Short-Term, Faculty-Led Study Abroad and Global Citizenship Identification: Insights from a Global Engagement Program

Short-term, faculty-led study abroad programs are increasingly featured in higher education internationalization efforts. As noted in the literature, such programs can aid in the development of varied student outcomes, including developing global citizenship. This paper presents an examination of the Global Engagement Seminar (GES) program, a short-term, faculty-led program at a private women’s liberal arts college that has expressed a firm commitment to internationalization. A quasi-experimental design was employed to examine whether participation in the GES program influenced participants’ antecedents, identification, and pro-social values of global citizenship (Reysen & Katzarska-Miller 2013a), and how the relationships compare with those of a matched comparison sample. The results of the survey indicated that GES completion moderated some but not all of the paths in the global citizenship model. Completing a GES was associated with non-significant relations among the moderated paths, a finding that emphasizes the need for a nuanced discussion of the complex relationship between short-term study abroad and global citizenship. Implications for faculty-led global engagement programs that aim to promote global citizenship among undergraduates in liberal arts contexts are discussed.