Transformative Learning Through Cultural Immersion

Abstract

This qualitative study explored avenues to increase students’ intercultural competencethrough transformative learning. School of Education graduate students and facultyfrom a small, private university traveled to Ecuador to participate in a culturalimmersion practicum. In addition to these primary goals, the trip was designed tofacilitate transformative learning about cultural conceptions, diversity, and the dynamicsof student differences with the goal of understanding one’s own cultural framework andadapting to another culture to develop empathy towards culturally and linguisticallydiverse students in the United States