"Enjoy Your Perfect Experience": Decolonizing Study Abroad through a Content and Paradigmatic Narrative Analysis of the Study Abroad Curriculum

Study abroad is a high-impact educational practice in higher education where students spend time living and learning outside of the US. While study abroad aims to produce critical thinkers who possesses skills necessary to navigate complex global environments, extant scholarship demonstrates that study abroad may not be achieving the stated outcomes. Additionally, calls to decolonize higher education have extended to the practice of study abroad and research shows there is ample opportunity to apply decolonial theory to study abroad. Study abroad programming relies on curriculum with various components, including academic coursework, housing, and on-site activities and excursions (OSAEs). Study abroad curriculum is designed and delivered by Study Abroad Program Providers (SAPPs) who engage tens of thousands of students annually in study abroad programs around the globe. The top destination for US students to study abroad is Italy. The purpose of this qualitative research study is to interrogate whether or not the on-site activities and excursions component of the study abroad curriculum indicate the presence of coloniality. To that end, the research questions for this study are: To what extent do the contents of the on-site activities and excursions component of the study abroad curriculum designed and delivered by SAPPs in Italy present coloniality? To what extent do the stories of enacted curriculum of the on-site activities and excursions component of the study abroad curriculum present coloniality? This study engaged SAPP curriculum developers and deliverers of OSAEs in Italy as interview participants and the contents of OSAEs for analysis. Decolonial curriculum theory was leveraged as the theoretical framework for this study to interrogate the study abroad curriculum. Using extant scholarship, a rubric of Coloniality Indicators (CIs) was created in order to analyze the data for the presence of coloniality. These Coloniality Indicators (CIs) were used in the content analysis and paradigmatic narrative analysis to identify emergent themes in the narratives. The findings were then re-storied into narrative form, specifically a genre called flash fiction. These flash fiction pieces are meant to elicit a compelling engagement of the data from the reader and inspire action. The study did indicate the presence of coloniality in the curriculum of OSAEs in Italy. Specific recommendations are offered for addressing the presence of coloniality as well as quick wins for easy, implementable actions to address the presence of coloniality in the curriculum. Finally, suggestions for future research and general recommendations to decolonize study abroad are offered.