Growing edges in education: Interdisciplinary teaching and research through international reciprocity

Background/Question/Methods

International education is reaching new heights this decade through the “internationalization” of campuses across the U.S., the steady growth in the number of U.S. students studying abroad, and an ever-growing selection of faculty-led field programs abroad. Cultural exchange is important in this globalized world, but how many U.S. students have the opportunity to study environmental issues abroad and to reciprocate with host communities through research and learning? The objective of this talk is to describe a system of undergraduate field-based international education that attempts to achieve educational and conservation outcomes through field-based research and community interaction. The School for Field Studies (SFS) carries out study-abroad programs built on principles of community reciprocity, problem-based learning, and interdisciplinary field research. In this talk we describe our model, detail our approach, share outcomes from faculty-student research and outreach, and present two case studies from the field.

Results/Conclusions

A critical element in building reciprocity is having permanent international field stations in local communities, staffed largely by host-country nationals who deliver an intensive educational experience for U.S.-based undergraduate and host-country students. A second element is the five-year research plan developed at each field center through collaboration with local stakeholders and decision makers. These plans allow SFS to identify, structure, and prioritize biological and social science research and community extension projects according to community defined needs. They define not only the local research agenda but also provide the conceptual framework for the educational curriculum. During each program period, SFS student teams, led by our faculty, generate data and reports for decision-makers on local ecological and environmentally-related socio-economic issues. Thus, the approximately 450 students who participate in our programs each year learn about global environmental issues at the local level through a hands-on, science-based curriculum where education, field-based research, and community service are integrally linked.