Keeping Up With Globalization: A Comparative Analysis of Asian Students' Motivations for Overseas Education

• In Event: 35.078 - MTCC Roundtable Session 14
  In Roundtable Session: 35.078-12 - Research on Study Abroad Programs

Abstract

Taking a critical approach and employing qualitative research methods, this paper draws on two research projects that involved the examination of Asian international students’ choices to studying abroad for college, in one case in the US and in the other case in Japan. By applying a critique of neoliberal globalization and the concept of cultural capital (specifically “global cultural capital”) for analysis, the purpose is to uncover the complexity of the motivations underlying Asian students’ choice of studying abroad. In doing so, the paper will contribute to deeper understandings of the motivations of Asian students studying abroad and push the field of international educational research to recognize the particularities of people and places which impact these students’ decisions.

Authors

• Shuning Liu, Ball State University

• Thatcher Austin Spero, University of Wisconsin - Madison