INSTITUTIONAL POLICY CHANGES AND THEIR EFFECTS ON THE QUALITY OF STUDY ABROAD PROPOSALS AND STUDENTS' INTERCULTURAL COMPETENCE: A PROGRAM EVALUATION

Abstract

This dissertation provides a detailed program evaluation of a study abroad program within a college of education at a large, research I land grant university. The focus of the evaluation was to examine administrative policy changes and their effect on program quality. Using the guidelines in the Kellogg Foundations' Project-Level Evaluation Model (1998), I focused on describing the context, exploring the changes implemented, and documenting outcome changes. I began with an examination of the context of the program, including the environment in which it operated, internal and external forces that were influencing the need for change, and resources and support available to facilitate change. This dissertation describes and evaluates the implementation of policy and procedural changes that were designed to affect program outcomes. Finally, the dissertation evaluates the outcomes of the administrative policy changes on 1) quality of faculty study abroad proposals and 2) students' intercultural competence as evidenced in study abroad experience reflections. I present evidence that college administrators acted on a need to create more guidance to oversee the impact and effectiveness of the study abroad program. Policies were created with the intent of directing faculty to consider how their study abroad experiences might be purposely designed as a high impact learning experience for both disciplinary learning and intercultural competence. Faculty proposal quality was measured using nine best practices identified in the literature. After implementation of policy changes, faculty proposal scores were significantly higher than before policy implementation. Student's intercultural competence was measured using the AAC&U VALUE Intercultural Knowledge and Competence Rubric. Students' intercultural competence scores (as evidenced in their reflections) were compared between the 2014-2015 time frame (before changes were made) and the 2019-2021 time frame (after changes were made). In 2019-2021 reflection essays I found significantly higher scores for self-awareness, worldview, empathy, and openness. Communication and curiosity scores were not significantly different and may be due to short duration of the experiences (communication) and the fact that the experiences were embedded in credit bearing course with a thoroughly detailed analysis of cultural differences (curiosity).