Faith Development While Abroad Amongst African American Students

A b stra c t : Spiritual development is an epistemological journey of seeking to make meaning of life’s activities, order, and relationship between events (Love, 2002). This process occurs when students experience adegreeof dissonance that pushesthem to question what they know, how they know it, and expand their understanding based on new experiences and information learned (Bakari, 2000; Chaudhari & Pizzolato, 2008). Studying abroad providesopportunities for students to encounter disequilibrium as they interact with other cultures that cause them to consider alternative viewpoints, and enable other’s practices and beliefs to influence the formation of their own views, beliefs and practices (Chaudhari & Pizzolato, 2008). This article utilizes Fowler’s (1981) stages of faith development to understand the meaning-making and spiritual development of study abroad participants. Multiple semi-structured interviews (pre-, during, and post-study abroad) were conducted with 25 AfricanAmerican students who participated in long-term, immersive, study-abroad programs in thirteen different countries on five different continents. Results show transitions, changes, and development of students’ faith whileabroad.