Vacation Mentality and Student Travel: Lessons from Hawaii
How can you take students to one of the world’s top vacation destinations...and still learn something?
When most people think of Hawaii, they think of pristine beaches and crystal blue waters, sunsets over the ocean, palm trees and tropical flowers. The archipelago is known the world over as a dream vacation destination. So when we put together a program on the islands this past spring, we knew that getting students to think beyond tourism would take some extra consideration. The following are six takeaways we learned on how to avoid “vacation mentality” on a school trip:
1. Plan your itinerary with a purpose, and commit to it
Hawaii has a lot to see and do, and we could easily plan a trip that covers all the highlights. But that’s the lure of vacation mentality. Instead, at Atlas we work with schools to design programs around a theme, question, debate, or project. In Hawaii, our school partners from Avenues: The World School defined their trip purpose: to look at the study of astronomy using two lenses - Native Hawaiian and Western scientific, with special consideration of the current debate over the construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope. This focus was the foundation of every decision we made in the program planning process, and it gave students a framework for substantive conversations with Hawaiian Natives and residents.
2. Be wary of “must-sees”
Students met with scientists who operate some of these observatories on Haleakala, Maui
Commiting to our purpose meant reconsidering what really were the “musts” in our program. When we really thought about it, we decided it was okay to skip some typical sights - in this case, we did not visit Pearl Harbor or Diamond Head. We filled our time with workshops about Polynesian celestial navigation, hikes with Native Hawaiian storytellers, brainstorming and debriefs by the ocean, lab work at the University of Hawaii, and meetings with activists on both sides of the telescope debate.
When we did visit the “guidebook” sites in Hawaii, we thought carefully and talked openly with students about our purpose in going there - Are we seeing this just to see this? Why is this relevant to us? For example, the Iolani Palace on Oahu is often touted as the “United States’ only palace” - a historic landmark and obligatory stop on any Honolulu walking tour. But we went there with the purpose of giving students a greater context for the Native Hawaiian experience and the history of Hawaii’s relationship with the United States and Europe. Later on in the trip, when students were speaking with Native Hawaiians, their familiarity with the Palace helped them build a clearer connection between that site and its implications in Hawaii today.
3. Practice self-awareness
While we may not like to think of ourselves as tourists, the tourism industry is a deeply embedded part of reality in Hawaii. We still needed to engage with tourism in order to understand the Hawaiian experience, and to think critically about our position as visitors. To do this, we planned intentional visits to tourist-centric areas, such as the downtown strip of Waikiki. Before releasing students to enjoy an hour of beachfront shopping, we asked them to observe some of the influences they saw around them - what cultures were represented and why, how the presence of tourists had likely shaped this area over time, and what impression someone might have of Hawaii if this place was their primary experience here.
By encouraging students to think about the causes and effects of tourism, we connected that activity to our trip purpose and acknowledged the space that we occupy as outsiders. Other simple ways to do this include reminding students to be conscientious about how they act in public - are they taking up too much space on the sidewalks? Are they treating cultural sites respectfully? Are they staying mindful about when, where, and of whom they take photos? Even simply posing these questions to students on occasion can help them build habits of self-awareness as travelers in someone else’s home.
4. Seek and facilitate authentic local engagement
Preparing ti leaves for a Hawaiian lunch
Popular tourist destinations are increasingly full of packaged “authentic cultural experiences.” Nearly every resort in Hawaii, for example, offers a weekly hula show, presents visitors with flowery leis upon arrival, and greets guests with a friendly “Aloha!” But to move beyond vacation mentality, we need to engage with, rather than passively absorb or consume, the local culture. On a basic level this means building cultural literacy - that is, adhering to the norms and customs of the area, such as taking our shoes off when we entered a Hawaiian sacred space. From a program planning perspective it also means seeking ways to engage outside of cultural opportunities engineered for tourists. One strategy we used in Hawaii was staying in places less-frequented by the vacation crowd: a summer camp in the upcountry of Oahu, and the smaller, rainier town of Hilo on the east side of the Big Island. These locations offered proximity to neighborhoods and outdoor spaces that weren’t just for tourists, and the lack of crowds gave students more freedom to explore them independently.
In Hilo, we arranged cultural activities with local educators who provided lessons in their family home. They taught students to make leis and typical Hawaiian foods the same way they would, and also talked with the group about their perspective as Native Hawaiian people on the telescope debate that students were studying. All in all, by looking outside the norm of recommended travel activities in Hawaii, we provided students with a different way to consider the trip’s central question. When they later visited the more popular neighborhoods of Hawaii like Lahaina and Kihei, many students actually remarked that they were disappointed in the lack of authenticity they found there. We saw that disappointment as a win in the battle against vacation mentality.
5. Manage student (and chaperone) expectations
How you market the trip matters. While we understand the sometimes conflicting motives of reaching a minimum participation quota and outlining an intentional academic program, if the purpose of the trip is a project, immersion, or learning experience, students and teachers should know that they aren’t signing up for a vacation or sight-seeing tour. Initial misconceptions can undermine your trip purpose and set everyone up for disappointment from the start. To avoid this, we recommend thinking twice before using photos of vacation icons or destination-related stereotypes (beach umbrellas, hula skirts, arbitrary exotic animals) in marketing materials. Instead, focus on the places and concepts you really want to engage with. This can still be exciting to students without leading them to believe the trip is only about a fun getaway. The same tone should be set with both students and teacher-leaders during pre-departure meetings. Bring conversations back to the trip purpose, and remind your travelers of the special chance they will have to experience a place in a totally different way than most people do. The fact that it isn’t a vacation makes it an even more unique opportunity.
6. You can ABSOLUTELY still have fun and relax, and should plan on it
Balance is key. There’s a reason people go on vacations - to take a break and recharge. Students will have the same need throughout any travel program, and it’s both unfair and unrealistic to expect them to focus non-stop on your learning goals. So plan for this. Include time to rest, process, and socialize in your program itinerary. In Hawaii, we found that our most productive discussion sessions came just after the students had had a couple hours of free time to walk on the beach or play games in a common space, because they’d had time to refresh their mental energy. Students also built better group dynamics during unstructured breaks, which helped them be more open with one another during group debriefs, and more collaborative on their trip projects. By balancing some more rigorous academic experiences with time to just enjoy being there, we realized we had provided exactly the support students needed to delve more deeply into the core purpose of the program.
Vacation mentality is an inevitable factor when planning a student trip - and even more so in popular tourist destinations. But in Hawaii we learned that if a program is set up to depart from that mentality, we can help students think differently about a place. We know those students no longer think first of beaches and flowers when they think of Hawaii. Instead they speak of the people they met, the deep conversations they had, and the ongoing story that is unfolding there, of which they are now a part.