Processing Cultural Differences: Structuration as Framework for Sensemaking Efforts

Drawing on key aspects of structuration theory, this case study examines student sensemaking efforts based on an international service learning (ISL) program conducted annually over a period of three years, wherein 11 U.S. students and 2 faculty members worked in a remote village in Moldova, teaching local students and community representatives to operate an online news outlet and interviewing young adults and professionals. Team members also interviewed Moldovan citizens, journalists, and politicians as part of a media research project. We adopted a meta-analytic approach to written student reflections to examine the processes through which students worked to understand cultural differences in a situation characterized by low community capabilities to either problem solve or to be self-sustaining, which further challenged their pre-existing assumptions.