Out There Learning: Critical Reflections on Off-Campus Study Programs

by Deborah Louise Curran (Editor), Cameron Owens (Editor), Helga Thorson (Editor), Elizabeth Vibert (Editor)

Overview

Universities across North America and beyond are experiencing growing demand for off-campus, experiential learning. Exploring the foundations of what it means to learn "out there," Out There Learning is an informed, critical investigation of the pedagogical philosophies and practices involved in short-term, off-campus programs or field courses. Bringing together contributors’ individual research and experience teaching or administering off-campus study programs, Out There Learning examines and challenges common assumptions about pedagogy, place, and personal transformation, while also providing experience-based insights and advice for getting the most out of faculty-led field courses.

Divided into three sections that investigate aspects of pedagogy, ethics of place, and course and program assessment, this collection offers "voices from the field" highlighting the experiences of faculty members, students, teaching assistants, and community members engaged in every aspect of an off-campus study programs. Several chapters examine study programs in the traditional territories of Indigenous communities and in the Global South. Containing an appendix highlighting some examples of off-campus study programs, Out There Learning offers new pathways for faculty, staff, and college and university administrators interested in enriching the experience of non-traditional avenues of study.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781487523145
Publisher:	University of Toronto Press
Publication date:	01/30/2019
Pages:	296
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Deborah Curran is associate professor in the Faculty of Law and School of Environmental Studies at the University of Victoria.
Cameron Owens is associate teaching professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Victoria.
Helga Thorson is associate professor and chair in the Department of Germanic and Slavic Studies at the University of Victoria.
Elizabeth Vibert is an Associate Professor in the Department of History at the University of Victoria. She is the author of Traders' Tales: Narratives of Cultural Encounters in the Columbia Plateau, 1807-1846 (University of Oklahoma Press, 2000).

Table of Contents

SECTION 1: THE PROCESSES OF LEARNING OUT THERE

Section Overview
Where the past and present intersect …
Sam Kerr

CHAPTER ONE
"You cannot avoid all of this past, present, and future when it’s everywhere around you": Reflecting Relational Thinking in Field Study Experiences
Kacy McKinney

Living in the moment...
Emily Halvorsen

CHAPTER TWO
An Integrative, Thematic Approach to International Field Study Programs
Aaron Williams

Being part of something bigger …
Kathleen O’Reilly

CHAPTER THREE
The Enlivened Classroom: Bringing the Field Back to Campus
Nakanyike B. Musisi

There is no front of the classroom here …
Rob Cook

CHAPTER FOUR
Settlers Unsettled: Using Field Schools and Digital Stories to Transform Geographies of Ignorance About Indigenous Peoples in Canada
Heather Castleden, Kiley Daley, Vanessa Sloan Morgan, and Paul Sylvestre

Discovering traces of the past …
Sara Lax

SECTION 2: IMPLICATIONS OF PLACE

Section Overview
Connecting with the community …
Aisling Kennedy

CHAPTER FIVE
Outsider Education: Indigenous Law and Land-Based Learning
John Borrows

Live life with significance …
Freya Selander

CHAPTER SIX
Putting Law in its Place: Field School Explorations of Indigenous and Colonial Legal Geographies
Deborah Curran

Mysteries remain …
Laura Buchan

CHAPTER SEVEN
Power in Place: Dilemmas in Leading Field Schools to the Global South
Elizabeth Vibert and Kirsten Sadeghi-Yekta

What you can’t get from a textbook …
Sarah Elwood

SECTION 3: ASSESSING THE VALUE OF THE JOURNEY

Section Overview
Kuala Lumpur & Singapore Comparison I and II
Bonny Fu

CHAPTER EIGHT
Getting beyond "It changed my life": Assessment of Out-There Transformation
Janelle S. Peifer and Elaine Meyer-Lee

9:14 AM: Saturday, May 14, 2016
"The world moves through us" …
Jake Noah Sherman

CHAPTER NINE
Assessing Learning "Out There": Four Key Challenges and Opportunities
Cameron Owens and Maral Sotoudehnia

Embracing complexities …
Liah Formby

CHAPTER TEN
Transformation in the Field: Short-Term Study Abroad and the Pursuit of Changes
Michael R. Glass

Education can be empowering …
Emily Tennent

What People are Saying About This

Kate Lloyd

"Out There Learning makes several important contributions to the field through its coverage of a diverse range of disciplines, types of fieldwork, evaluation, and outcomes. Most importantly, it provides an overview of research on the transformative potential of short-term off-campus programs from both cross-disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives, examining several theoretical advances and practical challenges."

Christian Brannstrom

"A welcome contribution to literature on off-campus programs, Out There Learning will help instructors better design, implement, and evaluate student learning experiences."

Rebecca Hovey

"I am stunned, inspired, and in admiration of the work and thoughtfulness that has gone into Out There Learning.　 From the selection of contributors, to the range of topics and disciplines covered, to the depth of the theoretical discussions, this is undoubtedly a significant contribution to the literature on short-term off-campus experiential learning programs. The various perspectives on transformational learning are rich and offer some of the best, and most rigorously informed, discussions of transformational learning for study abroad that I have seen."

Editorial Reviews

" Out There Learning poses fundamental questions about the nature of education in the twenty-first century, especially at a time in which the virtual has brought new challenges and possibilities to the fore. The editors and authors invite us to ponder on the rationale and consequences of field schools on peoples and places and to be aware of the potential for perpetuating neoliberal arrangements that have permeated higher education, bringing a slew of ethical questions about motivations, methods, and implications."

—Hélène B. Ducros, Europe Now Journal, April 2020

"I am stunned, inspired, and in admiration of the work and thoughtfulness that has gone into Out There Learning.　 From the selection of contributors, to the range of topics and disciplines covered, to the depth of the theoretical discussions, this is undoubtedly a significant contribution to the literature on short-term off-campus experiential learning programs. The various perspectives on transformational learning are rich and offer some of the best, and most rigorously informed, discussions of transformational learning for study abroad that I have seen."

—Rebecca Hovey, Dean of the Office for International Study, Smith College

" Out There Learning makes several important contributions to the field through its coverage of a diverse range of disciplines, types of fieldwork, evaluation, and outcomes. Most importantly, it provides an overview of research on the transformative potential of short-term off-campus programs from both cross-disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives, examining several theoretical advances and practical challenges."

—Kate Lloyd, Associate Professor in the Department of Geography and Planning, Macquarie University

"A welcome contribution to literature on off-campus programs, Out There Learning will help instructors better design, implement, and evaluate student learning experiences."

—Christian Brannstrom, Professor in the Department of Geography, Texas A&M University

From the Publisher

"Out There Learning poses fundamental questions about the nature of education in the twenty-first century, especially at a time in which the virtual has brought new challenges and possibilities to the fore. The editors and authors invite us to ponder on the rationale and consequences of field schools on peoples and places and to be aware of the potential for perpetuating neoliberal arrangements that have permeated higher education, bringing a slew of ethical questions about motivations, methods, and implications."

Europe Now Journal, April 2020 - Hélène B. Ducros

"Out There Learning poses fundamental questions about the nature of education in the twenty-first century, especially at a time in which the virtual has brought new challenges and possibilities to the fore. The editors and authors invite us to ponder on the rationale and consequences of field schools on peoples and places and to be aware of the potential for perpetuating neoliberal arrangements that have permeated higher education, bringing a slew of ethical questions about motivations, methods, and implications."

Europe Now Journal, April 2020 - Hélène B. Ducros