Whole Human Pedagogy for Education Abroad

This research derives a novel framework called whole human pedagogy, which centers four tenets—embodiment, emotions, belonging, and becoming—for implementing and analyzing education abroad programs. Embodiment incorporates bodies and bodily knowledge into teaching and learning. Emotions addresses the importance of feelings and reflection. Belonging centers relationality, learning communities, and mutuality. Becoming encompasses the notions that learning deeply affects the way humans exist in the world, that learning is meaningful and transformative, and that learning can “connect the will to know with the will to become” (hooks, 1994, pp. 18-19). This qualitative study draws on the semi-structured interview responses of seventeen education abroad practitioners who offer their perspectives to inform this new theoretical approach. The resulting framework can improve educational interventions, destabilize Euro-U.S. epistemological dominance, and prioritize liberation.