Demonstrating how international education programs can be used to study theoretical issues relevant to comparative education, this article reports on a scholarly analysis of 83 handover letters written by US participants in a volunteer program in Ecuador to their incoming counterparts between 2006 and 2010. It applies Swidler's notion of ‘unsettled lives' to the comparativists' framework of undoing gender and argues that focused on cultural differences, participants are able to see gender inequality in a way they cannot at home. This increased gender consciousness is a key component in undoing gender. These programs stop short, however, of providing opportunities for less gendered or more equal social interaction.
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