Meeting the expectations of host communities: An examination of the cause of attitudinal change in host communities of study abroad programs

This research examines attitudinal changes in host communities after hosting students of the School for International Training’s Ghana Arts and Culture program (SIT-GHR).According to social psychologist, attitudinal change, can be explained from two perspectives namely person-centered and situation-centered. The person-centered approached believes that attitudes change based on the free choice of the individual, while the situation-centered explanations identifies the environment wherein the organism finds itself as the cause of the person’s behavior. This research was based on the assumption that communities were expecting the programs they host to provide certain social amenities as a reward for extending a hand of friendship and an avenue to study. The research was conducted in October 2009 with participants taken from four Communities that have hosted SIT-GHR programs for at least three semesters. 16 interviews were conducted to determine what might cause attitudes to change in host communities and the role that unmet expectations had on that change. The research concludes that host communities have an unrealistic expectation of the program they host. They anticipate that hosting will bring with it massive infrastructural development such as hospitals, schools, scholarships, computers and the provision of good drinking water. If this conclusion is valid, then study abroad institutions would have to undertake massive education campaign about program mandate to forestall unrealistic expectations of the programs they undertake. It is also important the Study Abroad Institutions also set some fund to reciprocate the life changing opportunities provided students during such programs