While the benefits of short-term study abroad programs are well documented, especially with respect to enhancing cross-cultural competency in the participants, fewer than one percent of college students in the U.S. benefit from this experience. The principal barriers to studying abroad are actual and opportunity costs and its perceived worth. An…

This study examines the effect of a virtual exchange experience on the intercultural competence of college students from the United States and MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region. Archival data from the Stevens Initiative was used to test whether 70 students from the United States and 72 students from Iraq and Jordan gained intercultural…

Twenty first century teachers need to be proficient in technology, skilled as reflective practitioners, and able to reflect on diversity in a myriad of ways: learning styles, special needs, cultural differences, racial differences, developmentally appropriate differences, teaching styles, and personality differences of children, teachers, parents,…

As the communication between different cultures is becoming more and more frequent, the competence of cross-cultural awareness and collaboration is emerging as a key ability in the 21st century. Face to face communication is the most efficient way to cultivate the competence of cross-cultural awareness and collaboration. However, there are very…

Confronted with the challenge of increasing globalization, the institution of education needs to answer the call and become better equipped with global dimensions in today's globally interdependent world. The internationalization of education should not remain as an optional attribute of education; rather, it is integral. In addition to…

In this article, we describe a project on reasoning about socio-scientific issues (SSIs), involving French and Australian pre-service science teachers engaged in on-line discussion and development of a wiki. In the research, we developed frameworks for looking at the quality of reasoning about "socially acute" sustainability questions.…

Purpose: To describe an exploratory study in which an online learning system was used to provide an intercultural experience for pre-service education students from New Jersey and Namibia. Design/methodology/approach: Pre-service education students from New Jersey and Namibia were enrolled in an online course in the fall of 2004. The following…

Programs sponsored by the Bicentennial Committee on International Conferences of Americanists (BCICA) are described that were held in Salzburg, Tokyo, Shiraz, Iran, San Antonio, and the Ivory Coast. The values of increased understanding and the effectiveness of the comparative approach are discussed. (LBH)

In a multimethod evaluation of cross-cultural training tools involving 102 exchange students at a midwestern university, a theory-based individualism and collectivism assimilator tool had significant advantages over culture-specific and culture-general assimilators and a control condition. Results support theory-based culture assimilators. (SLD)

Describes a new and distinctive type of overseas study program designed to help prepare students for more comprehensive interracial contacts. (Ed.)

Argues for centrality of living the ethnographic life for any cultural studies students spending a period of time abroad, as this approach is based on a methodology in which data and concepts illuminate each other. Language is no longer separated from social and cultural knowledge but "lived" and developed within a community in which the student…