The curricular nature of youth group short-term cross -cultural service projects

This study focuses on the learning processes associated with a youth ministry group of North American high school students on a cross-cultural service project to Ecuador. Using a grounded theory approach to data collection and analysis, I attempt to advance the theory that students confront, explore, and construct their identities while participating on these service projects. Taking a phenomenological perspective to the data, I employ a unique methodology where each student could interpret the experiences as he or she experienced them using microcassette recorders to compose audio journals. The cross-cultural experiences helped students identify features of their own existence through the experiential methods of service and reflection. Drawing on the theories of curriculum, adolescent development, multicultural education, theology, and philosophy, this study demonstrates that the curricular nature for the trip was a curriculum of becoming, in which the students engaged in practices that both fostered new habits of service and faith in their lives and reinforced existing ways of being