ABSTRACT
Federal government funding programs provide tacit support for the assumption that students normally learn effectively and easily abroad, whatever the type of program in which they participate. Each year significant numbers of students receive generous federal funding to study abroad in the form of Fulbright Program travel grants, Gilman scholarships, and National Security Education Program scholarships. Various metaphors about learning abroad have entered the discourse during the past two decades, as faculty and staff seek ways to express the growing perception that students are all too often failing to engage with, and learn effectively in, the host culture. Perhaps the most common of these portrays education abroad as a swimming pool. Study abroad offers valuable ways to enrich and diversify the home campus curriculum: The disciplinary or interdisciplinary knowledge the students acquire abroad will supplement what they learn at home.
