ABSTRACT

This chapter explores the idea of home. Coming home from studying abroad provides students with an opportunity to consider what home means in a variety of ways. The chapter provides university students with an opportunity to consider the implications of how they see home, when they have returned from their intercultural experience. When someone has lived in another culture, it's unlikely they'll ever see their home in quite the same way again. They now have another perspective, a new "lens" through which to view their home culture. A useful way to reflect on home when returning from an education-abroad experience is to try to look at university student’s home culture as if it were a completely unknown culture. Researchers have explored the experiences of students who have studied abroad and returned home again. Research argues that students tend to idealize their vision of home while studying abroad and that when they get back home, that vision may fall apart.