Dissertation Defense Announcement Ed.D. Program: Megan Francis “To Stay or Go: The Influence of Environment and Culture on First-Generation College Students’ Decision to Study Abroad”

Study abroad is recognized as a high-impact practice with broad academic and personal benefits (Douglas & Jones-Rikkers, 2001). As a result, empirical research has focused on student outcomes, best practices, assessment tools, and curricular integration, contributing to increased participation across U.S. institutions. Nevertheless, diversity in student demographics has remained relatively flat (Open Doors, 2019). Moreover, diversity research is often framed primarily through socioeconomic mobility, racial diversity, and academic offerings without examining how students internalize their positionality or how institutional contexts shape participation (Brux & Fry, 2010; Gan & Kang, 2022; Penn & Tanner, 2009; Simon & Ainsworth, 2012).

This study employs an explanatory sequential mixed-methods design to examine how intersecting identities, institutional environments, and habitus shape study abroad decision-making among first-generation college students (FGCS). Quantitative data from the Student Engagement in the Research University (SERU) survey was used to analyze relationships between study abroad participation and cross-sectional factors of parental education and socioeconomic background. Additionally, correlational analysis on study abroad participation with gender identity, immigration history, enrollment status, and extracurricular involvement were reviewed to inform participant selection and instrument design for the qualitative phase.

The qualitative phase consisted of semi-structured interviews with FGCS representing three analytically defined groups: students who participated in study abroad, students who applied but did not participate, and students who neither applied nor participated. Using a two-cycle coding strategy integrating structural and values coding, the analysis examined how intersectional identity and habitus—understood as internalized dispositions shaped by family background, financial precarity, and institutional experience—influenced perceptions of opportunity, risk, and responsibility.

Findings indicate that study abroad decisions were shaped less by interest than by how students’ habitus aligned with institutional structures, financial realities, family obligations, and academic priorities. This study contributes to study abroad literature by centering FGCS voices and demonstrating how intersecting identities and institutional barriers shape not only access to study abroad, but students’ definitions of what is possible and appropriate within higher education.