In Their Own Words: How Diverse Students View the Strengths They Bring to Community-Based Global Learning Experiences 

Posted: Monday, August 3, 2020
By: Caitlin Ferrarini - University of Massachusetts, Boston 
Nora Pillard Reynolds, Ph.D - Haverford College

While practitioners and researchers are beginning to use strengths-based approaches to enhance global learning experiences for increasingly diverse students, qualitative research from the 2019 Global Engagement Survey (GES) shows that diverse and marginalized students also recognize the strengths that they bring to community-based global learning (CBGL) experiences. The 1,500 students across eleven institutions who answered the survey participated in various CBGL experiences such as service-learning, solidarity programs, internships, and research. This article seeks to highlight the voices of students from diverse groups including racial and ethnic minority, low-income, LGBTQ, female, international, and many intersections of these identities. Students saw their strengths in three main areas: comfort in discussing diversity, capacity to identify with marginalized communities, and motivation to take social action.

The Global Engagement Survey 

The Global Engagement Survey (GES) uses quantitative and qualitative questions to assess the high impact practice of global learning as identified by the Association of American Colleges and Universities as “a critical analysis of and an engagement with complex, interdependent global systems and legacies (such as natural, physical, social, cultural, economic, and political) and their implications for people’s lives and the earth’s sustainability” (Hovland, 2014, p. 6). The survey draws on existing research in education abroad, civic engagement, and related fields to focus on three areas of global learning: cultural humility, global citizenship, and critical reflection. Global learning as conceptualized by the AAC&U and the GES survey could take place in a community outside of the classroom either domestically or internationally. However, in the most recent 2019 GES dataset, most of the programs (77%) took place outside of the United States. 

The GES is taken by students before and after they participate in a community-based global learning experience (CBGL) such as service-learning, solidarity programs, internships, or research. Community-based global learning is a term developed by academics and researchers who are also practitioners, and therefore is defined by a set of seven practical components: a) community-driven learning and/or service, b) development of cultural humility, c) global citizenship, d) continuous and diverse forms of critically reflective practice, e) ongoing attention to power, privilege, and positionality throughout programming and course work, f) deliberate and demonstrable learning, g) safe, transparent, and well-managed programs (Hartman et al., 2018). 

In 2019, 1,500 students from eleven institutions participated in the GES. The students who participated in the 2019 GES were majority: female (71%), were born in the United States (80%), grew up in a suburban area (60%), had not participated in volunteer service before (69%), reported far left or liberal political views (51%), and were White (58%). In terms of racial/ethnic diversity, the GES dataset is more diverse than the typical study abroad population. According to the Institute of International Education, during the academic year 2017-2018, 30% of study abroad students identified as non-White and 70% identified as White (IIE, 2019). This may reflect a trend visible in the National Survey on Student Engagement, in which community-based learning is the high impact practice that students of color participate in more than any other high impact practice (NSSE, 2019). With more diverse and underrepresented students participating in CBGL, it is important for those designing global learning experiences to understand these diverse perspectives, and the GES gives us insight. 

In Their Own Words

In response to the 2019 GES, students from diverse and marginalized groups described ways in which their non-dominant identities and lived experiences are a strength in CBGL experiences. Diverse students including racial and ethnic minority, low-income, LGBTQ, female, international, and many intersections of these identities saw their strengths in the three areas discussed below. Here we provide rich examples in students’ own words of how they view their identity as a strength.

Comfort in discussing diversity

When asked to elaborate on an experience when they were uncomfortable discussing diversity, many students of diverse and marginalized backgrounds instead commented on the opposite—their comfort with diversity conversations. Students described how their diverse identities caused them to engage in conversations about diversity on their campuses regularly, and in general students stated that they view these conversations as extremely important: 

As a double minority, I am used to feeling comfortable having diversity conversations. When I came to my university I had to become comfortable discussing diverse cultures and identities I am not a part of. 

I never shy away from topics of diversity because as a black person who is an African, I am a minority on campus and I believe that discussions on diversity are critical if we are to all gain an understanding of each other. 

As an international student from Indonesia, I sometimes find it challenging when discussing my upbringing in classes, considering that I am a triple minority back home . However, with my diverse background, I am able to better understand and empathize with people who grew up experiencing the same situation, and through this, I overcame my fear of talking about my cultural background. 

Capacity to identify with marginalized communities 

Students also named ways in which their own identities allowed them to empathize and connect with marginalized groups. 

I am a queer, immigrant, woman of color. My entire experience is based on being unseen by the political and social structures in place. This allows me to connect with individuals that have similar experiences. 

As a member of the LGBTQIA+ community, my experiences have helped me to understand and support transgender men and women, especially transgender men and women of color, who are otherwise looked over and ignored by society even though they face rampant transphobia, racism, violence, etc.

Coming from an immigrant family, I empathize towards individuals who may not speak English or come from America. If I see that someone is confused or lost, I will try to help them with the best of my abilities. 

Motivation to take social action

Further, some students described specific ways that their own background and lived experiences motivated them to take social action to support or empower others. 

As a minority student at a predominantly white institution, I am aware of what it means to be invisible. More importantly, where I work at the campus tutoring center, there are minority students who would otherwise be invisible that I choose to tutor. 

I make an effort to participate in events held at my university for first generation and low income students in order to show support for them as it is a difficult transition into university and being underrepresented in a space not meant for them. 

I cannot vote because I am a DACA recipient. However, it reminded me of how essential it is for me to use my voice and knowledge to encourage others to vote. 

Recommendations

Our goal in this article is to highlight the voices of students from diverse and marginalized groups who are often not heard in the scholarship of education abroad and global learning. We also conclude with two recommendations for universities and practitioners who seek to improve their practice. One institutional strategy for centering diverse students in global learning is to integrate efforts of global education and diversity, equity, and inclusion offices so that resources can be shared. Two universities, for example, that have recently restructured their global learning offices under their offices of diversity, equity and inclusion are Quinnipiac University and Bentley University. Second, we recommend professional development for education abroad staff and faculty in assets-based approaches to inform recruitment, program development, training, and curriculum. You can read more about how an assets-based theory called community cultural wealth (Yosso, 2005) has influenced our own research here. The data presented here shows that diverse students bring valuable experiences and skills to global learning and the encounter with different cultures and people. With an increasingly diverse student population in higher education, we believe that an assets-based approach to integrating diversity and inclusion and global learning on university campuses is essential.

References

Hartman, E., Kiely, R., Friedrichs, J., and Boettcher, C. (2018). Community-based global learning: The theory and practice of ethical engagement at home and abroad. Sterling, VA: Stylus Publishing.

Hovland, K. (2014). Global learning: Defining, designing, demonstrating. Association of American Colleges and Universities and NAFSA: Association of International Educators. Institute of International Education (IIE). (2019).  Open Doors Report.

National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE). (2019). Engagement insights: Survey findings on the quality of undergraduate education . Center for Postsecondary Research at Indiana University Bloomington. Retrieved from https://scholarworks.iu.edu/dspace/bitstream/handle/2022/25321/NSSE_2019_Annual_Results.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

Yosso, T. J. (2005). Whose culture has capital? A critical race theory discussion of community cultural wealth. Race Ethnicity and Education, 8(1), 69-91.