Date of Degree
2025
Degree Name
Ed.D. (Doctor of Education)
Department
Department of Counseling and Higher Education (CAHE)
Director
Jacqueline Mac
Co-Director
Kanjana Thepboriruk
Committee Members
Nyunt Gudrun
Keywords
Cultural Community Wealth, Thainess, Bicultural, Cultural Identity, Student experience, Thai American
Abstract
This narrative inquiry explores the experiences of Thai American college students, focusing on how cultural identity influences their academic success, sense of belonging, and progress toward graduation. Despite the growing body of research on Asian American students in higher education, Thai Americans remain an underrepresented and understudied group. Through in-depth interviews, this study examined how participants navigated dual cultural identities and drew upon familial values, community engagement, and cultural practices to define their place in academic and social environments. Findings revealed that cultural identity is a dynamic and lived experience, deeply intertwined with students’ motivations, behaviors, and aspirations. Using Yosso’s community cultural wealth (CCW) framework, the study highlighted the various forms of capital, familial, aspirational, linguistic, and navigational, that Thai American students use to persist and thrive in college. The research called for more inclusive institutional practices that recognize the diversity in the Asian American student population and support culturally grounded pathways to student success.
Publisher
Northern Illinois University
Rights Statement
In Copyright
Rights Statement 2
NIU theses and dissertations are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from Huskie Commons for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without the written permission of the authors, unless otherwise indicated.
Recommended Citation
Dhamavasi, Archawee, "STORIES OF NAVIGATING HIGHER EDUCATION TOWARD SUCCESS: A NARRATIVE INQUIRY ON THE EXPERIENCES OF THAI AMERICAN COLLEGE STUDENTS" (2025). Dissertations of Practice. 81.
https://huskiecommons.lib.niu.edu/allgraduate-disspractice/81
Included in
Adult and Continuing Education Commons, Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education Commons
