US study abroad from the periphery to the center of the global curriculum in the information age

Abstract

The Higher Education Act of 1965 for the first time gave discretionary authority to campuses to use federal financial aid in support of students studying abroad. Thereafter, US study abroad has thus evolved from the periphery to the center of the global curriculum. In 2005 the Lincoln Commission report proposed an ambitious goal of sending one million students abroad each year to promote educational and cultural exchange for intercultural understanding, peace and global citizenship. Following this recommendation a legislative and federal policy, the Senator Paul Simon Study Abroad Foundation Act, was approved in June 2009 by the US House of Representatives authorizing generous funding for fiscal years 2010 and 2011 to the US Department of State and Peace Corps for innovative new programs that would enhance US capacity to engage with the world. The article traces this historic expansion effort, its link with the current pedagogical discourse on global citizenship and reflects on its relation to the ideology of curriculum to highlight the need to develop more critically reflexive curricula and pedagogy. The article also reflects critically on the empirical research literature to highlight the gaps between the assumptions driving investment in study abroad and its learning outcome.