From: John W. Williams
Date: 4/27/99
Time: 1:49:07 AM
Remote Name: 210.74.176.172
I am responding from on-location with the program I wrote about in my paper. Our college, being very small, has had a long and active travel-study program for many years (30 plus). I was drafted into the process, not because of substantive expertise, but because of interest in innovative teaching. My technique, of integrating research into travel study, was a new innovation, that has been adopted by several other program directors. As I am finding currently, when the student has truly adopted a research project that touches them, they are driving to pursue it. In spite of significant language barriers, I have four students conducting surveys among Chinese university students, one doing participant observation in the hutongs, others doing numerous interviews. I send much of my time mentoring the students, interacting with university authorities, and helping students make contacts. One of the things I arrange through our cooperating Chinese university is a series of lectures. Everyone is required to attend. I try to model question asking, and identify in-roads for everyone of the projects. We had a fascinating, though slanted lecture on the status of women in China. I will sign off now to attend an extensive briefing on current economic developments.