Happenstance Capitalized Through Cultural Immersion in Ghana

My journey to Ghana, West Africa, as a doctoral student was not planned but rather happened after I noticed a study abroad flyer inconspicuously posted near an elevator on campus. A subsequent conversation with my doctoral advisor about the flyer further sparked my interest in study abroad and the possibility of incorporating a cultural immersion experience into my doctoral program. Weeks before I noticed the flyer, an abstract of mine had been recently selected for presentation at an upcoming and prestigious international meeting in Montreal, Canada. This was not only a major accomplishment for me as a doctoral student, but something I knew would help catapult my future career plans in academia. Travel to Ghana would interrupt and altogether cancel my scheduled presentation in Montreal, and this created indecision concerning which of the two opportunities to pursue.

I consulted with my advisor and expected her to encourage me toward Montreal. However, I was surprised when she quickly and confidently said to me, “You should cancel your presentation in Montreal and go to Ghana. It will be the trip that will change your life.” As I gazed at the few, unremarkable photos of Ghana that had been provided to me by the study abroad office on campus and compared these with the more glamorous photos of Montreal that I had located, I honestly did not agree with my advisor. However, I certainly did trust her. Months later, along with one other doctoral student and 11 undergraduate students, I boarded an intercontinental flight for the 23-hr long transatlantic journey to the Greater Accra and Central Regions of Ghana. Jointly hosted by a university located in the southeastern United States and a university in Ghana, the cultural immersion program exposed us to lectures and courses taught by Ghanaian faculty, homestays with Ghanaian host families, excursions to cultural and historical sites in Ghana, and a service learning and field research component at a child welfare agency designated as a non-governmental organization (NGO) in Ghana. The NGO included an orphanage and an onsite school for preschool, elementary, middle, and high school youth. As an adult learner completing predissertation studies in my doctoral program, additional responsibilities were assigned to me at the NGO to facilitate my personal learning and development as a future academician. Along with the other doctoral student, I was assigned to teach field research techniques to the younger undergraduates, provide onsite supervision for field research projects, and facilitate regular reflection discussions concerning their activities at the NGO. I was quite excited to embark on this learning adventure but later discovered that the undergraduates themselves did not share the same sentiment. I also became aware that their thoughts, emotions, and learning experiences were inextricably connected to mine through the parallel process (Ganzer & Ornstein, 1999).

Fears and doubts about the experience became apparent as I overheard numerous negative comments during breakfast on the morning of our first scheduled NGO visit. Later that morning as we left our hotel to travel to the NGO, all sat on the van in silence with no one talking or smiling. After arriving on the first day, I noticed that the members of the group clustered together and refused to mingle with the Ghanaian youth, educators, and NGO workers. Despite the smiles and warm hospitality of the Ghanaians, language challenges contributed even more barriers to social interaction. The physical conditions at the NGO were vastly different from what was expected with areas of the facility in desperate need of repair. It seemed that my fellow learners were more concerned with what they viewed as less than adequate physical conditions at the facility and less aware of what stood out most to me—the determination, optimism, and resiliency of the Ghanaian people. Reflection groups proved to be an important tool in helping us adjust to the experience. Through reflective discussion, we were able to process the daily surge of intense thoughts and emotions that occurred in fieldwork, share daily experiences, resolve daily issues, and make connections between what we experienced in the Ghanaian social/cultural milieu in relation to individual learning objectives.

Other issues emerged as we conducted field research such as Ghanaian children’s fear and discomfort with the intrusive presence of us as foreign researchers, elevated noise conditions at the site that interfered with recording interviews, American English words used in interviews and focus groups that were not clearly understood by the youth participants, and interpretation errors that undergraduates seemed to unwaringly make due to analyzing data within their western worldviews. Consequently, interviews with some youth at the NGO could not be completed, translators had to be consulted to help with the re-design of interview protocols, and we were continuously challenged to abandon our Western worldviews and use Ghanaian perspectives in data analysis. As a capacity building project, we developed a brochure for the NGO that was presented for use as a marketing tool. Two weeks after the conclusion of our activities at the NGO, we presented our research before a community of stakeholders at the Ghanaian university.

A few points are important to share as an adult learner who unexpectedly happened upon the chance to be culturally immersed in the culture of Ghana. Critical reflection allowed me to process the personal, interpersonal, and cultural elements of the NGO experience while encouraging perspective-taking and the development of cultural humility. As Kiely (2005) explained, critical reflection is distinct from basic reflection in that it enhances learners’ ability to navigate “contextual border crossings” (p. 9)—areas where learners’ personal, historical, and sociocultural realities intersect with those of the service learning setting. The dialogue generated with other learners in the group during reflection provided pathways of learning that stimulated not only my consideration of personal thoughts, feelings, and experiences but also more complex issues such as ethnocentrism, the dichotomy between rich and poor, cultural differences, and understanding of the sociocultural dynamics of history and contemporary life in Ghana.

Before I became familiar with Ghanaian history and culture during my immersion experience, I knew little of Ghana’s past history of colonial exploitation or its struggles in securing international recognition as Africa’s first independent nation. However, time spent in Ghana awakened my understanding of my obligation, not just as a learner but as a citizen in the global society to contribute in whatever possible ways to Ghana’s continued development. I am fully persuaded that cultural immersion opportunities should not just be targeted to the goals of learners who want to experience life in another culture but also to capacity building and growth within host communities (Chupp & Joseph, 2010; Swords & Kiely, 2010).

According to happenstance learning theory (Krumboltz, 2009; Krumboltz & Levin, 2010), learners can strategically position themselves to experience unexpected opportunities through exploring areas of interest and possessing generalized curiosity. Moreover, cultivating personal qualities such as persistence, optimism, flexibility and receptivity, the ability to take action in response to a chance event, and appropriate risk tasking can enable a learner to maximize and control unplanned learning events in a way that is beneficial (Mitchell, Levin, & Krumboltz, 1999). As I reflect on my decision to sacrifice a scheduled trip to Montreal to pursue an unplanned cultural immersion experience in Ghana, I am fully persuaded that I gained in Ghana that which could have never been obtained in Montreal. Not only did I experience Ghana, but I also learned from her—faith (Imani) in the human spirit, hope for the future, and purpose (Nia) to my role in that future.