Proceedings of the International Association for Business and Society

Volume 23, 2012

Proceedings of the Twenty-Third Annual Meeting

Educating for Empathy and Action
The Impact of Study Abroad on Individual Social Responsibility and Global Citizenship

Global citizenship is a positive outcome often associated with participation in study abroad. One essential building block of global citizenship is a sense of empathy toward those of other cultures. This paper proposes a study of variables that may increase intercultural empathy and global citizenship due to a study abroad experience. Proposed variables contributing to intercultural empathy include integration with the host culture, program duration, the economic and cultural distance of the host country, and the incorporation of guided reflection and cultural study in the program content. The proposed study aims to provide guidelines that can be used in designing future study abroad programs to increase students’ sense of individual social responsibility.