A rite of passage? Exploring youth transformation and global citizenry in the study abroad experience

ABSTRACT

Travel, long recognised as a rite of passage, is often also touted as a transformative experience which facilitates cross-cultural understanding, fosters an embrace of diversity and promotes global awareness. This process is aligned with youth development and has a rich history in the tourism literature. The importance of transformational travel, however, has now spread to programmes across the higher education landscape, with the recognition that travel has the potential to nurture a global citizenry. Additionally, for many young people, the motivation for studying abroad is to assist in the transition to adulthood. In this way, educational travel is similar to an ‘overseas experience’ or a ‘gap year’. It is often taken at an important time of transition in emerging adulthood, for example, from school to work. We argue that this period of identity formation for youth can be likened to a rite of passage much like the Grand Tour of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was for young European men and women. Our paper examines the role of the study abroad experience in promoting youth transformation and global citizenry.

KEYWORDS:

• Educational travel
• study abroad
• rite of passage
• global citizenry
• grand tour

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Simone Grabowski is a Research Associate at the University of Technology Sydney. She has a PhD in Tourism Management and holds a first class Honours degree in Tourism Management and a BA (International Studies) from UTS. Her research interests and current research areas include volunteer tourism, volunteerism, ecotourism, sustainability, tourist behaviour, cross-cultural psychology, community development and disability and diversity management. She has been a research assistant in the Management Discipline Group of the UTS Business School in these areas since 2005 working closely on projects with Youth Challenge Australia, the Kokoda Track Foundation, the Australian Sports Commission and Arts NSW.

Stephen Wearing is a Conjoint Professor at the University of Newcastle (UoN), Australia. His research and projects are in the area of Leisure and Tourism Studies, with a PhD focused on sustainable forms of tourism. Stephen has made seminal contributions in many areas including ecotourism, volunteer tourism and community development, the importance of community-based approaches in the leisure, recreation and tourism sector has formed the focus of his research.

Kevin Lyons is a Professor of Tourism and Management at the University of Newcastle, Australia and was recently appointed Deputy Head of the Faculty of Business and Law. His research focuses upon the intersections between volunteering, tourism and community engagement, regional tourism planning and management, and transformational learning through travel.

Michael A. Tarrant is Josiah Meigs Distinguished Teaching Professor at the University of Georgia in Athens, GA, USA. He is the founding director of Global Programs in Sustainability (www.DiscoverAbroad.uga.edu) started in 2001, which provides study abroad programmes for approximately 400 students a year throughout the South Pacific and South-East Asia. He maintains a campus-wide research programme addressing the global learning outcomes of international education and his research interests extend to the human dimensions of natural resources, educational travel and tourism, and attitude–behaviour correspondence.

Adam Landon is a postdoctoral researcher in the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources at the University of Georgia, USA. His research is related to the human dimensions of natural resources including outdoor recreation, conservation psychology, and sustainable tourism, as well as student learning outcomes of study abroad.

ORCID

Simone Grabowski http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7904-1240

Stephen Wearing http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5158-059X