AFS Learning Objectives Personal Values And Skills Interpersonal Relationship-Building Intercultural Knowledge And Sensitivity Awareness About Global Issues
	AFS Global Education Framework Focus On Intercultural Learning Focus On Communities Focus On Services and Commitment Focus On Integration And Post-Return Focus On Action And Changing Behavior
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	Intercultural Topics: Papers and Research "Call for Papers"

AFS is committed to intercultural learning. Learning through an AFS experience involves growth and change in terms of...

Personal Values and Skills: At the core of all AFS experiences is the removal of people from their familiar environment and their placement in a new environment. In such unusual circumstances, participants are confronted repeatedly with crises of varying dimensions. They must make judgments and act without familiar cues. But AFS participants are prepared in advance, and they are assured of support and guidance on an as-needed basis, thus enabling them to turn these crises into opportunities for reassessing their values, stretching their capabilities and practicing new skills.

Interpersonal Relationship-Building: Every AFS participant becomes fully involved in daily living and working arrangements with a variety of people in the new environment. This requires developing and maintaining relationships with others from diverse backgrounds. The interpersonal skills developed in this intercultural context are transferable to many other settings during the participant's lifetime. Host nationals often gain reciprocal benefits from their contacts with AFS participants.

Intercultural Knowledge and Sensitivity: During the course of their immersion in the host culture, AFS participants are exposed to innumerable dimensions of that culture, ranging from the simple acquisition of daily necessities to the complex and subtle distinctions made by hosts among alternative values, social norms and patterns of thought. In addition, most AFS exchanges include a formal learning component in which host nationals explain the social, political, economic and religious structures of their countries. In the case of exchanges involving adult professionals, hosts and visitors both gain new skills and alternative concepts, leading to a sharpening of their talents. Involvement in so many dimensions of life deepens participants' insights into their home culture as well as their knowledge of their host culture from the perspective of an outsider.

Awareness About Global Issues: Living in a place other than one's home community often helps one recognize that the world is one large community, a global island, in which certain problems are shared by everyone everywhere. AFS participants empathize with their hosts' perspective on some of these problems and, thus, appreciate that workable solutions must be culturally sensitive, not merely technologically feasible. Such awareness prepares the AFS participant to take his or her place among those addressing crises facing humankind.

Global education addresses the whole range of concerns that people of the world share. It is mission-driven education that promotes a common commitment to the world and its people.

Five-Point Framework:

Focus on Intercultural Learning

Intercultural learning is a special type of experiential learning because it focuses on the mindset of the people involved and forces them to change their perspective through cross-cultural empathy. This is a highly emotional learning experience that requires support and mediation in order to achieve desired results.

Focus onCommunities

While continuing to appreciate the value of each individual, AFS recognizes that people are more than individuals; they belong to communities, and, therefore, we need to involve the various communities from which these individuals come and reach into new communities that have not yet been touched by the educational benefits of AFS. When AFS works with schools and communities, it multiplies its potential impact. AFS cannot have a global impact unless its participants act together and act locally.

Focus on Service and Commitment

In helping the war wounded on both sides of the battlefield, the American Field Service ambulance drivers who began our organization demonstrated their commitment to the core AFS values, including the respect for the worth and dignity of all people, regardless of nationality. The "S" in AFS continues to stand for Service. Global citizens contribute to the world through their service to the community, to others, to the environment and to the world. AFS organizations continue to make new efforts to become involved in meaningful volunteer service.

Focus on Integration and Post-Return

In many respects, what happens after an AFS program is what really matters. An AFS program should not be an isolated incident in a person's life. The application of cultural lessons learned to one's daily life in one's local community is AFS's goal and challenge. Therefore, it is important to support and maximize the integration of the knowledge attained through AFS programs. To reinforce new knowledge, AFS endorses the practice of post-return integration in addition to the standard pre-departure and mid-experience orientations. Returning program participants are our natural constituents and a link between AFS and their own communities. By working with participants in the post-return phase, we help them take advantage of the special knowledge and new skills they possess as they encounter new learning opportunities and build bridges between cultures at home.

Focus on Action and Changing Behavior

We can become aware of global issues by studying them, but AFS promotes more than intellectual awareness. The intercultural learning method employed in AFS programs is experiential and active learning by doing. Our participants do not just watch, read or listen. They participate in other cultures, form relationships with other people and give service to other communities. Through these actions, they demonstrate that learning.

The critical part of any AFS global education package is a unified approach, grounded in the Global Education Framework and involving the school as the primary participant, with a broader educational impact that reaches those who never have the opportunity to leave their own communities. The method should be to involve everyone in the school and community in the exchange experience, not just the individual students or teachers and the families who host them.