Some pre-service teacher education programs include opportunities for students to participate in study abroad (SA) experiences, aimed to deepen and enhance future teaching practice. However, little is known about what participants perceive as having influenced their practices in the years post-sojourn, once they are working as teachers. This prompts the question, what influence does a pre-service SA experience have on practicing teachers long-term? In this call-to-action chapter, we examine previous longitudinal research designs to develop an understanding of the use of the term in the field of SA. Next, we examine the reflective research that promotes sojourners thinking critically about their experiences which also influenced our design of a previous pilot study and a newly-funded follow-up research study. We explore research design considerations for longitudinal, reflective follow-up studies. By revisiting the reflections pre-service teachers articulated, pre-, during, and immediately post-sojourn, researchers will have opportunities to examine the learning from SA programs as teachers examine their practices to consider what elements of their own teaching may have been influenced by their SA experiences and how these experiences have shaped their approach to teaching. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022.
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