By Pat Norman and Lisa Jasinski, Texas
Since 2011, Trinity University’s International Alternative Spring Break enables students to travel abroad, increase their awareness of and appreciation for diversity, and engage in service learning for academic credit. Students volunteer at a school for children with special needs in the Commonwealth of Dominica, a small island nation in the Eastern Caribbean, and learn about the country through travel and direct interaction with citizens, professionals and guest speakers. Although the trip lasts only one week, the program spans the entire spring semester and consists of three core components: weekly sessions held before the service learning trip; support provided during the eight-day adventure; and post-trip strategies for helping participants synthesize and share their learning. We use SRI protocols during all three phases of students’ experience.
We design the 9 hour-long pre-trip sessions with several goals in mind, including discussion of the island’s history and culture; developmental disabilities and effective classroom practices; trip logistics; and community building. Helping students get to know and respect each other is imperative as they move from the low-stakes sessions we hold on campus to the more emotionally, intellectually and physically demanding activities they engage in abroad.
Short-term study abroad programs provide students with important opportunities to develop intercultural competence (Van de Berg, Connor-Linton, & Paige, 2009). Service-oriented trips to the developing world provide a particularly rich environment to push students beyond their “cultural comfort zones” (Urraca, Ledoux, & Harris, 2009). However, “mere exposure to new people, places and international contexts does not in and of itself produce effective learning” (Bennett, 2008). The experience while essential, does not guarantee powerful learning. Rather, how students frame and re-frame their international experience determines whether and how they learn from it (Van de Berg et al, 2009). Over several years, our work with more than 50 International Alternative Spring Break participants has borne this out repeatedly.
To support our students in reflecting upon and learning from their experience we adapt the SRI protocol called Zones of Comfort, Risk, and Danger: Constructing Your Zone Map. In a pre-trip orientation session, we introduce the zones, explaining that wherever we are, whatever we do, we find ourselves in one of three zones: comfort, risk or danger. Comfort lies at the center of the bulls-eye: it is the place where we feel at ease. We have a good grip on the task at hand and experience no tension or anxiety. If we encounter a rough spot, we navigate it without difficulty. We point out that as human beings we strive to be comfortable. However, because we place few demands on ourselves in the comfort zone, typically little learning takes places.
In contrast, our risk zone is where we maximize learning. We acknowledge that we don’t know everything, but clearly we are motivated to learn more and will take the risks necessary to do so. Here we are open, engaged and observant. We often open up to other people with interest and curiosity, and we find ourselves considering different viewpoints, ideas and options. The trick is to remain in the risk zone without entering the danger zone, the outermost circle of the bulls-eye. If we push or are pushed too far, we leave risk and go into danger. We quickly move into survival mode; it’s literally fight, flight or fright. We experience actual physiological changes, including holding our breath, which diminishes the brain’s capacity to take in information. The magnitude of our defenses and fears limits our ability to learn. We explain to students that if we find ourselves in the danger zone, it is best to employ strategies — on our own or with support from others — to move back into the risk zone. We also point out that their ability to learn in and from an international experience rests on their willingness to enter into and remain in the risk zone.
After this brief introduction, we literally move desks and chairs to the perimeter of the classroom to recreate the zones by placing rope circles on the floor (20′ in diameter). We position ourselves outside of the circles then take the students through a series of prompts, asking them to physically stand in one of the three zones. Prompts cover general travel issues (i.e., experiencing turbulence/delays when traveling; encountering unusual foods; and being away from friends, family and technology) and considerations common in the developing world (i.e., poverty; being surrounded by others who do not look and sound like you; encountering animals who appear malnourished or mistreated).
The activity invariably brings the group together and gives students a safe space to acknowledge personal anxieties. In addition, the zones activity builds students’ awareness that the success of their international service learning experience depends in part on their ability to manage their emotions in the face of ambiguity, change and challenging circumstances. The zones also help our group to establish a shared language to process both anticipated and unexpected challenges while in Dominica.
Once in country, we repeat the zones activity with a new set of prompts inspired by our initial activities, surfacing students’ first impressions about the service project, our group dynamic and being away from home. We ask students to reflect on the zone they found themselves in when, for example, a lesson did not go as planned or they encountered cultural differences (i.e., gender expectations; child rearing practices; educational practices; communication preferences). Beyond daily formal reflection, however, we often hear students independently use terms like “risk zone” and “danger zone” throughout and after the trip.
As facilitators of a short-term international study abroad program, our goal is to help students process their experiences in a way that supports interpersonal and intercultural metacognitive learning. International experiences have great potential to enhance students’ knowledge of the world and understanding of themselves as learners—but it remains the work of faculty and staff members to scaffold and support the acquisition of this knowledge. SRI protocols are an indispensible tool in doing just that.
If you have any questions or feedback for Susan or Pat, they can be reached at pnorman@trinity.edu and ljasinsk@trinity.edu. Feel free to discuss this and other topics in our Facebook group.
References
Bennett, J. (2008). On becoming a global soul: A path to engagement during study abroad. In V. Savicki (Ed.) Developing intercultural competence and transformation: Theory, research, and application in international education (pp. 13-31) Sterling, VA: Stylus.
Urraca, B., Ledoux, M., Harris, J. (2009). Beyond the Comfort Zone: Lessons of Intercultural Service. Clearing House, 82, 6, 281-289.
Vande Berg, M., Connor-Linton, J., & Paige, R.M. (2009). The Georgetown consortium project: Interventions for student learning abroad. Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad. 28, 1-75.
