How to Choose a Program Abroad Through a Decolonial Lens

There is a lot of potential for transformative and meaningful travel experiences, and yet they do not happen automatically. Traveling to a new place does not inherently make you a better person or more interculturally competent, nor does it guarantee to help you reimagine your understanding of the world and your place within it.

The ways you approach, plan, participate, and reflect on your experiences abroad makes an impact on the kind of experience you will have. If you are looking to have an experience abroad that is reciprocal, ethical, and mutually beneficial for everyone—human and non-human nature alike—you may want to consider taking a decolonial approach to education abroad.

You may be familiar with the growing efforts around the movement towards decolonizing travel; although there are good intentions involved, it’s important to understand what this movement means and how you can contribute in order to avoid the idea of decolonial approaches becoming merely a metaphor or a buzzword without meaning.

What is a decolonial approach? What does it mean in the context of education abroad?

So, what is a decolonial approach? In order to position decoloniality in the conversation, it is important to also consider what characteristics contribute to coloniality—which can also be understood through the lens of supremacy culture—within travel.

Consumerism shaped by global racial capitalism (which upholds the expectations and standards of “customers”), ethnocentrism (rooted in the belief that your way of living is the “right” way), and white savior complexes (which includes the dynamics present between the Global North exploiting and then “saving” the Global South) are a few examples of how colonial mindsets can show up while traveling.

Don’t fall for white saviorism. In practice, it’s immensely harmful to all involved.

Decolonial approaches will center the impact on human and non-human nature through sustainability and regeneration. It centers learning about different ways of being, thinking, and living that leads you to reimagining what is possible. This is done so through understanding that there is no one “right” way, and cultivating humility, reciprocity, mutual aid, and global solidarity towards collective liberation.

Decolonial approaches to education abroad are on-going, imperfect, and essential to the experience of meaningful travel that does not perpetuate and uphold the status quo. If you want your education abroad experience to help shape you into a social change agent, here are some tips for decolonial approaches to consider.

4 tips for choosing a program abroad through a decolonial lens

1. Research, research, research

Asking questions, leading with curiosity and humility, and committing to accountability and nuance are all essential components of decolonizing travel. As you consider which program you want to participate in abroad, make sure you do your research. Here are some guiding questions to help you in this process:

• What organization runs this program? Who works for the organization—locals or people from different locations?
• What is the organization’s mission? How do they uphold this mission?
• How is the program structured?
• Whose voices are included in the curriculum?
• Does the program center any specific perspectives? Are any perspectives excluded? Why?
• Are you learning from locals, or are you learning from people from your home country? Why?

Some of this information may not be easy to access, so don’t be afraid to ask questions. The perfect program does not exist, so the questions you ask and the feedback you offer has the potential to help the evolution of education abroad programming arc towards decoloniality and equity.

2. What’s included, and at what (or whose) expense?

Is your program nurturing the ability to step out of your comfort zone? Or are they keeping you there?

Programs abroad often include options for accommodations, food stipends or meal plans, airport pick-ups and drop-offs, orientation, in-country support, and excursions in addition to academic programming. These inclusions can make programs more convenient, but they can also make programs more expensive, and potentially touristic.

Consider whether the available options help you integrate into the local community (i.e. locally run accommodations with local standards, public transportation, local food) or if they make it harder to step out of your comfort zone (i.e. accommodations focused on Western standards, private transportation, and food options that match your preferences at home).

The programs most closely aligned with a decolonial approach will center integrating into the local community over hyperfocusing on your comfort and expectations. When programs invest in the local economy—think family run restaurants and businesses—the local community benefits. Alternatively, when programs invest in internationally run companies and big businesses, they consequently divest money away from the local community.

3. Learn about where you are going, and why

You hold responsibility to be an active participant in your experience abroad. Learning about the place you are traveling to is an essential part of meaningful travel, and understanding the bigger context will help you conceptualize your experience in more nuanced ways. Here are some pathways of curiosity as you begin to learn about the context you will be entering:

• What is the structure of the government and who are the current leaders? What is the history of the formation of this government? What movements have happened or have been suppressed to make it possible? What is the public opinion of the current leadership and major topics of concern?
• What is the colonial history of this country? Did/does the country hold colonial power and influence over other countries? Was the country you are traveling to colonized by another country? How? Why? At whose expense? How does that impact life, even now?
• What languages are spoken? Why? What is the context of those languages within the history you’ve learned about?
• Why are you choosing this country? Is it more similar or different from where you call home? Do you speak the language, or are you willing to learn? How will that impact your experience in this place and integrating into the local community?
• How does this country (and their history) connect back to your home country, if at all? Are there similar influences in your home and chosen country, such as capitalism or anti-Blackness?

It is common for students to study abroad and travel to places in Europe and the Global North, more generally. However, there is such an abundance of opportunity in traveling to and learning in the Global South. Let this inquiry help you think about why you are choosing the location to study in, as well as understand the bigger context. Asking these questions can help you align your goals with the options you have available abroad.

4. Language, key words, and red flags

Be sure to investigate the claims a program makes about being sustainable or inclusive.

As you are looking at different organizations and programs, pay attention to the language that is used to market the program. Since these programs are marketed with you and your interests in mind, they may include words like “sustainable”, “diversity”, “equity”, and “inclusion”.

Each of these concepts holds deep importance, but they can sometimes be used as buzzwords without much substance. Pay attention when you see these words, and ask questions if you don’t feel like they are grounded in action and transparency. What does sustainable mean and how does a program uphold sustainability in practice? Who is included in diversity efforts, and why? How is equity and inclusion measured?

These concepts can often be rooted in Western perspectives and conceptualizations, so organizations not based in or run by Western countries (and more specifically the US) may think about these concepts in different ways. Keeping this in mind, you can learn a lot about how these concepts are thought about around the world through your travels.

Being intentional when choosing a program can be overwhelming, but there is so much worth in taking your time to reflect, research, and learn more about what you are signing up for. The work you do before you travel abroad will help your experience be more fruitful, and hopefully, decolonial.

Bonus tip for preparing to go abroad through a decolonial lens

5. Make your global, local

Finally, once you have done your research, asked your questions, and chosen your program, you can start to prepare for your time abroad. It can be fun to try to find places in your home community or on your campus that align with your future experience abroad. Maybe there is a local Vietnamese restaurant, or an Arabic movie club on campus, or perhaps a Salsa dance class that you can attend. Finding things in your local community will help you connect your experiences abroad to your life at home.

You can also begin to research your interests within the community you will be traveling to. You might be able to find local LGTBQ+ groups, grassroots organizations focused on climate change or immigration, or possibly an engineering student club that welcomes international students. The more you are able to find connections with your interests at home and abroad, the more you will set yourself up for a unique experience to learn from people who are both similar and different than you.

Early prep for your study abroad experience can make a huge difference in your life abroad!

Continue to ask questions in reflection of what you experience during your time abroad. There are so many opportunities to learn and grow and expand—even while doing things that might feel more touristic.

Who is that statue representing, and what does that mean to the space you are in? Why does that museum have access to artifacts of communities from outside of this country; at whose expense? Whose story is being told, which perspective, and for what purpose, on the walking tours you take through new city streets? Whose story is not being told? Talk about these inquiries with your peers. What are they noticing that you might not be?

And, remember, you hold responsibility to be an active participant in your experience abroad. In the same way programs choose who they support financially with their money, so do you. When you choose a local restaurant instead of the familiarity of McDonald’s, you impact lives more directly. Similarly, when you take public transportation, you not only support the local community, but you also have the potential for lowering your carbon footprint.

Your presence, your consumption, and your mobility all have impacts on the local community. If you are unsure of how you should approach something, it’s a good practice to do as the locals do. Give yourself grace when you make mistakes, because they will happen. The more you are able to integrate a growth mindset into your experience, the more you will learn from every aspect of your time abroad.

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Decolonizing travel requires intentional decisions

Approaching travel through a lens of gratitude, humility, and reciprocity will help you as an individual to integrate decolonial approaches to your experience abroad. The leg work you do before you choose your program will elevate your experience once you are abroad, and the ways you are able to connect your experience back home will help you integrate your new self into familiar spaces.

Give yourself the space and time to slow down and approach your time abroad with intention and curiosity. Let travel change you, challenge your perspective of the world, and inspire you to reimagine what is possible. This is only the beginning.