-Box Faculty-Led Student Travel explores real-world, out-of-the-box examples of faculty-led student travel that challenge the dominant paradigms of conventional tourism. Contributors share teaching methods that can be adapted for a variety of university travel scenarios and encourage students to be responsible and thoughtful members of the global community who seek out valuable experiences in other cultures to go beyond the standard consumption of touristy cliches. Furthermore, this book contributes to existing discourse about travel by going beyond being "just" a tourist to become a person who impacts-and is impacted by-other cultures and the commensurate politics of place. Contributors discuss issues of cultural imperialism, economic disparity, and responsible travel that can help protect unique destinations from the homogenizing effects of global capitalism, encouraging respectful and responsible travel.
Jeff Birkenstein is professor of English at Saint Martin's University. Irina Gendelman is professor of communication studies at Saint Martin's University.
Acknowledgments Introduction: On Leading Student Travel: First the Hard Work and Then the Serendipity, by Irina Gendelman & Jeff Birkenstein Chapter 1: Following Tour Buses: Teaching the Tourist Circuit, by Jana Mathews & Emily Russell Chapter 2: Mindfulness, Self-Awareness, and Identifying the Common Good in International Travel, by Ann D. Summerall-Jabro Chapter 3: Judging More Justly: Travel as an Encounter with the Other, by Raymond Blanton Chapter 4: Building and Sustaining a Faculty-Led Russian-American Summer Language Exchange, by Igor Krasnov, Jamie Olson, & Karen Rosenflanz Chapter 5: Master's Program Summer Abroad: Enhancing the Education Experience, by Joshua Azriel & Jeannine Jones Chapter 6: Folklore and Photography: An Economically Feasible Study Abroad Experience, by Christine Holtz & Heather Pinson Chapter 7: Film Study Abroad: Immersive, Experiential Learning Through Social Documentary, by Robin Canfield Chapter 8: Exploring Culture Through Prosocial Storytelling, by Gwendelyn S. Nisbett & Tracy Everbach Chapter 9: Mapping Future Career Paths through a Middle East Study Tour, by Mat Hardy & Sally Totman Marshall Chapter 10: Multimedia Storytelling: Using Global and Student-Centered Learning to Reproduce Travel, by Nicholas Artman & Douglas Strahler Chapter 11: The Psychology and Literature of Cults: Interdisciplinarity, Experiential Learning, and Team-Taught Travel, by Alissa Burger & Kelli Stiles Chapter 12: Exploring Public Culture and Memorialization as (Re)production of National and Cultural Identity, by Shana Kopaczewski & Darlene Hantzis Chapter 13: Exploring the History of Okinawa and the Ryukyu Kingdom, by Michelle Fukuyama & Cord A. Scott Chapter 14: War, Memory, and National Identity: Perspective Taking in Cambodia and Vietnam, by Patricia English-Schneider & Phillip Voight Chapter 15: Close Encounters with Cities: Analyzing and Composing the Rhetoric of Urban Areas, by Kathleen M. Vandenberg Traveling Writers' Biographies
Classroom on the Road is a unique compilation of philosophical, experiential, and pedagogical reflections on studying abroad. Its diverse essays describe not just the practical methods and financially feasible models, but also the broader questions that both educators and students should address: Why is studying abroad important? How does it affect the student-traveler - and the country they visit? What is an "authentic" travel experience, if it even exists? How can one travel ethically, or at all, in a world marked by inequality and environmental destruction? The book's emphasis on the "learning of travel" is especially timely in the current political climate, where the informal diplomacy of American student travelers can make a difference. Essential reading for any study abroad course.--Natasa Kovacevic, Eastern Michigan University Classroom on the Road provides its readers with rich pedagogical insights on what has increasingly become one of the cornerstones of undergraduate (and in some cases, graduate) education: the opportunity to study abroad. This collection is an impressive gathering of faculty voices from a range of disciplines, all sharing what it means to create, lead, and teach students about global citizenship. By providing readers with a collection of essays that truly span the globe in their focus--from Ireland to Vietnam to Russia to the Middle East to the United States--Gendelman and Birkenstein underscore how the classroom awaits us, and our students, everywhere. As these essays demonstrate, the study abroad classroom offers students an experience unlike any other: one in which learning takes place in situ, one that offers students a transformative experience vis-a-vis their understanding of identity, diplomacy, public memory, and tourism. Classroom on the Road is an excellent resource for the new and the seasoned alike in the world of faculty-led study abroad programs.--Ann Ciasullo, Professor of English and Women's & Gender Studies; Chair of English Department, Gonzaga University Classroom on the Road takes a deep dive into the most meaningful kind of learning, that which truly immerses one in new cultural waters and results not only in new knowledge but also profound personal growth. The diversity and nuance of exchanges grappled with in this excellent collection show how experiential learning abroad can both be mindfully guided and open to transcendent serendipity. In the process, the book makes a timely argument for intercultural immersion in higher education in order to grow ourselves and our societies to be more self-aware, more just, more communal, and more fun.--Tema Milstein, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
