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Oliver Homa

COMP 105-007

WA #3

October 9, 2017

Leaving the Country Without Forgetting Sustainability

In the research article titled A-broad spectrum: sustainability in educational travel,

Brack W. Hale, Alison Vogelaar, and Joshua Long conduct a study which examines the

influence of sustainability on higher education travel programs. Aware that education about

sustainability has become very common on college campuses, the authors seek to discover

whether this initiative has transferred over to travel programs. The authors state that multiple

national and international organizations have developed to support universities and colleges in

their efforts [to educate students about sustainability], however, educational travel programs

have surprisingly received little attention in this regard (Hale et al. 350).

With the amount of students choosing to travel abroad rapidly rising, the authors chose to

do something about this void in research. Specifically, they explain, these preliminary findings

suggest the importance of and need for a systematic program of research examining the complex

relationship between educational travel and sustainability (Hale et al. 350). In order to

accomplish this, a survey of travel leaders and program coordinators was conducted. The

survey received several responses representing mostly institutions of higher education, but also

independent travel programs. Most claimed to have programs such as student clubs or groups

regarding sustainability active at their schools, and all claimed that sustainability was in some

way incorporated into their educational travel programs. The most commonly incorporated
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aspect of sustainability were economic effects, followed by socio-cultural and then

environmental sustainability.

Taking in all of the results from their extensive survey, the authors concluded that while

most respondent institutions have some type of sustainability initiative, fewer have begun to

incorporate it systematically into their educational travel programs (Hale et al. 360). Hale,

Vogelaar, and Long argue that due to speedy travel being required in most programs, airplane

travel is used and therefore causes large impacts on the environment. While environmental

sustainability is supposedly most commonly implemented in these experiences, economic

sustainability aspects were cited the most by the institutions. The authors label this as a

disconnect between the discourses of sustainability and its practice. When students go on an

international trip with an educational institution, they should have explicit learning goals related

to sustainable travel. The authors were understanding, stating that certainly, not every education

travel program can have sustainability as its main theme; students travel for many purposes

including to study languages, cultures, art, music, politics, etc (Hale et al. 361). Keeping this in

mind, they suggest and affirm that secondary goals regarding sustainable travel practices could

be part of almost any program and indeed many of the above reasons for travel are naturally

connected to issues in sustainability (be they linguistic, cultural, or political sustainability)

(Hale et al. 361).

The focus of my group is on the question: how is sustainability a transnational issue? I

find this article fitting and appropriate to relate to this focus. Although it does not necessarily

highlight the importance of sustainability between all of the worlds nations, it sheds light on

how such small things as educational travel can affect it. Additionally, the authors bring attention

to economic and socio-cultural aspects of sustainability, both of which are often forgotten about
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in the shadow of environmental sustainability. Considering how many students are participating

in these travel programs, a transnational effect on the economic and socio-cultural sides of

sustainability are definitely going to slowly become noticeable.

I agree with the authors that although universities are teaching students about the

importance of sustainability, this topic is not being effectively applied to actual actions in

exchange or travel programs. I believe that students should be made much more aware about the

outcomes of their participation in these programs. Personally, I have spent one year in Germany

as an exchange student, living in a fairly small town on the border with Austria. Keeping in mind

that I have always been taught in school about the importance of sustainability, the private

organization through which my exchange was coordinated did not cover this topic very much at

all, demonstrating this disconnect between the discourses of sustainability and its practice.

Although during the time that I was living there I noticed several differences between life in the

United States and life in Germany, I did not consider the effects that my experience will have on

sustainability. Environmental sustainability was the easiest aspect to consider, as it was apparent

that Germanys system of sorting plastics, trash, glass, and compost would be more

environmentally friendly. My frequent airplane, train, and bus travel to attend exchange seminars

was also definitely contributing to pollution. However, economic and socio-cultural

sustainability did not cross my mind. Retroactively, I am now noticing how my presence in that

small town affected the local economy and the people living there. In an economical aspect, a

single person like me probably did not change much, but in terms of culture, I had an impact for

sure. In such a small town, especially one which never had an American exchange student

before, my presence was pretty obvious. Within a day or two, the students in my small class all

knew who I was, naturally as I adjusted to their culture and they asked about mine. I learned to
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be able to look at things with a completely different perspective, as did my close friends in

Germany. The change was also as abrupt when I finally left to go home after a year.

I knew that I would be experiencing a new culture, but I did not know how this can

change people, and most importantly I did not know how it contributes to sustainability. Now I

realize that if people around the world do not understand each other and their different views on

things, we will never progress as a civilization, which in my opinion is the definition of the

socio-cultural aspect of sustainability. It is undoubtedly a transnational topic and issue. I was not

prepared for this by any school, organization, or book, and I feel like the several different aspects

of sustainability could definitely be implemented into educational travel programs; therefore, I

fully agree with the authors of this text.


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Work Cited

Hale, Brack W., Alison Vogelaar, and Joshua Long. "A-Broad Spectrum: Sustainability in

Educational Travel." International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education 14.4

(2013): 349-66. ProQuest. Web. 27 Sep. 2017.

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