Tony Ogden from Michigan State has recently published three interesting articles on LinkedIn on The Future of Education Abroad: On Establishing a Profession . In the second of the articles , Tony lays out his aspirations for our profession: Lest we become stuck in solely managerial and administrative roles that offer less intellectual flexibility and protection, it is important that we continue our collective work toward the establishment of an education abroad profession wherein we are regarded as competent and respected international educators that are sought out for our professional experience and knowledge of education abroad.
He then recommends five ways to advance our status as educators. The one that resonated with me is his emphasis on the importance of the language we use. Using the language of higher education is, he says, a means to remind others (and ourselves!) that we are, first and foremost, educating students. This is wise advice, particularly for those of us immersed in the day-to-day details of making logistical arrangements for short-term programs. Keeping the educational and academic goals of your programs in the forefront tells those you are collaborating with that educating students is your goal as much as it is the university s and the faculty s goal.
I strongly agree with him that we must insist on using educational language when referring to faculty-led short-term programs. I worked with colleagues two decades ago who were trying to eradicate the word trip from faculty-led short term conversations. It has been a long haul since then and continues to surprise me how difficult that word is to eliminate from education abroad. Even though others in higher education might talk about tours or trips , the more we use educational language, the more it will become the norm.
I ll end with a quotation from Tony s article on the importance of using higher ed language:
As education abroad professionals, it is important to be mindful of the jargon and terminology we use and to recognize how not using language consistent with U.S. higher education can be detrimental to our profession. If indeed the purpose of education abroad is about academic learning, then we should avoid using language that prioritizes international travel and tourism.