Exploring Nontraditional Student Experience of Doctoral Socialization: Does Money Really Matter?

• In Event: Graduate Student Success in Higher Education

Abstract

Through a Bourdieusian lens it can be reasoned that the cumulative advantage experienced by traditional students is compounded by mismatched economic, cultural and social capital coupled with familial habitus of the non-traditional student, negatively impacting non-traditional doctoral student socialization. The disparity in capital amongst higher education students often results in non-traditional students being unable attend the most prestigious institutions due to financial, geographical, and time-based constraints; they experience difficulty acquiring the necessary goods and services, and ability to undertake activities invaluable to obtaining their credential. This paper argues that at every stage of the socialization process, the impact of economic capital and subsequent financial disadvantage of non-traditional students is underemphasized and underrepresented in the literature addressing ‘barriers’ to doctoral socialization.

Author

• Alison Elizabeth Jefferson, University of Toronto