Instead, the program draws lecturers and instructors from these and other institutions and from the professional community, taking advantage of selected local resources to provide a quality education that could not easily be duplicated elsewhere. Each class has required reading, including local periodicals, and emphasizes interaction with the host culture through personal encounters and analysis. Classroom activities are supplemented by educational excursions, rural stays, and field-based assignments. A conceptual introduction to field-based learning, this seminar trains students to learn effectively from the overseas setting. It emphasizes the ways in which the design, implementation, and presentation of an independent field study deepen the student's understanding and appreciation of the host country.
Students learn the most effective and appropriate field study techniques to use in the host country.
These include observation, participation in local groups, development of contacts, interviewing techniques, and use of media, libraries, government offices, and available resource people. Students learn to be aware of the effect of their informants' biases, as well as their own, on the design of field study projects and interpretation of data. In the final weeks of the semester abroad, each student pursues an independent study project based on a proposed topic submitted as part of the application process. The project provides an opportunity to examine in depth a particular aspect of the host culture or program theme. Students may concentrate on a career interest, a pressing global issue, or a subject inspired by individual intellectual curiosity.