One simple change will improve the quality of all of our global programs.
There is nothing like a global pandemic to make us stop and reflect on our own global programs. It has given global education administrators and teachers the time they rarely have to reflect and plan for when we again get back to "normal." I have seen some genuinely creative approaches from schools that have embraced strategies that don't involve travel, but what happens when we begin to put students back on planes?
One simple change will help improve our global programs' overall quality, project a level of dedication in each of our school communities, and extend access to international experiences to those who can't currently take part. What is this magic bullet? Don't charge students extra to travel. Have the school pay for the trips.
It will take some convincing and a reallocation of resources, but it can be done. Some schools already do it. One of the first effects, and not necessarily a great one, is that our schools might take fewer trips. Why? Because some trips, like those that look like vacations in the name of international education, no longer seem like they are worth it.
The trips that will survive are the ones that should survive - trips aimed at advancing the school's mission, trips that focus on interdisciplinary student goals, and trips that take a collaborative approach to international partnerships and not a consumerist approach. Gone will be trips where students help paint a classroom for a half-day on the way to go white water rafting in the afternoon. Gone will be the experience of seeing Western Europe through the lens of a bus window. In their place will be trips in which students partner with their peers abroad and work on shared goals, fully realizing that they benefit from the experience just as much or more than the people they are visiting. There will be trips so intertwined with the curriculum that it will be impossible to reach the curricular goals without the travel. We will build empathy and purpose, and we will make an impact.
Quality will also likely improve if we look at why we travel and who is leading that travel. We don't ask the math teacher to teach English, but we are often perfectly fine with any willing faculty member traveling internationally with students. Don't get me wrong, I think that travel opportunities should be open to all faculty just like the students, but faculty are the leaders and guides and teachers, from the moment the plane takes off until it lands again. It is tremendously hard work, and you have to know what you are doing to be good at it. If we are going to run high-quality and purposeful trips now that the school is paying, then it is a logical next step to ensure that faculty leaders have the skills and knowledge to keep the students safe and ensure that students are learning.
Perhaps the strongest argument for integrating the cost of international travel into the curriculum is that it opens the opportunity to those who would otherwise not be able to take part. In fact, let's go one step further and make travel a requirement. That way, everyone must travel. If our schools truly believe in international experiences' educational value, then the inability to pay should not be a barrier. If it doesn't keep students from taking their favorite science class, then it shouldn't keep them from travel.
There will be push-back to footing the bill for the trips. There will be those who say that our schools shouldn't be paying for something extra like this. This argument is a bit short-sighted. I get it. Yes, trips cost a lot of money. But do you know what else does and is usually taken care of with no questions asked? The costs associated with maintaining and building onsite facilities like athletic fields, theaters for student performances, or even financing the construction of a new science wing. Some say that the school should only fund those who can't pay, but again, do we do that in any other part of their education? Do we ask some students to pay to use the microscopes and then sponsor those who can't? Of course we don't because we value our science lab. It is open to everyone.
The athletic fields, the theater, and the science wing are all part of a well-rounded education. So are the plane tickets, the hotels, and the travel insurance. Let's use this pandemic to reassess our priorities and design and deliver international experiences that are profoundly impactful. Let's make those experiences genuinely indispensable. And when we get asked if our schools are dedicated to global education, we won't have to say much. We can just show them the receipts.
