IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v13y2021i4p1953-d497787.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Long-Term Impact of Study Abroad on Sustainability-Related Attitudes and Behaviors

Author

Listed:
  • Hongping Zhang

    (Department of Retail, Hospitality, and Tourism Management, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996, USA)

  • Heather J. Gibson

    (Department of Tourism, Hospitality and Event Management, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA)

Abstract

Using study abroad as a vehicle for sustainable education is a growing trend. However, an examination of the impact of study abroad on participants’ sustainability-related attitudes and behaviors years after their programs is scarce. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore how a short-term sustainability themed study abroad program impacted students’ sustainability-related attitudes and behaviors. Since long-term personal development and change of attitudes are complex and multidimensional, a qualitative approach was used allowing participants to share their experiences and reflections on the process of learning and internalizing sustainability. A total of 31 study abroad participants were interviewed (20 to 33 years of age) and a grounded theory method was used throughout the study. Participants’ behavioral changes were identified, and the specific study abroad program designs that were associated with such changes were identified and discussed. The three behavioral changes identified by the participants were lifestyle, professional development, and responsible travel behaviors. The effective program design elements include emotion, cognition, and action. Furthermore, the findings suggested revisions to the Value–Belief–Norm model in that more motives should be added whereas, weight of responsibility might need to be reevaluated. This study contributes to the educational tourism and sustainability literature with practical implications for program design, and a better understanding of students’ long-term learning outcomes regarding sustainability.

Suggested Citation

  • Hongping Zhang & Heather J. Gibson, 2021. "Long-Term Impact of Study Abroad on Sustainability-Related Attitudes and Behaviors," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-20, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:4:p:1953-:d:497787
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/4/1953/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/4/1953/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lee, Hae Young & Bonn, Mark A. & Reid, Earl L. & Kim, Woo Gon, 2017. "Differences in tourist ethical judgment and responsible tourism intention: An ethical scenario approach," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 298-307.
    2. Juvan, Emil & Dolnicar, Sara, 2014. "The attitude–behaviour gap in sustainable tourism," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 76-95.
    3. Sudhanshu Gupta & Richa Agrawal, 2018. "Environmentally Responsible Consumption: Construct Definition, Scale Development, and Validation," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 25(4), pages 523-536, July.
    4. Farzana Sharmin & Mohammad Tipu Sultan & Alina Badulescu & Dorin Paul Bac & Benqian Li, 2020. "Millennial Tourists’ Environmentally Sustainable Behavior Towards a Natural Protected Area: An Integrative Framework," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(20), pages 1-24, October.
    5. Vasiliki Kioupi & Nikolaos Voulvoulis, 2019. "Education for Sustainable Development: A Systemic Framework for Connecting the SDGs to Educational Outcomes," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(21), pages 1-18, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Michael Tarrant & Stephen Schweinsberg & Adam Landon & Stephen L. Wearing & Matthew McDonald & Donald Rubin, 2021. "Exploring Student Engagement in Sustainability Education and Study Abroad," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(22), pages 1-14, November.
    2. Brack W. Hale, 2021. "Educating for the Environment: The Role of the Host Destination in Education Travel Programs," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(15), pages 1-17, July.
    3. Gregory-Siy Ching, 2021. "The Moderating Role of Personality in the Relationship between Internet Use and Study Abroad Difficulties," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(14), pages 1-25, July.
    4. Brack W. Hale, 2022. "Educational Travel Programs, Sustainability, and the Environment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-3, February.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Zhihui Wang & Liangzhen Nie & Eila Jeronen & Lihua Xu & Meiai Chen, 2023. "Understanding the Environmentally Sustainable Behavior of Chinese University Students as Tourists: An Integrative Framework," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(4), pages 1-17, February.
    2. Alessia Acampora & Michele Preziosi & Maria Claudia Lucchetti & Roberto Merli, 2022. "The Role of Hotel Environmental Communication and Guests’ Environmental Concern in Determining Guests’ Behavioral Intentions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(18), pages 1-23, September.
    3. Francisco Del Cerro Velázquez & Fernando Lozano Rivas, 2020. "Education for Sustainable Development in STEM (Technical Drawing): Learning Approach and Method for SDG 11 in Classrooms," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-18, March.
    4. Shiwei Shen & Marios Sotiriadis & Qing Zhou, 2020. "Could Smart Tourists Be Sustainable and Responsible as Well? The Contribution of Social Networking Sites to Improving Their Sustainable and Responsible Behavior," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-21, February.
    5. Fu-Hsing Tsai, 2023. "Using a Physical Computing Project to Prepare Preservice Primary Teachers for Teaching Programing," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(4), pages 21582440231, October.
    6. Pipatpong Fakfare & Walanchalee Wattanacharoensil, 2023. "Low‐carbon tourism for island destinations: A crucial alternative for sustainable development," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(1), pages 180-197, February.
    7. Fidel Martínez-Roget & Emilia Vázquez Rozas & Eddy A. Castillo-Montesdeoca, 2020. "How Visitors’ Perceived Destination Ethics Impacts their Behavioural Intentions," Tourism and Hospitality Management, University of Rijeka, Faculty of Tourism and Hospitality Management, vol. 26(2), pages 291-310, December.
    8. Maryam A. Al-Hail & Luluwah Al-Fagih & Muammer Koç, 2021. "Partnering for Sustainability: Parent-Teacher-School (PTS) Interactions in the Qatar Education System," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(12), pages 1-25, June.
    9. Keying Ding & Mian Yang & Shixian Luo, 2021. "Mountain Landscape Preferences of Millennials Based on Social Media Data: A Case Study on Western Sichuan," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-17, November.
    10. Lukasz Andrzej Derdowski & Åsa Helen Grahn & Håvard Hansen & Heidi Skeiseid, 2020. "The New Ecological Paradigm, Pro-Environmental Behaviour, and the Moderating Effects of Locus of Control and Self-Construal," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(18), pages 1-15, September.
    11. Urša Golob & Klement Podnar & Mateja Kos Koklič & Vesna Zabkar, 2019. "The importance of corporate social responsibility for responsible consumption: Exploring moral motivations of consumers," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 26(2), pages 416-423, March.
    12. Yanping Gong & Jian Li & Julan Xie & Long Zhang & Qiuyin Lou, 2022. "Will “Green” Parents Have “Green” Children? The Relationship Between Parents’ and Early Adolescents’ Green Consumption Values," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 179(2), pages 369-385, August.
    13. Hussam Al Halbusi & Pedro Jimenez Estevez & Tan Eleen & T. Ramayah & Md Uzir Hossain Uzir, 2020. "The Roles of The Physical Environment, Social Servicescape, Co-Created Value, and Customer Satisfaction in Determining Tourists’ Citizenship Behavior: Malaysian Cultural and Creative Industries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-23, April.
    14. Li, Tao & Chen, Yun, 2022. "The obstacle to building a mutual regulation system: Exploring people's intervention intention toward tourists' deviant behavior," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    15. Nor'Aini Yusof & Amin Akhavan Tabassi & Ernawati Mustafa Kamal, 2020. "Do environmental, economic and reputational advantages strengthen green practices' impact on environmental performance?," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(5), pages 2081-2093, September.
    16. Bruderer Enzler, Heidi, 2017. "Air travel for private purposes. An analysis of airport access, income and environmental concern in Switzerland," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 1-8.
    17. Adongo, Charles A. & Taale, Francis & Adam, Issahaku, 2018. "Tourists' values and empathic attitude toward sustainable development in tourism," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 251-263.
    18. Kiatkawsin, Kiattipoom & Han, Heesup, 2017. "Young travelers' intention to behave pro-environmentally: Merging the value-belief-norm theory and the expectancy theory," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 76-88.
    19. Ting Zhou & Rob Law & Patrick C. Lee, 2021. "Exploring Sustainable Measurements of Academic Research: How Do Faculty Members in Teaching-Oriented Universities of China Evaluate Good Research in Tourism and Hospitality?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(20), pages 1-20, October.
    20. David Méndez & Miriam Méndez & Juana María Anguita, 2022. "Digital Teaching Competence in Teacher Training as an Element to Attain SDG 4 of the 2030 Agenda," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(18), pages 1-13, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:4:p:1953-:d:497787. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.