LAUSR

Abstract Student exchange programs and trips abroad are consistently portrayed in scholarship as a strategy for promoting students’ global competence. Through a thematic document analysis of a mandatory course developed by the Israeli MOE for students embarking on trips abroad and additional sources, I explore the discourse used to portray these trips in the Israeli context, showing an alternative model that places the state rather than students at the center of these programs. Although from an education perspective this discourse is distinct, political science scholarship suggests the goals it embodies could be embedded across many national contexts, albeit more discretely.