Facing Our Foreignness in the Mirror of Interculturalism: American Student Encounters with the Self in India and the Role of Emotional Entropy in Developing Global Agency

Abstract

Transformational learning outcomes of short-term faculty-led international service-learning experiences can by stymied by cultural shock and improperly facilitated programs. Moreover, dissonance in dimensions of the self in contrast to foreign traditions and social interactions can be especially salient in American student encounters in India. How students resolve and make meaning of their own emotional entropy is traced across two institutional programs, two courses (1 undergraduate and 1 graduate), and multiple India community partner sites. An evidence-based pedagogical model and strategies for preparation, praxis, and processing are offered in supporting student reflection of themselves as global beings and in development of global agency which is manifested as intrapersonal, interpersonal, intercultural, academic, and professional competencies.

Citation

Cress, C., Mulligan, T. and Van Cleave, T. (2017), "Facing Our Foreignness in the Mirror of Interculturalism: American Student Encounters with the Self in India and the Role of Emotional Entropy in Developing Global Agency", Engaging Dissonance: Developing Mindful Global Citizenship in Higher Education (Innovations in Higher Education Teaching and Learning, Vol. 9), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 43-68. https://doi.org/10.1108/S2055-364120170000009003