Ceilidh Wagner
Ceilidh Wagner went to Ireland, specifically Dublin to study research in the aspect of Nursing and Midwifery for the University College of Dublin. While there, she learned a great deal more about the struggles Ireland went through to gain independence and the potato famine. She did not know that one of the main instigators of the Easter Uprising and then the war for independence was a dual citizen, Irish and American. She also learned the names of the people involved in the uprising. She also learned all about the troubles, which she had no idea about until she arrived in Ireland, and how the troubles between the Protestants and Catholics still continue today, but not to the extent they did before Bill Clinton intervened in 1993 and peace was reached in 1998. While Ceilidh was learning all of this critical historical information from the tours and sightseeing, she did, she was also learning about research in Nursing. This was a topic she had never considered interesting before, but she began to become interested as she learned more about what goes into the research, whether it be quantitative or qualitative, and the different types of research models that should be used based on what would be best for the situation ( Meta-analysis, Cohort studies, randomized controlled trials), as well as how to formulate a research question, and how to verify through a CASP checklist if a research study is reliable. She learned all this through her Irish teachers of all different ethnicities, interesting her in a way she was never interested in before.
CEE Title: “Cultural Perceptions when Studying Abroad”
My CEE was about cultural bias and studying abroad. According to the APA (American Psychological Association), cultural bias is “the tendency to interpret and judge phenomena in terms of the distinctive values, beliefs, and other characteristics of the society or community to which one belongs. This sometimes leads people to form opinions and make decisions about others in advance of any actual experience with them.” In this presentation, my CEE group and I were trying to emphasize and educate, through a cultural roundtable, what cultural bias is and how it can influence our perceptions when studying abroad. It also mentioned how our cultural biases influenced our perceptions when studying abroad. We also wanted to mention that our cultural biases when studying abroad were not the actual realities of the places we went to. For reference, we both went to different countries and those countries were Ireland and the Czech Republic. Then we hopefully wanted to get the point across to others that the cultural perceptions we have, generally wouldn’t be the same as the realities in most countries. My partner and I also included a video and discussion questions in the presentation to make the presentation more group focused and more of a cultural roundtable. We also had many involved students who were very active in their participation. Our presentation was done in a hybrid presentation model since we were presenting from different campuses.