Identity Matters in a Short-Term, International Service-Learning Program

Abstract

This study explores the role that identity and the identity development process play in a short-term, international service-learning experience. Employing narrative inquiry, two of the co-authors, student participants in a 2-week service-learning program in Honduras, describe and interpret their servicelearning experience in the context of life experiences that preceded the service-learning program. An emphasis is placed upon the ways that the students’ multiple identities and personal histories interact with the people, places, and ideas they encountered abroad. Findings are interpreted against the research and scholarship on intercultural competency and support the notion that student participants in international service-learning are exposed to experiences that lead to valuable extrospection and introspection and that foster complex understandings of self and ideology.