Tefi overview for tefi8 may 2014

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Origin In recent years, it has become increasingly obvious that tourism education needs serious rethinking. Surging growth in tourism arrivals and receipts, going strong since the middle of the twentieth century, spurred a proliferation of tourism programs in higher education to meet the demands of the burgeoning industry. As more complex understandings about tourism began to emerge, however, it became clear that equating the industrialization and growth of tourism with social and economic progress was far too simplistic—indeed, increases in visitation and receipts do not always reap positive benefits. Simultaneously, rapid socio-cultural and economic changes are afoot, which are rendering the future increasingly uncertain. The jobs of today are markedly different from those of yesterday, and it seems certain that those of tomorrow will be different still. Students entering the tourism sector, with its high levels of volatility and rapid globalization, are going to need different skills and understandings in order to achieve meaningful and successful professional lives. It was in recognition of this landscape of change, and the demand it drives to rethink tourism education, that the Tourism Education Futures Initiative (TEFI) was born. TEFI began as a conversation between Professors Pauline Sheldon and Dan Fesenmaier in 2006. Identifying the need for a more strategic and future-oriented approach to tourism education, they gathered a group of 45 educators and industry representatives at Modul University Vienna to map out their agenda (Sheldon, Fesenmaier, & Tribe, 2014). Drawn together by a fundamental belief in the power of tourism as a change agent, the group identified a need to ethically and strategically consider tourism education’s future and its broader role in society (Sheldon et al., 2008). Tourism is a worldmaking activity. It can change perspectives, give hope, and promote understanding, but it can also bring harm: it literally reshapes the world in both discursive and material terms. During the twentieth century, tourism education was largely focused on developing business acumen and service skills, with little consideration being given to the ethical and moral foundations students

would need to navigate the professional world and become socially and environmentally responsible leaders there. The first TEFI meeting examined five possible future socio-economic scenarios for the world and how tourism and tourism education might adapt. From this meeting, it became clear that “tourism educational programs need to fundamentally retool and redesign—not incrementally by adding new courses or simply by putting courses on-line—but by changing the nature of what is taught and how it is taught” (Sheldon, Fesenmaier, Wober, Cooper, & Antonioli, 2008, p. 63). By all accounts, the first TEFI meeting was an inspirational event, and its uplifting dialogic approach is an important legacy that subsequent TEFI meetings have continued to uphold. Over time, the group continued to consolidate its work, ultimately producing a White Paper in 2009, which set forth TEFI’s mission and articulated a set of values to guide tourism education to 2030 (Sheldon, Fesenmaier, & Tribe, 2009; 2014). These values were conceptualized as permeable, overlapping dimensions that would grow in meaning through their application in different contexts. They could be infused into program and curricula design and could provide an ethical core for professional development. Mission TEFI’s mission is “to be the leading, forward-looking network that inspires, informs and supports tourism educators and students to passionately and courageously transform the world for the better.” In support of this mission, TEFI’s core values provide a framework for building a future agenda for tourism education. This values-based approach to tourism education strives to broaden and deepen tourism education—to evolve beyond the narrow, instrumental, short-term focus of days past, to incorporate humanist values and impart the skills and knowledge necessary for making mindful decisions. TEFI engages students, industry, and communities in life-shaping learning experiences and reflection that contributes to the moral development of tourism practitioners. TEFI’s values are based on five overlapping dimensions:

• Stewardship: Exercising an ethic of care by

upholding principles associated with sustainability, responsibility, and service to the community

• Knowledge: Developing critical thinking, innovation, creativity, and networking, and

The Tourism Education

Futures Initiative (TEFI)

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appreciating different sources and types of knowledge about tourism

• Professionalism: Aspiring to the highest standards of professional practice underpinned by leadership, practicality, services, relevance, timeliness, reflexivity, teamwork, and partnerships

• Ethics: Engaging in good action and decision-making, underpinned by honesty, fairness, transparency, and authentic dialogue

• Mutual respect: Embracing a humanistic approach to tourism, including a respect for diversity, inclusion, equity, humility, and collaboration

Over the years, TEFI has expanded its scope to conceive of education in a more holistic way. No longer focused only on students in higher education, TEFI realizes that these students are the industry, government, and third sector of tomorrow: the future of tourism rests with them. Annual TEFI conferences, and the individual and collective efforts of TEFI members, have extended discussions to develop an agenda that cuts across the teaching, research, and service functions of tourism educators. Consequently, the expanded agenda of TEFI is summarized in Figure 1.

Figure 1. TEFI Agenda Organisation and Administration

The first TEFI meetings were by invitation, necessitated by the need to define and articulate the TEFI agenda in a targeted way. By 2011, interest in TEFI’s work was sufficiently developed that annual meetings were opened to broader participation. A legacy of this evolution is that TEFI is not a membership-based organisation, but rather a liquid organisation that seeks to be inclusive, regardless of age, gender, rank, experience, or origin. The common thread that binds TEFI members is that the network provides an inclusive space for dialog and reflection about what it means to educate for a better world and what it means to be an academic. Members also find solidarity in the need to activate change inside and outside their institutions, communities, and industry. TEFI is thus an organisation temporally and spatially defined by attendance at its annual meetings and by its

network activities, collegiality, and common interests. A distinguishing feature of this approach is that the average age of both the TEFI Executive and network participants is younger than many other tourism networks. It also has a strong commitment to gender balance and welcomes a growing number of early career tourism educators who are seeking an inclusive and supportive environment. In terms of administration, TEFI has an informal, networked structure and relies on horizontal cooperation and task-sharing as opposed to vertical hierarchical structures, routines, and the rules of a “mechanistic” organisation (Dredge & Schott, 2014). The lack of a formal structure has allowed a flow of creative, constructive, and passionate engagement over issues that matter—issues that can arise and morph quickly, as the tourism higher education landscape is very different today, compared even to 8 years ago when TEFI was born. As many programmes in Western countries reconfigure in response to market fluctuations, strong growth and structural change is taking place in countries like Brazil, India, and China, and the TEFI network is mindful of embracing and sharing international experiences and insights. In 2013, TEFI entered a new phase, with the appointment of a new leadership team to take forward and build upon the network’s accomplishments to date (www.tourismeducationfutures.org). Regional TEFI meetings have been held in Brazil and India, with two-year provisional support to establish a regional chapter in India given in 2013.

Success Factors In 2013, at TEFI7 at Oxford Brookes University, the conference theme Tourism Education and Global Citizenship culminated in a discussion of the historical contributions and the future positioning of the organisation, from which five priority themes were formulated:

TEFI seeks to be inclusive. The common thread that binds TEFI members is that

the network provides an inclusive space for dialog

and reflection about what it means to educate for a

better tourism world.

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Tourism Teaching and Learning TEFI will facilitate and disseminate innovative learning tools, approaches, frameworks, and methods. Initiatives include the development of a values-based student oath at Modul University; the development of a global TEFI course using the open access learning platform Innotour (Liburd, Hjalger, & Christensen, 2014), and various papers examining the development and implementation of TEFI values (Gretzel, Isacsson, Matarrita, & Wainio, 2011; Gretzel, Jamal, Stronza, & Nepal, 2009; Moscardo & Murphy, 2011). Tourism Education Advocacy TEFI will help to create awareness of tourism as a field of study, to communicate and share information about the activities of TEFI members, and to produce case studies exploring tourism’s role in building tolerance, awareness, and hope. Initiatives include current work promoting tourism in higher education and the development of a prototype communication platform for tourism called “This Is Tourism.” This advocacy initiative explores how tourism scholarly communities can share information and knowledge about what we are, what we do, what our aims are, and what value we provide to society. The goal is to design an interactive and dynamic online platform that can help to inform and promote the study of tourism, and to act as a repository of information for community building. This platform prototype is under development in collaboration with the Tourism Intelligence Forum. Tourism Education Scholarship TEFI will advance the scholarship of teaching and learning in tourism, both inside and outside the academy. Projects include the creation of an open source tourism journal in collaboration with the International Academy for the Study of Tourism, special issues of journals dealing with aspects of tourism education, a Routledge compilation, and the future production of a series of TEFI position papers. Members of TEFI have been actively involved in a range of national grants, and TEFI provides not only a forum to share this information but also a support role for those seeking to prepare grant applications and other initiatives. Tourism Education Futures TEFI members will help to take stewardship over the development of the field. Efforts encompass initiatives to explore tourism education futures, types of leadership (Dredge & Schott, 2013), and issues of gender, race/ethnicity, and language equity in the tourism academy. Activities such as the development of future conferences and TEFI’s organisational planning are also included here. Tourism and Social Entrepreneurship TEFI will pursue creative avenues for translating values and ideas into action. TEFI’s key activity in this regard to date, led by Roberto Daniele, was the unique TEFI Walking Workshop, held in Nepal in May 2014. The 10-day event took delegates off the beaten track to the rural villages of Bupsa and Bumburi in the Lower Solu Khumbu region of the Himalayas. Whilst trekking on the footpaths of Nepal, participants delivered ‘Walking Papers’ on their chosen subject and discussed best practice in tourism and social enterprise with local village committees. They also visited

relevant, meaningful, and hands-on social entrepreneurship projects developed and supported by Moving Mountains Nepal. This project, an innovative prototype for dynamic learning, has yielded several strong leads for future action, which will be advanced at TEFI8.

Meetings There have been eight TEFI meetings:

• 2007 - Vienna, Modul University, Austria. Tourism Education Futures

• 2008 - Honolulu, University of Hawaii, USA. Promoting an Academy of Hope

• 2009 - Lugano, Università della Svizzera Italiana, Switzerland. Framework Development for a Values-Based Tourism Curriculum.

• 2010 - San Sebastian, University of Deusto, Spain. Tools for Change and New Challenges

• 2011 - Philadelphia, Temple University, USA. Activating Change in Tourism Education

• 2012 - Milan, Bocconi University, Italy. Transformational Leadership for Tourism Education

• 2013 – Oxford, Oxford Brookes University, UK. Tourism Education for Global Citizenship: Educating for Lives of Consequence

• 2014 – Guelph, University of Guelph, Canada. Transformational Learning: Activism, Empowerment and Political Agency in Tourism Education

Further information about past and future meetings can be found on the TEFI website (http://www.tourismeducationfutures.org).

Publications A number of publications have arisen from TEFI meetings and network activities, including four special issues in the Journal of Teaching in Travel and Tourism. The papers in these issues have been complemented by other publications about the need for change, TEFI’s mission and goals, and a variety of initiatives to realize TEFI’s ideals. Most of these papers were recently compiled by Routledge, in a volume entitled The Tourism Education Futures: Activating Change in Tourism Education (Prebežac, Schott, & Sheldon, 2014).

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Future TEFI’s momentum is fed by rapid, sustained change in academia and industry, and thus by the need for progressive educators to engage in forward-thinking dialogue about tourism education and its societal implications. Given that reform is now a constant feature of higher education, that the tourism industry itself continues to change in ways which are difficult to predict, and that moral engagement to turn tourism in the service of overcoming global challenges is more important than ever, TEFI’s work will continue. The network provides a forum to contemplate what we do as tourism educators and what qualities we want to nurture in our students, and it allows us to reflect upon and explore our political agency. What form might this organic organisation take in the future? While the current structure is flexible, it also has its limitations. As momentum continues, we anticipate there will one day be a need to devise a more formal structure in order to support the professional development and self-actualisation of tourism educators, in sharing and learning from others’ stories of practice, and ultimately to enhance TEFI’s collective political agency. This, however, requires that we build network capacity, recognise difference and the diversity of challenges across the globe, and promote and actualize paths of hope and service, to remake the world for the better. Executive and Advisory Board As a networked organization, TEFI is defined by its members and their engagement across a spectrum of activities.

Current Executive Group

Dianne Dredge – Chair, Aalborg University, Denmark ([email protected])

Christian Schott – Vice Chair, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand ([email protected])

Robert Daniele – Oxford Brookes University, UK ([email protected])

Kellee Caton – Thompson Rivers University, Canada ([email protected])

Johan Edelheim – Multidimensional Tourism Institute/University of Lapland, Finland ([email protected])

Ana María Munar – Copenhagen Business School, Denmark ([email protected])

Advisory Board

Pauline Sheldon, Professor Emerita, University of Hawaii, USA

Dan Fesenmaier, Professor, University of Florida, USA

Gayle Jennings, Director of Research, Imagine Consulting Group International, Australia

Nigel Morgan, Professor, University of Surrey, UK

Anna Pollock, Founder, Conscious Travel, UK

Karl Wöber, President, Modul University Vienna, Austria

References

Dredge, D., & Schott, C. (2013). Academic agency and leadership in tourism higher education. Journal of Teaching in Travel and Tourism, 13(1), 105–129.

Dredge, D., & Schott, C. (2014). The Tourism Education Futures Initiative: The way forward. Chapter 21. In D. Prebežac, C. Schott, & P. Sheldon (Eds.), The Tourism Education Futures Initiative: Activating Change in Tourism Education (pp. 371-379). Abingdon: Routledge.

Gretzel, U., Isacsson, A., Matarrita, D., & Wainio, E. (2011). Teaching based on TEFI values: A case study. Journal of Teaching in Travel and Tourism, 11(1), 94–106.

Gretzel, U., Jamal, T., Stronza, A., & Nepal, S. K. (2009). Teaching international tourism: An interdisciplinary, field-based course. Journal of Teaching in Travel and Tourism, 8(2–3), 261–282.

Liburd, J., Hjalager, A-M., & Christensen, I-M. (2014). Valuing Tourism Education 2.0. In D. Prebežac, C. Schott, & P. Sheldon (Eds.), The Tourism Education Futures Initiative: Activating Change in Tourism Education (pp. 129-152). Abingdon: Routledge.

Moscardo, G., & Murphy, L. (2011). Toward values education in tourism: The Challenge of measuring the values. Journal of Teaching in Travel and Tourism, 11(1), 76–93.

Prebežac, D., Schott, C., & Sheldon, P. (Eds.). (2014). The Tourism Education Futures Initiative: Activating change in tourism education. Abingdon: Routledge.

Sheldon, P., Fesenmaier, D. R., & Tribe, J. (2009). White Paper - The Tourism Education Futures Initiative (TEFI): Activating change in tourism education. Available: www.tourismeducationfutures.org [Retrieved 25 May 2014]

Sheldon, P., Fesenmaier, D., & Tribe, J. (2014). The Tourism Education Futures Initiative (TEFI): Activating change in tourism education. In D. Prebežac, C. Schott, & P. Sheldon (Eds.), The Tourism Education Futures Initiative: Activating Change in Tourism Education (pp. 14–35). Abingdon: Routledge.

Sheldon, P., Fesenmaier, D., Wober, K., Cooper, C., & Antonioli, M. (2008). Tourism education futures - 2010–2030: Building the capacity to lead. Journal of Teaching in Travel and Tourism, 7(3), 61–68.

TEFI Executive Team:

Dianne Dredge, Christian Schott, Kellee Caton, Roberto Daniele, Johan Edelheim, and Ana María Munar

TEFI provides a forum to

contemplate what we do as tourism educators and what qualities we want to

nurture in our students.