Global Citizenship and Global Solidarity through Study Abroad:An Exploratory Case Study of South Korean Students

Abstract

Given the increasing numbers of pre-collegiate students who go study abroad, this study seeks to answer what kind of citizen young international students seek to become through study abroad and in what ways study abroad experiences challenge or reinforce their initial motives. Drawing on in-depth interviews with Korean high school students studying in the US, this paper suggests that while the core meaning of study abroad may be strategic interests within the global economy, the pragmatic instrumentalism and neoliberal ethos toward education and global citizenship can be challenged. Most significant factors identified in the study are: 1) social studies curriculum that challenges international students’ desires of strategic cosmopolitanism, and 2) a school culture that encourages young international students to mix with other races/cultures and reconsider their pre-migration views. The paper offers a discussion on how both sending and receiving countries of young international students can support them to become citizens concerned not just with their strategic positioning within the global economy but also with building a moral sense of global solidarity.