Understanding and experiencing American identity during a single-semester study abroad program in London

The United States government is actively promoting and seeking to increase the number of Americans who study abroad. While institutions promising students intercultural development, Dolby (2007) asserts that “critical reflection on national identity is both obtainable and an important step toward global citizenship” (p. 141). An understanding of how students understand and experience their national (American) identity is therefore imperative for Study Abroad providers to develop effective programming. This qualitative study, using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, attempts to gain such an understanding. Drawing on Mezirow’s theory of Transformative Learning, it finds that those who experience Mezirow’s “disorienting dilemma” are not necessarily those who benefit from such destabilization.