Whole Human Pedagogy for Education Abroad
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.32674/z5q1jy38Keywords:
decolonial higher education, education abroad, holistic education, pedagogyAbstract
This research derives a novel framework called whole human pedagogy, which centers four tenets—embodiment, emotions, belonging, and becoming—for implementing and analyzing education abroad programs. Embodiment incorporates bodies and bodily knowledge into teaching and learning. Emotions addresses the importance of feelings and reflection. Belonging centers relationality, learning communities, and mutuality. Becoming encompasses the notions that learning deeply affects the way humans exist in the world, that learning is meaningful and transformative, and that learning can “connect the will to know with the will to become” (hooks, 1994, pp. 18-19). This qualitative study draws on the semi-structured interview responses of seventeen education abroad practitioners who offer their perspectives to inform this new theoretical approach. The resulting framework can improve educational interventions, destabilize Euro-U.S. epistemological dominance, and prioritize liberation.
References
About. (n.d.). The Association for Contemplative Mind in Higher Education. Retrieved December 30, 2022, from https://acmhe.org/about/
Benefiel, M. (2019). The soul of higher education: Contemplative pedagogy, research and institutional life for the twenty-first century. Information Age Publishing.
Berila, B. (2016). Integrating mindfulness into anti-oppression pedagogy: Social justice in higher education. Routledge.
Conboy, A. F., & Clancy, K. (2022). Here and now: The lasting effects of mindfulness on study-abroad participants. Education and New Developments 2022 – Volume I, 150–154. https://doi.org/10.36315/2022v1end032
Ensuncho, M. H. (2023). Decolonial Practices in Higher Education from the Global South: A Systematic Literature Review. Journal of Comparative & International Higher Education, 15(5), Article 5. https://doi.org/10.32674/jcihe.v15i5.5299
Fregoso Bailón, R. O., & De Lissovoy, N. (2019). Against coloniality: Toward an epistemically insurgent curriculum. Policy Futures in Education, 17(3), 355–369.
Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the oppressed. Seabury Press.
hooks, b. (1994). Teaching to transgress: Education as the practice of freedom. Routledge.
hooks, b. (2010). Teaching critical thinking: Practical wisdom. Routledge.
Kolb, D. A. (1984). Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning and development. Prentice-Hall.
Kolb, D., & Kolb, A. (2017). Experiential learning theory as a guide for experiential educators in higher education. Experiential Learning & Teaching in Higher Education (ELTHE): A Journal for Engaged Educators, 1(1), 7–44.
Rendón, L. I. (2014). Sentipensante (sensing / thinking) pedagogy. Routledge.
Rizvi, F. (2007). Post-colonialism and globalism in education. Cultural Studies - Critical Methodologies, 7(3), 256–263.
Saldaña, J. (2021). The coding manual for qualitative researchers. SAGE Publications.
Sicka, B., & Hou, M. (2023). Dismantling the Master’s House: A Decolonial Blueprint for Internationalization of Higher Education. Journal of Comparative & International Higher Education, 15(5), Article 5. https://doi.org/10.32674/jcihe.v15i5.5619
Stein, S. (2021). What can decolonial and abolitionist critiques teach the field of higher education? The Review of Higher Education, 44(3), 387–414.
Stein, S. (2022). Unsettling the university: Confronting the colonial foundations of US higher education. Johns Hopkins University Press.
Taylor, L., & Dechert, E. (2022). The Importance of Pedagogy: Critical approaches to study abroad design and delivery. Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering. https://doi.org/10.1615/JWomenMinorScienEng.2022039084
Thompson, B. (2017). Teaching with tenderness: Toward an embodied practice. University of Illinois Press.
U.S. study abroad fast facts 2010-2020. (2023). IIE Open Doors. https://opendoorsdata.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Fast-Facts-2010-2020.pdf
U.S. study abroad for academic credit trends. (2023). IIE Open Doors. https://opendoorsdata.org/data/us-study-abroad/u-s-study-abroad-for-academic-credit-trends/
Vande Berg, M., Paige, R. M., & Lou, K. H. (Eds.). (2012). Student learning abroad: What our students are learning, what they’re not, and what we can do about it. Routledge.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Journal of Comparative & International Higher Education

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
The findings, interpretations, conclusions, and views expressed in Journal of Comparative and International Higher Education (JCIHE) are entirely those of the authors and should not be attributed in any manner to CIES, HESIG, or the sponsoring universities of the Editorial Staff. These works are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 License. Readers are free to copy, display, and distribute articles that appear in JCIHE as long as the work is attributed to the author(s) and JCIHE, it is distributed for non-commercial purposes only, and no alteration or transformation is made in the work. All other uses must be approved by the author(s) or JCIHE. By submitting a manuscript, authors agree to transfer without charge the following rights to JCIHE upon acceptance of the manuscript: first worldwide serial publication rights and the right for JCIHE to grant permissions as its editors judge appropriate for the redistribution of the article, its abstract, and metadata associated with the article in professional indexing and reference services.