10/6/2009 - Network & Partner Initiatives: Kaleidoscope Project

In a new study designed to enable AFS to better understand the different impacts of living abroad on participants’ well-being, stress, and cultural learning, University of Essex researchers Dr. Nicolas Geeraert and Kali Daemes have begun working with AFS Intercultural Programs to survey participants from 48 different countries.
This ambitious three and a half year project is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), one of the leading British research councils, and will address intercultural contact issues key to AFS, such as:

• the rate at which one adapts to a new cultural environment

• personal developmental outcomes of intercultural sojourns

• changes over time in sojourners’ perceptions of others

• the impact of cultural difference between home and host cultures.

To measure these elements, AFS year program students in participating countries will be invited to complete online questionnaires at different times before, during and after their stay abroad. The questionnaire exists in 10 different languages so that many students will be able to respond in their native tongue. A control group drawn from AFS students’ non-traveling peers will also be surveyed. A pilot survey is currently being run and the main data collection period for the 3.5 year study will start in October 2009.

The researchers have created a number of materials including a project flyer which directs the reader to the fun and interactive website for the project www.kaleidoproject.org

With high levels of participation, the project findings will contribute to the future development of training programs and materials for AFS participants and host families. Dr. Geeraert explains, “This initiative will try to unravel what factors enable participants to better adapt to different cultures. Once we know the optimal factors for intercultural learning, AFS can work to create the best conditions for each participant.”

For AFS students, this will include more information about managing expectations about their exchange, giving them advice about how to enhance their year abroad and making them aware of the outcomes they may experience as a result.

Dr. Geeraert concludes, “This project will help future exchange participants, as well as helping to improve global understanding and citizenship.”