https://doi.org/10.15446/profile.v22n1.75772
Education Professionals as Facilitators of Study Abroad
Programs in Spain: Formal Training Needs
Profesionales de la educación como facilitadores de programas
de Study Abroad en España: necesidades formativas
1Amalia Herencia Grillo*
2Elena Hernández de la Torre**
Universidad de Sevilla, Sevilla, Spain
This paper investigates an aspect of study abroad programs that has rarely been studied before: the
training needs of local education professionals in Spain. Through a mixed-method, using a questionnaire
completed by 103 participants, and interviews with 15 of them, we focus on their previous formal specific
training and their perspective on the group of students they work with. Results show that most of them
have rarely been trained on how to work as cultural facilitators for students from the us. This fact often
creates a cultural gap and prevents the teachers from fulfilling their role as cultural bridges for students.
Specific action needs to be taken in order to solve this lack of preparation in this group of professionals.
Key words: Academic teaching personnel, intercultural education, study abroad, teacher education.
Este artículo trata un aspecto de los programas de study abroad poco investigado hasta ahora: las
necesidades formativas de los profesionales del sector en España. Utilizando una metodologia mixta,
a través de un cuestionario completado por 103 participantes y entrevistas realizadas a 15 de ellos, nos
fijamos en su formación formal específica previa y en su perspectiva sobre el colectivo de estudiantes
con los que trabajan. Los resultados demuestran que la mayoría de los docentes no han sido formados
específicamente sobre cómo trabajar como facilitadores culturales con alumnos estadounidenses. Esta
falta de formación produce a menudo un vacío cultural y no les permite llevar a cabo su función de
puentes culturales. Se hace necesario establecer una actuación específica para solventar esa ausencia
de preparación en este grupo de profesionales.
Palabras clave: educación del profesorado, educación intercultural, personal académico educador,
study abroad.
* E-mail: amalia@intercultural-school.org
** E-mail: eht@us.es
How to cite this article (apa, 6th ed.): Herencia Grillo, A., & Hernández de la Torre, E. (2020). Education professionals as facilitators of
study abroad programs in Spain: Formal training needs. Profile: Issues in Teachers’ Professional Development, 22(1), 57-73. https://doi.
org/10.15446/profile.v22n1.75772.
This article was received on October 24, 2018 and accepted on October 12, 2019.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons license Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives
4.0 International License. Consultation is possible at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.
Profile: Issues Teach. Prof. Dev., Vol. 22 No. 1, Jan-Jun, 2020. ISSN 1657-0790 (printed) 2256-5760 (online). Bogotá, Colombia. Pages 57-73
57
Herencia Grillo & Hernández de la Torre
Introduction
A study abroad program is a “pre-scheduled,
temporary stay in a foreign country for educational
purposes” (Taguchi, 2015, p. 4). These programs have
been functioning in the us for around 60 years now
and consist of an educational initiative that aims to
provide students with a better understanding of the
world other than the one they know, and a set of personal and academic skills that help them better develop
in a globalized world and improve their intercultural
competence, which is the ultimate goal of any study
abroad experience.
In order to do this, these us programs provide
students with a set of tools in the shape of classes,
cultural activities, housing with locals, and a continuous
guidance throughout the program duration. Local
professionals of study abroad (faculty and staff) are
the ones in charge of providing students with these
tools, and are the ones who work and interact with
them on a daily basis.
Our study has been developed in Spain via interviewing professionals that work with us university students
on study abroad programs. We will have a look at the
work that these local Spanish professionals need to do, at
their previous formal training as facilitators, and at the
necessary skills and tools they need to have, provided
they play an essential role in these programs’ success,
aspects about which they have rarely ever been asked
or consulted. We will focus on two main research questions: (a) Have local faculty and staff received previous
formal academic training for their role of facilitators
of study abroad? And (b) how does this preparation
(or lack of) translate in their daily work with students?
According to these two questions, we assert the following hypotheses: (1) that local faculty and staff have not
received previous formal academic training for their role
as facilitators of study abroad as such and (2), that this
lack of preparation translates into a culture gap between
them and the students enrolled in their program, which
is usually filled through experience.
58
Cultural Understanding
The ultimate goal of any study abroad experience is
to enhance intercultural competence, understanding this
as “a set of cognitive, affective and behavioral skills and
characteristics that supports effective and appropriate
interaction in a variety of cultural contexts” (Bennett as
cited in Anderson, Hubbard, & Lawton, 2015, p. 39). The
student must be capable not only of gaining knowledge,
skills, and attitudes, but also of integrating them into his/
her own experience and becoming a culturally effective
and appropriate individual, despite some limitations
(Baartman & de Bruijn, 2011; Li, Olson, & Frieze, 2013;
Long, 2013; Williams, 2013; Wong, 2015).
If students are supposed to develop deeper cultural
understanding and intercultural competence after a
study abroad experience, what is it that students and
professionals see as “culture”? What does it mean?
Historically, the definition of the term “culture” has
been too complex and difficult for it to be assigned a
single meaning. According to Vallescar (2000), around
1920 the term became more defined as a result of strong
critical reflection on the concept of culture, but still there
is not a homogeneous meaning for the word “culture.”
Why? This is mainly due to the different disciplines
(anthropology, sociology, philosophy, etc.) that provide
different perspectives, but also due to the fast changes
in society and the events that took place during the first
half of the 20th Century. Culture can be understood as “a
key element in the process of human development” (Cole
as cited in Roth & Lee, 2006, p. 31). It is also a “concrete
world of beliefs and practices” (Sewell as cited in Roth &
Lee, 2006, p. 32). We also need to understand as culture
the different aspects communicated by individuals from
one generation to the other through oral or non-verbal
language, meaning the history, values, traditions, and
so on (Sternberg as cited in Stemler, Imada, & Sorkin,
2014, p. 26). It would also be “the shared philosophies,
ideologies, values, assumptions, beliefs, expectations,
attitudes and norms that knit a community together”
(Owens as cited in Domville-Roach, 2007, p. 19). Students
Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Facultad de Ciencias Humanas, Departamento de Lenguas Extranjeras
Education Professionals as Facilitators of Study Abroad Programs in Spain: Formal Training Needs
undergo a transition from their home cultures to the
target one, which in this case is the Spanish culture.
Students need to learn about this target culture
while in the host country and while living outside of
their comfort zone for a period of time. This learning
process requires a standard immersion period of time
in which local staff and faculty give them the clues and
guide them through the process, acting as a sort of
cultural facilitators. However, students do not always
share the same goals and do not always have the same
background and interests. To give some perspective,
and for the sake of this study, we should keep in mind
the following:
• The view of the target culture (Spain) has been
idealized by most students; each of them has his/
her own perspective according to what they have
learned, studied, and understood. Students investigate on their own through social networks, study
abroad providers’ websites, family and friends,
and so on. But also, they have received an image
of a traditional Western Europe culture or country
described by different writers and they may think
they know much about Europe even before getting
on the plane (Anderson et al., 2015; Bash, 2012; Beech,
2015; Grey, Cox, Serafini, & Sanz, 2015; Heinzmann,
Künzle, Schallhart, & Müller, 2015; Woolf, 2011).
• When going from their home culture to the target
culture, students need to go through a transition
period where they “negotiate and combine ingredients from both cultures” (Engeström, Engerström,
& Kärkkäinen as cited in Akkerman & Bakker,
2011, p. 134). In doing so, they need to rely on and
trust in what we can call “limit objects,” which can
help them as a bridge between both cultures; these
objects “can be adapted to both cultures according
to the individual’s needs while keeping their own
identity along the way” (Star & Griesemer as cited
in Akkermman & Bakker, 2011, p. 134). The process
of transferring from one culture to the other results
in what we can call “third culture,” which creates a
learning environment where students share aspects
of the target culture in a lifestyle they had in their
home culture (Altweck & Marshall, 2015; Wolcott,
2010). What is more important, students need to
keep an active role and a positive attitude (Bennett,
2004; Carini, Kuh, & Klein, 2006; Carlson & Widaman, 1988; Engberg, Jourian, & Davidson, 2016;
Félix-Brasdefer & Haster-Barker, 2015; Trilokekar
& Rasmi, 2011). During this transition period from
one culture to another, professionals have a crucial role as facilitators and guide throughout the
whole process.
Students need to undergo a state of acculturation,
classically defined as the “phenomena which result when
groups of individuals having different cultures come into
continuous first-hand contact, with subsequent changes
in the original culture pattern of either or both groups”
(Redfield, Linton, & Herskovits as cited in Altweck &
Marshall, 2015, p. 2).
In order to achieve acculturation, students need to
build their experiences with the skills they already have
and combine them with who they are as individuals.
This process is not the same for each student, since each
of them will have his/her own personality, background,
expectations, motivations, and goals. Affect, behavior,
and cognition are essential to this process (Billet, 2013;
Bowman, 2011; Brewer, 2011; Gabelica, van den Bossche,
de Maeyer, Segers, & Gijselaers, 2014; Savicki, 2013). As
we will see later, the accompanying professionals play
a crucial role as facilitators in this process.
Study Abroad Programs
in Spain
Almost a century after the first Institute of International Education (iie) programs started in Europe, the
phenomenon of study abroad has spread throughout
Spain. Most of the biggest us study abroad providers are established in Spain: Council for International
Educational Exchange (ciee), International Studies
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59
Herencia Grillo & Hernández de la Torre
Abroad (isa), Cultural Experiences Abroad (cea),
Academic Programs International (api), Arcadia, and
more. Students can participate in island programs,
where they receive custom-made courses with all us
students, as well as in programs that offer mixed or
direct enrollment in local universities.
The program offerings are large and stable. Most
programs conform to the National Association for
Foreign Student Affairs (nafsa), created in 1964 in
the us, and the Forum on Education Abroad (forum)
(Dolby & Rahman, 2008; forum, 2015). There is also a
Spanish association that includes most programs, called
apune, Association of North American University Programs in Spain (Asociación de Programas Universitarios
Norteamericanos en España). Created in 1968, it offers
seminars and workshops and holds regular meetings
for its members. Their mission reads:
Programs in the Association represent accredited North American
Colleges and Universities which offer undergraduate and graduate
students the opportunity to study abroad for a summer, semester
or full academic year. Classes offered include Spanish language and
literature, as well as History, International Relations, Economics,
Business, Art History, Sociology, Anthropology, Latin American
and European Studies. (www.apune.org)
Even though this association exists and provides
multiple tools for programs in Spain, not all of the
providers are members. Thus, a great opportunity to
work toward standardizing and coordinating the study
abroad offerings in Spain is lost.
According to the “Open Doors” report for Education
Abroad published by iie, a total of 332,727 us students
studied abroad for the 2016/2017 academic year. Out
of these, 31,230 (that is, 9.4%) came to Spain (https://
www.iie.org/en/Research-and-Insights/Open-Doors/
Data/US-Study-Abroad/Destinations).
A large majority of study abroad students complete
surveys on their experience, which are usually administered by their study abroad program provider. These
surveys, in turn, are used by the provider to improve
60
their services and features. Since the surveys are usually
private and anonymous, the results are generally not
shared with other programs or institutions. To date
there is no global database that summarizes students’
expectations and outcomes, a deficiency which does
not allow international education professionals to see a
broader view of the real outcomes and needs of students.
Students’ Role in Study Abroad
In order to better understand what study abroad
professionals’ work is, we need to pay attention to the
students they work with. As we mentioned previously,
most programs measure their own students’ overall
satisfaction with their study abroad experience. Students
usually complete surveys on safety, academics, extracurricular activities provided, and housing quality,
just to name a few categories. Some programs create
their own questionnaires while others create them
following already made surveys, including but not
limited to the following: gap (Global Awareness Profile),
gpi (Global Perspective Inventory), abos (Attitudinal
and Behavioral Openness Scale), and more (Stemler
et al., 2014).
The various surveys share the common measurement of student satisfaction with their program and
different aspects of students’ development. Although
there is still no full agreement on the validity of these
measuring tools (Kealey, 2015), the six aspects of study
abroad student development most preferred by the
Association of American Colleges and Universities
(aac&u) are: cultural self-awareness, knowledge of
cultural worldview frameworks, empathy, verbal and
non-verbal communication, curiosity, and openness
(Williams, 2013, p. 153).
Developing these aspects above and gaining acculturation in the academic context is a process that must
be led by the local faculty and staff as they are the ones
providing students with the insights of the target culture.
Different authors have proved how students’ learning
process is better when study abroad leaders intervene
Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Facultad de Ciencias Humanas, Departamento de Lenguas Extranjeras
Education Professionals as Facilitators of Study Abroad Programs in Spain: Formal Training Needs
as facilitators of the experience and promote students’
self-reflection (Van Dinther, Dochy, & Segers, 2011;
Wong, 2015).
The Role of Local Faculty and Staff
If we agree that local faculty and staff are paramount
to a successful study abroad experience, we then need
to pay attention to the formal training, background,
and skills of these individuals when dealing with us
students.
These professionals should have experience with
diversity, be familiar with the culture of the students
they are teaching, be open, and facilitate reflection.
They should encourage student participation and create
an appropriate learning environment where students
feel supported in order to get the most out of their
experience. The professor or staff member, as a culture
object themselves, would act as a cultural representative,
facilitator, and mediator between the home and target
cultures. Although the immersion in the culture already
gives students a good opportunity to learn, being “in”
the culture is not enough. There needs to be a guide, a
facilitator that helps students and who can, among other
things, reduce anxiety on the part of the students, challenge them, and help them throughout the whole process
(Berardo & Deardorff, 2012; Geboers, Geijsel, Admiraal,
& ten Dam, 2012; Keller, Goetz, Becker, Morger, & Hensley, 2014; Kuhn, 2015; Maruyama, Moreno, Gudeman,
& Marin, 2000; Roorda, Koomen, Spilt, & Oort, 2011;
Rotgans & Schmidt, 2014; Sánchez, 2014; Schallenberg,
2015; Stanulis, Little, & Wibbens, 2012).
Immersion should ideally be customized for each
student, meeting their needs and providing adequate
discipline and permanent advice (Slimbach as cited in
De Graaf, Slagter, Larsen, & Ditta, 2013). The limitations
here are visible to us: Students’ expectations need to be
known and taken into consideration, but from what we
have already seen, these are different for each individual
student. Local faculty and staff need to be able to fill in
these gaps and provide students with the help they need
and, what is most important, these professionals need
to know where students come from, what their level of
acceptance is, and what amount of challenge they can
support; in order to do so, facilitators themselves should
have a high degree of intercultural communication
competence (Berardo & Deardorff, 2012). In doing so,
the role that empathy plays is essential. Empathy allows
educators to adopt the students’ perspective and ease the
learning process but it should go both ways, not only
on the educators’ part but also on the students’ part
(Jang, Kim, & Reeve, 2016; McAllister & Irvine, 2002;
Spalding, Klecka, Lin, Wang, & Odell, 2011).
Method
This study adopts a mixed-method approach.
Through questionnaires and interviews, we gather
qualitative data in the shape of open questions included
in the questionnaires and interviews, in order to get
information from professionals in the field of study
abroad in Spain. A quantitative methodology has also
been used when analyzing the questionnaire’s liability
using the data program Statistical Package for the Social
Sciences (spss) 22. Questionnaires have been administered and answered anonymously, and interviews have
been conducted with participants who provided their
contact information when answering the questionnaire. Interviews have been recorded, transcribed, and
organized using the qualitative program maxqda 12
(see Appendix a for more details).
Selection Criteria
To gather information about study abroad professionals’ previous experience and needs, we contacted
in September 2017 some of the existing programs
in Spain which offer programs in different cities:
ciee, cc-cs, api, asa, cea, and isa. There was no
filter applied in regard to the participants’ years of
experience or specific roles in the programs, since all
of their opinions are essential to this investigation.
Due to program policies, surveys could not be sent
Profile: Issues Teach. Prof. Dev., Vol. 22 No. 1, Jan-Jun, 2020. ISSN 1657-0790 (printed) 2256-5760 (online). Bogotá, Colombia. Pages 57-73
61
Herencia Grillo & Hernández de la Torre
directly to professionals, so we distributed them to the
directors of us-based study abroad program providers
in Spain who then shared the survey with their faculty
and staff. Later, in June 2018, we distributed the questionnaire among other professionals of study abroad
associated with sietar Spain (Society for Intercultural
Education, Training, and Research).
Participants are professionals of study abroad
that work as professors or administrators for the
abovementioned programs in Spain. They are the
ones who organize all of the logistics aspects of a
program abroad: housing, classes, cultural activities,
emergencies, daily advising, and so forth. They keep
in frequent contact with students in and outside of
classrooms and are the key elements for a program’s
success. When asked about their previous academic
backgrounds, interviewees reflected a wide variety
of responses, mainly psychology, English philology,
secretary degree, communication, translation, economics, and computer science. Four of them have a
master’s degree; there is one respondent in the process
of obtaining a phd, and two others who hold a phd
in English or humanities.
Questionnaires and Interviews
The questionnaire was created using a Google
Docs template and distributed by email to a total of
122 faculty and staff in Spain. A total of 103 responses
were received, which means a participation rate of
84.4%. Participation was optional but highly encouraged
through email and phone conversations. There was
significant interest on the part of the participants, since
most of them had never received any similar survey or
had been asked about their previous training and the
perspective of their students before and were eager to
share their thoughts.
The questionnaire we administered consisted of
12 yes/no questions. The questionnaire was designed
according to our own previous experience in study
abroad program administration and by gathering some
62
professionals’ feedback on the accuracy of the questions;
it also asks four open-ended questions that serve as
an essential source of qualitative information for this
research (Appendix b).
Since some participants gave an n/a answer to some
of the questions, we conducted personal interviews with
15 of them in order to collect data that would clarify
the neutral answers to some of the questions. The 15
were those who had provided their contact data when
filling in the questionnaire. Interviews were recorded,
transcribed, and organized using the qualitative program
maxqda 12 (Appendix a). The aim of these tools is to
study the two research questions: (a) Have local faculty
and staff received previous formal academic training
for their role as facilitators of study abroad? And (b),
how does this preparation (or lack of) translate in their
daily work with students?
To check the questionnaire’s liability index, we
administered the program spss 22 obtaining a Cronbach Alfa of 0.747, as seen on Tables 1 and 2. Liability
statistics need to be over 0.7 in order to prove that a
questionnaire (in this case) has a good liability and is
useful and accurate for scientific research of this kind.
A hundred percent of cases (variables) were valid,
and 12 elements (number of yes/no questions on the
questionnaire) were taken into consideration.
Table 1. Case Processing Summary
Valid
Cases
Excluded
Total
N
%
103
100
8
0
103
100
Table 2. Cronbach Alfa
Liability statistics
Cronbach Alfa
# of elements
.747
12
Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Facultad de Ciencias Humanas, Departamento de Lenguas Extranjeras
Education Professionals as Facilitators of Study Abroad Programs in Spain: Formal Training Needs
Results
Results of questionnaires and interviews will be
grouped together in order to provide better accuracy
to the answers. These can be analyzed according to the
two research questions:
rq1: Have local faculty and staff received previous
formal academic training for their role as facilitators
of study abroad?
Figures 1, 2, 3, and 4 show the professionals’ previous
knowledge on study abroad and their answers to the
first four questions in the questionnaire.
Figures 1 to 4 show, on one side, that about half of
these professionals knew about the existence of study
abroad programs and had previous experience with
us citizens and at university level, but Question 3 also
proves the lack of specific training as facilitators of study
abroad that most local faculty and staff share; only 35%
of respondents say they had received formal training.
These first four questions are linked with the open
question: “What was your previous knowledge about
study abroad programs?” which gives respondents the
opportunity to expand their comments and provides
interesting answers (all translations from Spanish by
the authors):
I received training as I moved up in this organization. But when I
Figure 2. I Had Experience With University Students
N/A
11
No
52
40
Yes
0
20
40
60
Figure 3. I Had Received Previous Formal Training
on my Tasks
N/A
28
No
40
35
Yes
0
20
40
60
Figure 4. I Had Worked With US Citizens
or Students Before
arrived and started as program assistant I didn’t have any training
N/A
in aspects such as “integration.” (Prof.13)
7
I had no previous knowledge about study abroad programs. (Prof.87)
I really had no idea about study abroad. (Prof.45)
No
45
Figure 1. I Knew What Study Abroad Consisted of
51
Yes
N/A
19
0
No
45
0
20
40
40
60
None of respondents has had any specific academic
course in intercultural affairs, intercultural communication, or similar, or had been formally trained
in the role of facilitators, other than learning some
logistics aspects.
39
Yes
20
60
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63
Herencia Grillo & Hernández de la Torre
As for the interviews,1 the following questions
align with the first four questions in the questionnaire
(Appendix b):2
Question 1: Had you received specific formal training prior to
working with us students? (forprv)
Not when I started. There is no specific training, at least that I know
. . . I have learnt through experience (Prof.6)
This specific answer summarizes our second hypothesis on the lack of specific formal training and on how
professionals learn through experience. All of the 15
interviewees answered “no” to this question.
Question 5: What would you have liked to know before working
in this job? (infprv)
Many things. Having some knowledge on laws would have helped
me, knowing how usa universities work in terms of credits, their
policies, safety issues, terrorist attacks protocols, etc. (Prof.12)
Except for one of the interviewees who is fine with
having learned from experience, the rest of them identify
their lack of knowledge about the profile of the students
they were going to work with, their needs, and goals as a
negative aspect which means an obstacle for them. As we
saw before, professionals believed they needed to have
certain skills and a high degree of intercultural competence themselves in order to work as effective facilitators.
Question 2: What would you say is your job’s biggest difficulty?
(prpdif)
The main difficulty is how to set up a frontier with students, because
you need to be available 24/7 and receiving messages from all sides
of the field. The us is a very service-oriented culture and students
are also outside of their comfort zone so they are always…out. And
they are very demanding. (Prof.7)
Along the line of the two hypotheses, one of the
consequences of professionals not having received
previous specific training as cultural facilitators is the
1 For the sake of this article’s length, we will provide just one
example for each question.
2 Codes between brackets have been obtained by using maxqda
12 tool and correspond to each question.
64
lack of connection and the frequent misunderstandings
that arise between professionals and students. As we
can read in the former comment which summarizes
the rest of answers to this question, cultural differences
remain the main difficulty in these professionals’ daily
activity. This being the case, it becomes hard for most
of them to act as effective cultural facilitators and ease
the students’ transition into the new culture (Allen &
Hermann-Wilmarth, 2004; Dejaeghere & Zhang, 2008;
Knight et al., 2015; Marx & Moss, 2011).
All of these data would partially confirm our first
hypothesis that most professionals do not often have
specific formal training in their role as facilitators of study
abroad. They have mostly learned through experience and,
as a starting point, they only share the necessary ability
to speak English. When developing the answers in open
questions and interviews, respondents agree that they start
in these programs from the bottom roles and learn through
experience. According to their answers in open questions
and interviews, respondents who said they had worked
with us citizens before had done so as Spanish teachers
or as tourist guides. This leads to our conclusion that the
majority of professionals involved in study abroad start
working without any formal academic knowledge of their
tasks, obligations, and duties, and without knowing much
about working with us students on this kind of programs.
As we saw before, this is an essential requirement for a
cultural facilitator that is not fulfilled and which can bring
a lot of misunderstanding and a big culture gap between
them and their students. This last statement would also
confirm our second research question.
rq2: How does this preparation (or lack of) translate
in their daily work with students?
Despite most of them not having received previous
formal academic training for their role as facilitators,
the perspective of these professionals is essential to the
success of any kind of study abroad program, since they
are the ones in direct and daily contact with students.
Figures 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12 show the responses to
how professionals prepare themselves and how they
perceive students abroad. These answers are proof of the
Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Facultad de Ciencias Humanas, Departamento de Lenguas Extranjeras
Education Professionals as Facilitators of Study Abroad Programs in Spain: Formal Training Needs
different perspectives between students and professionals
and support our hypothesis that professionals’ lack of
preparation translates into a culture gap between them
and the students enrolled in their program.
Figure 8. They Show Interest in Integrating
in the Culture
N/A
57
18
No
Figure 5. I Have Prepared Myself Specifically
for These Groups of Students
28
Yes
N/A
29
0
No
20
Yes
55
20
60
Figure 9. They Take Active Part
in Extracurricular Activities
31
0
40
40
N/A
60
No
Figure 6. They Know About Our Culture
Yes
37
18
48
0
N/A
20
40
60
46
No
Figure 10. They Keep Frequent Contact
With Local Staff and Faculty
48
37
N/A
Yes
9
15
No
0
20
40
60
51
Yes
Figure 7. They Show Interest in Learning in
and Outside the Classroom
N/A
0
40
60
Figure 11. They Use Spanish Among Themselves
50
16
N/A
No
20
14
62
No
39
Yes
25
Yes
0
20
40
60
0
20
40
60
80
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Herencia Grillo & Hernández de la Torre
Figure 12. They Want to Learn More About Socio
Cultural Aspects
N/A
46
No
25
32
Yes
0
20
40
60
Although respondents identify little previous knowledge on the part of the students about the target culture,
high percentages point to the fact that faculty and staff
see a genuine interest on the part of most students to
learn more about the culture not only in classrooms
but also in outside organized activities, which would
align with the importance of the role of professionals
as facilitators of the experience for students. However,
most students do not use Spanish as the main language
of communication, which creates a barrier to integrating into the culture. This, together with the lack of
formal academic training for professionals, brings up a
cultural gap that is sometimes hard to fill, as our second
hypothesis points out.
Questions 5 to 12 in the questionnaire are linked to
the open question, “Please describe what you perceive
as the biggest difficulty in working with us study abroad
students,” as a way to determine which areas of their role
have been harder and which would need improvement.
These testimonies about the biggest challenges also
confirm the existing gap between professionals and
students. In order to organize answers in a coherent
way, they have been classified by thematic categories
as reflected in Table 3.
Table 3. Biggest Difficulties of Working With US Students Abroad
Categories
66
Participants’ testimonies
Cultural
differences
Facing situations where cultural aspects apply, such as what is politically correct, is still hard for
me. (Prof.36)
The imposition of usa-style norms that put limits to the local way of doing things. This limits
the students’ experience since they have a program that is in between their home culture and our
own…a bad mixture. (Prof.68)
The idea that the meeting point for students and locals is “the culture”. The culture at the end of
the day is another service we provide them, where everything takes place in a customized way
according to the students’ expectations and final satisfaction. (Prof.11)
Lack of
interest on
the part of
students
Many times they don’t take interest in activities that would enrich their experience. (Prof.90)
Many students are only interested in having fun, which makes later development in academic
activities really difficult. (Prof.3)
The biggest issue is the lack of interest in the program and the culture. As our city is a touristic
one some students (luckily not all) come like on paid holidays and that makes it difficult for us to
focus on academic and cultural activities. (Prof.77)
Unclear
expectations
Sometimes the students’ expectations differ from our mission and goals. While we are focused on
high quality academic programs, students seem to be more satisfied with classes/activities that
require less work and mean more fun. (Prof.33)
We ask for honesty from them, but sometimes they are afraid of complaining and we don’t hear
about problems until the end. It’s not like this for most of them, but it still happens. (Prof.45)
Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Facultad de Ciencias Humanas, Departamento de Lenguas Extranjeras
Education Professionals as Facilitators of Study Abroad Programs in Spain: Formal Training Needs
As for the interviews, the following questions aim to
provide a deeper look into the professionals’ perspective
and how different it is from what students claim as their
priorities, what would also confirm our second hypothesis.
Question 3: From your perspective, which are the students’ priorities?
(prialu)
The main priority is having fun and after (getting) the credits. (Prof.2)
more specifically in study abroad (Jang et al., 2016;
McAllister & Irvine, 2002; Spalding et al., 2011). And
as we can read from interviewees’ answers, empathy,
mutual knowledge, and detailed information on the
“other” are essential to saving the cultural gap and
building rapport.
Question 7: Which would you say are an international educator’s
necessary tools and/or skills? (skitoo)
According to the literature, students’ declared priorities when travelling abroad were: improving the
language (Spanish); making Spanish friends; improving
their independence and autonomy and learning more
about different cultures (Li et al., 2013). But when asking professionals about what they perceived to be the
students’ priorities, results are very different, which is
another signal of the lack of connection between them.
Most answers are unanimous in pointing to the
experience itself as being the most important for students,
together with gaining the necessary academic credits,
an aspect seen in the revised literature (Long, 2013).
Question 4: Do you think students have clear expectations regarding
their stay in our country? (expcla)
I think that many of them are not prepared for the cultural shock
and their expectations about Spain do not match the reality. (Prof.6)
Undefined expectations do not necessarily point
to a negative aspect of the experience, since it can be
considered that students come with an open mind and
free of prejudice, and this seems to be a more proper
state to enjoy the time abroad (Stemler et al., 2014;
Williams, 2013). However, working with students that
do not know exactly what they expect enlarges the
cultural gap and makes the professionals’ work harder.
Question 6: How do you think the “cultural gap” between students
and faculty/administrations can be saved? (mjrvcu)
I think empathy is the main tool to break the culture gap between
students and professionals (Prof.7)
When reviewing the literature, we noted the
importance of empathy in intercultural education,
Empathy and being able to look at the big picture (Prof.11)
We have seen before how empathy is placed as
the number one competence that all educators should
have; empathy allows educators to adopt the students’
perspective and ease the learning process. It helps
us take a different perspective (Bennett, 2004; Jang
et al., 2016; McAllister & Irvine, 2002; Spalding et
al., 2011; Stemler et al., 2014). We have found in this
study a good example of the importance of empathy,
since out of the 15 interviewees, 13 of them specifically
declared empathy as the key element in any intercultural scenario.
This study’s findings can be summarized by going
back to our hypotheses about the lack of previous
formal training for professionals of study abroad and
how this translates into a culture gap with the students
they are working with.
Conclusions and Implications
for Further Research
This study focused on two main hypotheses: (1)
Local faculty and staff have not received previous formal
academic training for their role as facilitators of study
abroad as such and (2), this lack of preparation translates
into a culture gap between them and the students
enrolled in their program, which is usually filled through
experience. Hypothesis 1 proved to be correct for most of
participants and Hypothesis 2 has also been confirmed
through data analysis and participants’ testimonies.
Study abroad programs present an opportunity for
students to improve and enhance their intercultural
Profile: Issues Teach. Prof. Dev., Vol. 22 No. 1, Jan-Jun, 2020. ISSN 1657-0790 (printed) 2256-5760 (online). Bogotá, Colombia. Pages 57-73
67
Herencia Grillo & Hernández de la Torre
competence. In order to do so, they need to rely on the
professionals that work in the field who, at the same time,
must be inter-culturally competent in order to function as valid facilitators of the experience for students.
Findings in this article point to the fact that most study
abroad professionals who participated in this study
so far have not received formal academic training on
how to play the role of facilitators and, in turn, learn
through experience, which brings together a cultural
gap that should be prevented. Although some of the
participants declare to have received some information
on their tasks and have tried to prepare themselves,
they still see a need to create and implement a formal
training strategy that would benefit themselves and
how they act as cultural bridges for students. As part
of this strategy, empathy seems to be the crucial skill
that would help knit a coherent and well-structured
study abroad program that leads to an improvement
of intercultural competence.
According to this and looking closely at professionals’ feedback, we believe that a standard training period
for professionals should be established; including aspects
such as intercultural competence, culture specifics,
culture differences, third culture, empathy, negotiation, and the role that personality plays in intercultural
encounters, among others.
The main conclusion we can reach after revising
the existing literature and comparing it with this
study’s results is that professionals should be, first,
formally trained in intercultural competence and
in intercultural tools in order to work as valid and
strong bridges between both cultures and as the
perfect guide for students to rely on. Professionals, as
objects of the target culture themselves, need to learn
what is expected from them and need to be trained
not only in the logistics and daily issues of these
programs, but also in the needs of the students and
their role as facilitators. This training strategy should
include, among other aspects: national educational
system specifics, intercultural competence, culture
68
aspects like behavior in class, leisure, legal aspects,
historical background, personal relationships, and
labor specifics.
Would this cultural gap have been smaller if staff
and faculty had received previous formal training? It
is something we have not asked in this study but we
think that answers provided by interviewees point
to the fact that defining and implementing a formal
training period for local faculty and staff would be a
very interesting and essential task for the success of
study abroad programs in Spain. Communication and
interaction between professionals and students are, as
we have already seen, key points of study abroad success
and all components should be carefully investigated
and attention needs to be paid to the other part of the
cultural interaction, namely the student. Study abroad
programs evaluate the final satisfaction of students and
pay attention to their needs during their stay abroad,
but there is not a general rule about the amount of
work that is required by students before they come to
Spain. Implementing a survey where students could
reflect on their personal experiences, achievements,
and failures would provide programs with valuable
information on how to better address students’ needs,
and would consequently help programs improve their
professionals’ set of tools.
There are also other aspects that we have not included
in this study but that should be taken into account when
further investigating this issue: different generations,
fields of study of students, languages of study, levels of
foreign language, and disciplines taught. All of these
would most likely throw a different light and perspective
and would most likely enhance opportunities for both
students and professionals.
Limitations of the Study
This current study is limited in size and scope.
Access to the opinions and feedback of professionals
of study abroad in Spain is reasonably easy and it is fair
to say that we have found very good dispositions on
Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Facultad de Ciencias Humanas, Departamento de Lenguas Extranjeras
Education Professionals as Facilitators of Study Abroad Programs in Spain: Formal Training Needs
their part to collaborate with us, but the study abroad
community is still small, so answers are small in number
if we think about the big phenomenon of study abroad
as a whole. Despite professionals’ valuable feedback,
we haven’t had access to programs’ internal policies,
so we haven’t been able to investigate further on what
strategies (if any) are being implemented towards faculty
and staff formal training.
The study applies to local faculty and staff in Spain,
so we cannot be sure if results could apply to other
countries where study abroad is also an established
and widespread phenomenon, but it is definitely an
interesting investigation to be done. However, provided
that most of the programs that currently operate in
Spain also have programs in other countries and follow
the same guidelines (adapted to local cultures), we
can imagine that answers would be similar if we asked
faculty and staff in other countries.
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71
Herencia Grillo & Hernández de la Torre
About the Authors
Amalia Herencia Grillo is a phd student and researcher on intercultural education and multiculturality
at Universidad de Sevilla. She works as a university professor at the Universidad Isabel I de Castilla and as
an intercultural trainer. She has extensive experience in Study Abroad and her interests include intercultural
communication and cross-cultural strategies.
Elena Hernández de la Torre is a tenured professor at Universidad de Sevilla, where she also earned
her Doctorate in Education. She teaches undergraduate and postgraduate courses in language studies,
linguistics, and teacher education. Her research interests include learning needs, inclusive education, and
multicultural classrooms.
72
Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Facultad de Ciencias Humanas, Departamento de Lenguas Extranjeras
Education Professionals as Facilitators of Study Abroad Programs in Spain: Formal Training Needs
Appendix A: Interview Codes
Codes
Question
Have you received specific training prior to working with usa students?
forprv
What would you say is your job’s biggest difficulty?
prpdif
From your perspective, which are the students’ priorities?
prialu
Do you think students have clear expectations regarding their stay in our country?
expcla
What would you like to have known before working in this job?
infprv
How do you think the “cultural gap” between students and faculty/administrations
can be saved?
mjrvcu
Do you think you are an object of your own (host) culture? Why or why not?
objcul
Which would you say are an International Educator’s necessary tools and/or skills?
skitoo
(Self-elaboration)
Appendix B: Questionnaire
Before working in study abroad programs…
1
I knew what they consisted of.
2
I had experience with university students.
3
I had received previous training on my tasks.
4
I had worked with usa students or citizens.
Yes
No
N/A
My experience in study abroad…
5
I have prepared myself specifically for this group of students.
6
They know about our culture.
7
They show interest in learning in and outside the classroom.
8
They show interest for integrating into the culture.
9
They take an active part in extra-curricular activities.
10
They keep frequent contact with local staff and faculty.
11
They use Spanish among themselves.
12
They want to learn more about socio cultural activities.
•
•
•
•
What is your academic background?
What was your previous knowledge about Study Abroad programs?
What are your previous studies or certifications?
Please describe what you perceive as the biggest difficulty in working with us study abroad students.
Profile: Issues Teach. Prof. Dev., Vol. 22 No. 1, Jan-Jun, 2020. ISSN 1657-0790 (printed) 2256-5760 (online). Bogotá, Colombia. Pages 57-73
73