Beyond Tourism: A Practical Guide to Meaningful Educational Travel: A Practical Guide to Meaningful Educational Travel

by Kenneth H. Cushner

If young people are to be adequately prepared for a complex and interdependent global society, educational experiences must consider the broader world in which teachers and their students live. Teachers can be central to the process of intercultural development, and must encourage and model an intercultural orientation for their young students as well as for their communities. A critical dimension of achieving intercultural understanding and competence is personal experience. In Beyond Tourism , Kenneth Cushner examines the development of intercultural competence through various dimensions of student travel and intercultural encounters, both for the classroom teacher conducting group travel as well as individuals embarking upon student exchange programs, intensive summer experiences, and international student teaching. The author examines: aspects of cross-cultural orientation, trip planning and preparation, intercultural adjustment, in-country experience and post-experience impact through his experiences of organizing and leading international and intercultural educational programs for children, pre-service, and in-service teachers on all seven continents. Cushner integrates current research on the intercultural experience and relates it to his personal travel experiences while providing guidelines to enable educators to integrate reflective travel as an active part of the educational experience of young people. Multicultural, social studies, and foreign language teachers, international educators and study abroad officers, and those interested in experiential education will find this book invaluable.

172 pages, Paperback

First published September 28, 2004

Reviews

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was really interesting as the author, Mr. Cushner used statistical data while keeping the book entertaining. I really liked the stories that were told about his trips and his students and their personality changes, and the relationships that he made with his students. Even with all the information, reading this book wasn’t like an informational guide or textbook, the book was about personal stories and the adventures that the author wrote of were really exciting and interesting to read about. I read this book to learn more about travel and the reason people travel besides the obvious one which is to relax. While reading this book I realized that there are different levels of travel and that when you travel there are so many different things you learn besides culture. Even the people who are the travelers change. In the book Mr. Cushner talks of intercultural people, and that there are different types of people, that when they travel those types are defined as someone who experiences everything, one that learns in moderate ration, and one that learns nothing. I found this set of information really helpful because I had never thought of their being levels of intercultural people. This book was really fun to read, and I never got bored of it. The author always kept me entertained and I really enjoyed the international adventures that the author would describe in the book. The book was a fantastic way of showing how seeing other countries and living with that country’s people is a necessary thing for the 21st generation, because a kids and teenagers we don’t see the need of travailing, and this book really shows this issue and how we can fix it. The author uses many personal examples as well as history to make it a fun book but while keeping it educational, which I personally enjoyed, because as I read through this book I learned a lot about travel and what it does to people. This book was really fun and interesting to read, I would definitely recommend it to anyone who likes to travel or likes history, and it was a really well written book. This book is educational and entertaining at the same time, once you start reading this book you won't be able to put it down.

[Heather Eubank]

I'll admit that, when Dr. Cushner asked us to read this before going overseas, I expected a boring textbook full of dry facts about studying abroad. But this isn't that. His book is full of some wonderfully entertaining and heart-wrenching stories from his travels blended expertly with sound advice. Yes, there was a bit of that textbook-y information, but it didn't feel like reading a textbook. I was pleasantly surprised to find myself really enjoying the book, and it even made me laugh out loud or come close to tears a few times. Great read! I might buy it for my parents who aren't so excited about my international adventures.