International study tours and public relations pedagogy: Insights from a practice-oriented approach

Abstract

Public relations learning and teaching scholarship has been largely silent, to date, about international study tours as classroom-extending pedagogical initiatives. We address this gap in the literature by discussing two recent international tours built into a Master of Professional Public Relations degree. Melbourne, London and Singapore were the destinations of the first tour, while Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Singapore were the stops on the second. We use autoethnography to give voice to our experiences – including challenges and successes – as the study tour coordinators. We argue that such tours play an important role in helping students appreciate the wider factors that impact diverse public relations practices.