Seminar presentation on Travel & Tourism as an Educational Tool for Social Change presented at Malta's IMAESC International Seminar on Adult Education, May 28, 2018

1. Discomfort &
Disruption
Re-Framing Tourism as a Tool for Intercultural
Learning and Social Change
By Auburn Scallon

2. Source: The Innocents Abroad / Roughing It
Travel as Education for Social
Change

3. Travel as (Potential) Education for
Social Change
Can Be

4. Transformation for
Who?
 “One of the principal
lines of enquiry in
contemporary
backpacker research; [is]
specifically how the
backpacking experience
changes its participants.”
- Pearce & Foster (2007)

5. Transformation for
Who?
 Great for the traveler-learners, what about the
local-teachers?

6. Tourist vs Traveler
Image Source: Travel Plans for Miss Fancy

7.  High level of support
and preparation :
 - self-selected
university students
 - dedicated educator
 - pre-trip discussions
of neo-colonialist
influences on Hawaii
and New Zealand
“Pedagogy of/as/and Tourism:
Or, Shameful Lessons” Werry
(2008)

8.  Disappointing Results:
 - most chose to
sunbathe nearby,
smugly observing the
true “tourists”
 - none chose public
transportation
 - judgments of NZ
performers ignored pre-
trip discussions
“Pedagogy of/as/and Tourism:
Or, Shameful Lessons” Werry
(2008)

9.  “While critical pedagogy acknowledges that
students will resist the risk and renunciation
that transformative education entails, it
continues to bank on the assumption that the
ethical rewards of demystification and
‘‘humanization’’ are high enough to outweigh
the sacrifice of privilege’s bodily pleasures.
On tour, courtesy of the managed university, I
found myself—shamefully—unconvinced that
they were.”
- Werry, 2008, p. 24,[emphasis added].
“Pedagogy of/as/and Tourism:
Or, Shameful Lessons” Werry
(2008)

10. Tourism for Social Change
 Focus on local impact
along with traveler’s
learning:
 End Child Prostitution in
Asian Tourism (org)
 2014 World Cup
 uncomfortable topic
 15% increase in
SECTT reporting

11. Tourism for Social Change
 Norwegian Students’
and Academics’
Assistance Fund
 Explicit Education
 Reframe education
from consumers to
learner-teachers
 Pride of being a
“good traveler”
Image Source

12. Image Source

13. Tourism for Social Change
 Four Principles:
 Promote Dignity
 Question Your
Intentions
 Gain Informed
Consent
 Use Your Chance –
Bring Down
Stereotypes
Image Source

14. No Questions Yet 
(We have a schedule to keep!)