Integrative Project Guide The integrative project gives you an opportunity to increase understanding of yourself by integrating key aspects of this class: critical reflection and application of variou

Integrative Project Guide – Study Abroad Site

The integrative project gives you an opportunity to increase understanding of your desired or confirmed target study abroad site. Using this information, consider how to understand yourself and your own culture in relation to your target site. This will ultimately help you leverage tools and concepts from the course to more positively communicate and interact with those culture(s). This project is based on the dialectical approach to intercultural communication which asks us to think about oppositions in culture and ourselves. There are two major components:

First, research your target site for some key information, make sure to try and investigate locally and regionally. For some questions, you may need to look at a national-level for information.

Next, based on what you have learned, write about how you may interact with, fit in and/or be different than the culture(s) of the target site study abroad you’re going into. Then, answer the prompt pulling from both the research and critical reflection.

For the working draft, you may submit the full paper or an in-depth and detailed outline. Your draft needs to include research and sources you used. 

Step 1- Research Site: Questions to **think** about while researching

1. History/Past-Present/Future: How are some key historical events or movements of your study abroad site shaping and informing current events or movements? 

2. Privilege-Disadvantage: In what ways are some groups privileged? In what ways are some groups disadvantaged? What are the important historical and current waves of immigration? Who, if any, are indigenous peoples?

3. Differences-Similarities: What customs, norms, beliefs or value patterns seem to be more enduring? What new customs, norms, beliefs or value patterns seem to be emerging?

Step 2 - Critically Reflect: Questions to **think** about when critically reflecting:

1. Personal-Contextual: How might your social roles and interactions change? How might you be in opposition to your own culture’s norms, beliefs or values when abroad because of the beliefs and values of people at your study abroad site?  
   

2. Differences-Similarities: What cultural similarities might you have with the host culture(s) at your target site, what differences?
   

3. History/Past-Present/Future: What past or current events in your own culture might impact how you interact or view others in the target site?
   

4. Privilege-Disadvantage: In what ways might you be privileged or disadvantaged when you are abroad that are different than at home?
   

Step 3 - Write: Answer this prompt based on your research and critical reflection:

Additional Information

Use specific examples from your research and critical reflection to support your points. You are not required to address all of the dialectics from the guiding questions about the research or critical reflection, you can go more in-depth on a few or more broadly on many of them.

You are encouraged to use some of the worksheets or exercises (Step 1 Considering Identity project, core values survey, Step 2 Frameworks analysis, cultural learning strategies, psychological intensity factors, etc.) from the course to inform your discussion.

The paper should be approximately 6-8 pages in length (Times New Roman, 12 pt. font, double-spaced, standard 1-inch margins). Remember to properly cite any information from your research.

Notes on Sources and Research Tools:

Sources for your research on your target site do not have to be “academic” in nature, but they ought to be credible and reasonable without obvious intentional skewing. Please use your best judgment and critical thinking when deciding on sources, and always try and confirm information in another source.

Librarians at the AAC

National Government websites

Local or regional newspapers

Internet resources: CIA World Factbook - https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/resources/the-world factbook/index.html

Commisco-Global - https://www.commisceo-global.com/country-guides/ 

Wikipedia - example https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_to_Sweden (Links to an external site.)

Google Scholar – https://scholar.google.com (Links to an external site.)

eHRAF World Culture - https://ehrafworldcultures.yale.edu/ehrafe/azCultures.do?context=main#thisChar=A