Critical Tourism as a Pedagogy for Art Education Abroad

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to examine the pedagogy and practice of critical tourism in art education abroad. First, we unpack the neoliberal discourse underlying U.S. study abroad programs and problematize the popular belief that a short-term study abroad experience can result in the genuine development of culturally competent global citizens. We then delineate the pedagogical framework of critical tourism and propose four types of learning: democratic, collaborative, critical‒reflective, and glocal. We especially recognize critical glocal engagement with art as a significant component in the pedagogy. Drawing on a travel‒study program that included a short-term educational tour to China, we describe a curriculum for critical tourism along with two students’ projects to illustrate the students’ embodied learning to become critical tourists, maker‒performers, and global citizens.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

¹ Koon-Hwee Kan has previously given presentations on this travel‒study program under a pedagogical framework different from the one in this article at state art education conferences in 2015 and 2016.

² All student names are pseudonyms.