Intercultural Tensions within International Service-Learning: Reflections on Barbados

It is commonly recognized that tension is an inevitable dimension of the human experience. In optimal circumstances, tension can create a context for positive growth. In less than optimal circumstances, it can facilitate the reinforcement of more primitive forms of functioning (e.g., increased engagement in stereotyping). The authors' collective experience has suggested that the degree of growth, or lack thereof in tandem with intercultural tension in particular, is the consequence of the dynamic interaction between the sources of cultural tension and individual personality dispositions. While the authors like to believe that service-learning programs attract students with a shared sense of humanistic and altruistic sensibilities that protect against the deleterious effects that intercultural tension can bring, the authors' experience directing service-learning programs has shown them that such is not always the case. This chapter summarizes the authors' reflections on positive and negative outcomes connected with intercultural tension in an international service-learning program. The authors start with a brief summary of their understandings of the distinctiveness of international service-learning relative to volunteerism, study abroad, and domestic service-learning. They then give an overview of their 2009 international service-learning program in Barbados, the intercultural tensions that appeared to emerge during the program, along with their perceptions of the role of individual level personality dispositions in outcomes associated with the intercultural tensions. Finally, the authors end the chapter with their reflections on successful management of intercultural tensions in their 2009 program.