Study Abroad Advisor

Advisors Abroad

Experiential Learning in the Developing World

By Margit Johnson

Travel is often measured in distance, while learning is measured in depth of understanding. The travel seminars organized by the Center for Global Education at Augsburg College in Minneapolis offer both distance and depth. The Center was founded in 1982 to “help people see the world and themselves from the perspective of those who are different from them—culturally, economically, and politically.”

Almost 30 different short-term travel seminars are offered each year in Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, Southern Africa, the Middle East, and the Asia/Pacific region. The programs are designed “to help North Americans of all ages and backgrounds think more critically about global issues so that they may work toward a more just and sustainable world.” Semester-long programs for undergraduates are offered in Mexico, Central America, and Southern Africa.

In January 1996 I attended an eight-day travel seminar in Cuernavaca, Mexico, “Experiential Learning in the Developing World,” designed specifically for study abroad advisors and faculty. NAFSA: Association of International Educators, through its field service department, provided travel grants for some of the 12 participants: college and university study abroad professionals, three university faculty members, a high school Spanish teacher, and two graduate students. Just as undergraduate students do during the semester programs, we settled into the Casa CEMAL, sharing bunk beds and eating home-cooked meals in the common dining room.

Our itinerary, intended to be stimulating to the seasoned traveler and yet manageable for the newcomer to Mexico, balanced large and small group excursions with opportunities to reflect together on our experiences and discuss how experiential learning affected us personally and as educators.

During our seminar we traveled in and around Cuernavaca, just south of the mountains encircling Mexico City. In speaking with locals, we learned about:

The role of individual citizens— through grassroots organizations, Christian communities, and political groups —in the political life of Mexico.

The economic and political consequences of the NAFTA treaty, which coincided with the Zapatista uprising in Chiapas. We spoke at length with working people about the effects of the devaluation of the peso and with members of the State Farmer’s Credit Union about the economic challenges in rural Morelos.

The state of education in and around Cuernavaca. We visited a well-equipped K-12 private school in Cuernavaca, then spent an afternoon in spartan classrooms at a rural indigenous public school in Cuentepec. Children who speak only Nahuail were learning Spanish as a second language.

The population and environmental pressures on Cuernavaca following the Mexico City earthquake in 1985. We saw the mountainside dump where municipal garbage is picked over by families of scavengers, and we smelled the polluted creeks whose water ran clear and clean 15 years ago. We spoke with Mexican and international volunteers who are working to improve infrastructure and reduce pollution through grassroots efforts.

The Center for Global Education’s guiding principle is to create the occasion for dialog but also “to allow those who share their lives to be the interpreters of their own experience.” The wide range of personal and organizational contacts the Center’s staff has cultivated over the years is a rich resource of experience and knowledge.

Just as Carleton College students who have participated in the semester-long programs return to campus changed by their encounters with grassroots educators, government leaders, campesinos, policy makers, and indigenous human rights organizers, my 12 colleagues and I experienced the significance of experiential learning in our personal and professional lives.

This was not “travel through the back door.” It was learning inside back doors—in the homes, workshops, and institutions of Cuernavaca. It was, according to the Center for Global Education, “learning how to learn”—the best way to travel.

The travel seminar for international educators will be offered again in January 1997, with travel grants again offered through NAFSA.

MARGIT JOHNSON is Off-Campus Studies Advisor at Carleton College in Northfield, MN.