“ . . . intercultural exchanges do not happen in some neutral, ahistorical space, but are enacted on a landscape formed by past historical relations, from ongoing dependencies and, sometimes, from out-and-out exploitation” (Tarc, 2013, 15). “. . . these global encounters . . . may not be consciously present in the minds of the actual participants in the exchange or encounter, [however] they are there epistemologically in the inherited paradigms of unequal language and meaning-making which constitute the interlocutors on both sides of the encounter” (Menezes de Souza, in Tarc, 2013, vii). International Service Learning (ISL) programs are now ubiquitous, and the concept seems immutable: well-meaning young people from the North visiting “host” communities in the South in order to provide “service” and “to learn.” The adulatory literature is replete with the purported benefits of these programs, both to those participating from the North, and to the communities in the South. By comparison, more critical follow-up of participants from the North suggest otherwise – that they serve mainly to reinforce values of charity for the “other” and do little to aid in understanding the reasons for the unequal relations of “underdevelopment.” Similarly, a number of more recent studies have raised questions about the impact of these programs on communities in the South, and the extent to which they may serve to (re)instill neo-colonial economic and/or cultural relations. Presently, the authors are engaged in a three-year study of a number of ISL programs active in rural communities in Nicaragua – with the express purpose of exploring the modes and effects of the interactions between the visitors and the community residents. Of particular interest is examining the possibilities these programs may have for interrupting traditional knowledge-power relations and understandings on both sides. Our presentation will explore our findings to date, examined within the contexts, both of the stated purposes of the ISL programs, and the expressed interests voiced by community residents in agreeing to host such activities.

Tarc, P. (2013). International Education in Global Times: Engaging the Pedagogic. New York, N.Y: Peter Lang.