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Institute of
International Education
809 United Nations Plaza
7th Floor
New York, NY 10017
USA
Tel: +1 (212) 984 5367
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Heritage-Seeking and Study Abroad: A Case Study |
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Heritage Seeking and Education Abroad: A Case Study
By Stacey Bolton Tsantir
Heritage-seeking is “selecting a study abroad venue because of family background—national, religious, cultural or ethnic” (Szekely, 1998). Heritage seeking students are drawn to their host country and culture, not because it is unfamiliar and new, but rather because it is somewhat familiar. Traditionally, the heritage seeking discussion has focused on European-American students (i.e., Irish-American students going to Ireland or Italian-American students going to Italy). Instead, this article, based on case study research, will focus on heritage-seeking students of color. The University of Minnesota provides a unique perspective to this case study because of its diverse population. Though the education abroad experience of a heritage seeker is in many ways similar to that of other students, it also is also unique. In order to increase representation of students of color in study abroad, study abroad professionals must consider these differences.
The research objective of the case study was to understand how the heritage seeking phenomenon affects education abroad program choice and the education abroad experience. There were two research questions: (1) How does heritage effect program choice? and (2) What is the experience of heritage seekers during their sojourn overseas? The bounded unit for this case study was the group of undergraduate students who have studied abroad through the University of Minnesota and self-identified as students of color.
Three formal research methods were used in the study: (1) document analysis and literature review, (2) survey, and (3) interview. This article will focus mainly on the results from the survey of approximately 50 students and several follow-up semi-structured interviews. The interviewed students represent varied backgrounds and include Asian-Pacific Islanders, African-Americans, Chicanos, and Hispanics. The main limitation for the study was student time constraints, which led to lower response rates than hoped.
Findings
For heritage seeking students, education abroad is an exploration of their own identities. While most education abroad students expect to be challenged by the culture, heritage seekers often expect to feel a sense of homecoming and acceptance. Heritage seeking deeply affects the program choice process. The research exposes a high level of self-identification. One student writes, “Yes, my decision was related to my heritage. I was adopted from Korea and wanted to return for the first time.” Similarly, another student shares, “Hmong people were originally from China so I wanted to see where my ancestors were from.” Further, the research shows that students often chose their study abroad location due more to heritage than academic major.
Parental support affects program choice in varying ways. Some parents are very supportive, even proud, of students going abroad to connect with their culture. However, several students noted that their parents did not support their heritage seeking. One student quotes his parents in saying: “We won’t pay for you to study abroad in India. We can tell you what you need to know about that.” Additionally, some parents are shocked by the desire to return to a country that the parents had left in order to provide a better life for their family.
In regard to the heritage seeker’s lived experience during their sojourn abroad, each student’s experience is very different. However, six common themes emerged from the study.
1. Students find that they benefited from their heritage seeking experience. One student noted, “I got to see my roots, and I learned a lot about myself and my family.” Despite the individual experiences of heritage seeking, most students return to the United States feeling empowered and with a new sense of identity.
2. Heritage-seekers find that their identity as an American is deeply changed. This phenomenon can take two forms:
• Many heritage-seeking students go abroad expecting to be more closely identified with the host culture and find that they are labeled as primarily “American.” One student writes, “It was weird. I felt like a minority, not because of my skin color but for being labeled as an American.” Another student often heard, “This isn’t America, you shouldn’t be doing this here.” One student expressed how she, as an American minority, had never felt completely American and was therefore surprised when she was asked to defend the United States in political conversation.
• Other heritage seekers go abroad expecting to have their ethnicity reinforced and are surprised by how much they are influenced by the “American” part of their identity. A Chicano student remarks, “I realized how lucky we are to be Americans and that I wouldn’t ever want my children to grow up in any other country, even though it is important to know about other countries.”
3. Many heritage seeking students express being surprised by how much they actually blended into their host culture. One student comments on how often he was mistaken for native Japanese when he was with other non-Asian international students. Despite not having any better language skills then his friends he says, “They always talked to me. They always chose me first.” Anytime a Japanese person would need to explain something they would look at him. Another student states, “I am Japanese so, I was able to blend in well with the Japanese population. I wasn’t exposed to any major racial discrimination, nor was I offered any advantages.”
4. Heritage seekers are often surprised by how much the other aspects of identity—gender, class or religion—effect how they are viewed in the host culture (Bolen, 2004). One student shares, “Being a female in an Asian country has fewer benefits than in the United States. Although women’s rights are becoming more of an issue, women are still being treated as secondary.” Another student agreed, saying, “Gender is a big issue. It (Kenya) is a very patriarchal society and my position and role as a female was frustrating to deal with.” A third student states, “In China, if you spoke English, then they assumed you were an American, which means that you have money. It made buying and bargaining for things hard because they would keep the prices a little higher.” Further, an Arab-American student who studied in Jordan found that her Islamic religious identity meant more to them than her Arab heritage despite the fact that she didn’t practice the same version of Islam as her hosts.
5. As Bolen (2004) found, “views about why people emigrated and what groups they are supposed to belong to” affected the heritage seekers experience abroad. “The impact of war and colonialism as well as politics” influence the experience of heritage seeking students (Doan, 2000). A Korean adoptee remarks, “I think some people pitied me, though. I got the feeling that some Koreans were ashamed for the past and that, Korea could not take care of its own children.” A student who studied in Mexico comments that local Mexicans saw her as a lower class because her family had emigrated to the U.S., despite the fact that her family was in fact of a higher socio-economic status then most of the people she met.
6. The culture shock process for heritage seekers is often different than it is for other students. This is partly due to the other themes already mentioned because they affect the heritage seeking student’s adjustment to the culture. Students also express how personal the cultural norms and actions of other students became. One student shares that life in India was more challenging than expected and she envied the other American students who coped by thinking, “this is exciting and different” (Bolen, 2004). She, on the other hand, took everything very personally and was unable to distance herself enough to gain perspective until the end of her experience. Another student mentioned that he felt “stuck in the middle” as the other foreign students complained about Japan. He took a lot of the negative feelings of his cohort to heart. However, in the end he realized that he was “exactly in the middle” as he understood, “both sides completely” but thought they were both “weird.” The experience has taught him not to take anything about either culture personally as he had made his “own culture—not totally Japanese and not totally American.”
The experience of heritage seekers is in many ways similar to that of study abroad students in general. However, the unique pieces of their experiences are important and merit consideration in program development, management and advising. Heritage seeking is an important piece of the larger diversity topic. In order to serve an increasingly diverse student population, education abroad professionals must consider the unique needs and desires of diverse students.
References
Bolen, M. (2004). “Disc: Heritage Seekers” July 21, 2004. SECUSS-L
Doan, T. (2002). Asian American students: Study abroad participation, perspectives and
experiences. Masters Paper. University of Minnesota.
Szekely, B.B. (1998). Seeking heritage in study abroad. [online]. Avalable:
http://www.opendoorsweb.org/lib%20pages/STAB/seeking_heritage.htm.
Accessed 3/10/05.
Bradley J. Titus and Stacey R. Bolton Tsantir are both Associate Program Directors at the University of Minnesota’s Learning Abroad Center.
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