{"id":{"repo_id":"buffalo","oai_identifier":"oai:ubir.buffalo.edu:10477/86796"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/buffalo/oai:ubir.buffalo.edu:10477/86796","repository":{"repo_id":"buffalo","name":"Buffalo","base_url":"https://ubir.buffalo.edu/oai/request"},"display":{"title":"Class Struggle Within the Middle-Class: Academic Competition for Selective College Admissions Among Korean 'Early Study Abroad' Students in the Globalized Arena","abstract":"Ph.D.","abstract_html":"Ph.D.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Jo, Hyunmyung; 0000-0003-1585-8133"],"institution":"State University of New York at Buffalo","degree_name":null,"degree_level":null,"degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Weis, Lois","Educational Leadership and Policy"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2025,"date_issued":"2025-02-25T23:22:50Z","date_published":"2025-02-25T23:22:50Z","updated_at":"2026-07-27T19:05:37Z","subjects":["educational sociology","higher education","education"],"languages":["eng"],"rights":["Users of works found in University at Buffalo Institutional Repository (UBIR) are responsible for identifying and contacting the copyright owner for permission to reuse. University at Buffalo Libraries do not manage rights for copyright-protected works and cannot assist with permissions.","Copyright retained by author."],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"http://hdl.handle.net/10477/86796","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Weis, Lois","Educational Leadership and Policy"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Jo, Hyunmyung; 0000-0003-1585-8133"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2025-02-25T23:22:50Z","2020","2020-06-08 22:15:22"]},{"key":"dc:publisher","label":"Institution","values":["State University of New York at Buffalo"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["Text","Dissertation"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["educational sociology","higher education","education"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["eng"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["Users of works found in University at Buffalo Institutional Repository (UBIR) are responsible for identifying and contacting the copyright owner for permission to reuse. University at Buffalo Libraries do not manage rights for copyright-protected works and cannot assist with permissions.","Copyright retained by author."]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["http://hdl.handle.net/10477/86796"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["Ph.D.","Drawing on retrospective and current accounts of transition from secondary to postsecondary education in the United States among Korean 'early study abroad (ESA)' students from different middle-class backgrounds, this dissertation examines a particular form of academic race towards the goal of selective college admissions and sheds light on the nature of the academic competition as \"class warfare\" within the middle-class in the era of globalization. The case of Korean ESA students is particularly meaningful as a concrete example illuminating the new contexts of the neoliberal globalization in contemporary society, considering the relatively higher levels of education fever, underemployment rate of university graduates, and participation in ESA experiences in Korean society as compared to other countries. For data collection, I interviewed 44 student participants from three research universities in three different cities in the United States, and also traveled several cities in Korea to interview 15 parent participants. More specifically, in this dissertation, I categorize main participants into two groups—the less privileged middle-class group (e.g., the Browning University group) and the more privileged middle-class group (e.g., the Chester and Gould Universities group), and analyze similarities and differences between the two groups in light of the differences in their college selectivity and socioeconomic conditions. Findings reveal that the gap between family backgrounds within the middle-class result in different \"classed\" practices in their educational trajectories, in spite of ostensible similarities. First of all, a careful examination of Korean ESA students from different middle-class backgrounds uncovers a gap of ESA readiness between the less and the more privileged middle-class students, thereby highlighting their different starting points in the academic race towards the goal of selective college admissions. In addition, while the use of private education services among respondents in the Browning University group were predominantly restricted by the price of the service, respondents in the Chester and Gould Universities group were more likely to purchase higher-quality services irrespective of their price tags. In the long term, the high-quality services enabled students to professionally prepare themselves for admission to selective colleges, even though students and parents did not have fully developed college knowledge at that point. Furthermore, respondents in the Chester and Gould Universities group were able to pursue higher levels of academic engagement and aggressive investment with a clear target of elite private institutions, whereas their counterparts in the Browning University group were required to adjust their levels of academic engagement and financial investment and focus on a relatively less privileged, but still selective, target such as flagship universities. Importantly, the globalized arena of \"class warfare\" in the field of education results in an increased level of intensity and sophistication of class struggle in contemporary society. To be specific, the growth of ESA students contributes to the acceleration and intensification of the positional competition in the social hierarchy in two ways: on the one hand, as a new form of educational inequality between the socioeconomically advantaged and disadvantaged families, it serves to solidify the unequal structure of educational opportunity; on the other hand, by intensifying the academic race among middle-class students regardless of their nationality and citizenship status, it also drives middle-class students to strive for valuable academic credentials, and finally, gives rise to a globalized arena of unprecedented class struggle within the middle-class.","**To request an accessible version of the file(s) associated with this item, contact library@buffalo.edu. Please include the item's persistent URL [http://hdl.handle.net/. . .] in your request.**"]},{"key":"dc:format","label":"Dc Format","values":["application/pdf"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Class Struggle Within the Middle-Class: Academic Competition for Selective College Admissions Among Korean 'Early Study Abroad' Students in the Globalized Arena"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Weis, Lois","Educational Leadership and Policy"],"dc:creator":["Jo, Hyunmyung; 0000-0003-1585-8133"],"dc:date":["2025-02-25T23:22:50Z","2020","2020-06-08 22:15:22"],"dc:description":["Ph.D.","Drawing on retrospective and current accounts of transition from secondary to postsecondary education in the United States among Korean 'early study abroad (ESA)' students from different middle-class backgrounds, this dissertation examines a particular form of academic race towards the goal of selective college admissions and sheds light on the nature of the academic competition as \"class warfare\" within the middle-class in the era of globalization. The case of Korean ESA students is particularly meaningful as a concrete example illuminating the new contexts of the neoliberal globalization in contemporary society, considering the relatively higher levels of education fever, underemployment rate of university graduates, and participation in ESA experiences in Korean society as compared to other countries. For data collection, I interviewed 44 student participants from three research universities in three different cities in the United States, and also traveled several cities in Korea to interview 15 parent participants. More specifically, in this dissertation, I categorize main participants into two groups—the less privileged middle-class group (e.g., the Browning University group) and the more privileged middle-class group (e.g., the Chester and Gould Universities group), and analyze similarities and differences between the two groups in light of the differences in their college selectivity and socioeconomic conditions. Findings reveal that the gap between family backgrounds within the middle-class result in different \"classed\" practices in their educational trajectories, in spite of ostensible similarities. First of all, a careful examination of Korean ESA students from different middle-class backgrounds uncovers a gap of ESA readiness between the less and the more privileged middle-class students, thereby highlighting their different starting points in the academic race towards the goal of selective college admissions. In addition, while the use of private education services among respondents in the Browning University group were predominantly restricted by the price of the service, respondents in the Chester and Gould Universities group were more likely to purchase higher-quality services irrespective of their price tags. In the long term, the high-quality services enabled students to professionally prepare themselves for admission to selective colleges, even though students and parents did not have fully developed college knowledge at that point. Furthermore, respondents in the Chester and Gould Universities group were able to pursue higher levels of academic engagement and aggressive investment with a clear target of elite private institutions, whereas their counterparts in the Browning University group were required to adjust their levels of academic engagement and financial investment and focus on a relatively less privileged, but still selective, target such as flagship universities. Importantly, the globalized arena of \"class warfare\" in the field of education results in an increased level of intensity and sophistication of class struggle in contemporary society. To be specific, the growth of ESA students contributes to the acceleration and intensification of the positional competition in the social hierarchy in two ways: on the one hand, as a new form of educational inequality between the socioeconomically advantaged and disadvantaged families, it serves to solidify the unequal structure of educational opportunity; on the other hand, by intensifying the academic race among middle-class students regardless of their nationality and citizenship status, it also drives middle-class students to strive for valuable academic credentials, and finally, gives rise to a globalized arena of unprecedented class struggle within the middle-class.","**To request an accessible version of the file(s) associated with this item, contact library@buffalo.edu. Please include the item's persistent URL [http://hdl.handle.net/. . .] in your request.**"],"dc:format":["application/pdf"],"dc:identifier":["http://hdl.handle.net/10477/86796"],"dc:language":["eng"],"dc:publisher":["State University of New York at Buffalo"],"dc:rights":["Users of works found in University at Buffalo Institutional Repository (UBIR) are responsible for identifying and contacting the copyright owner for permission to reuse. University at Buffalo Libraries do not manage rights for copyright-protected works and cannot assist with permissions.","Copyright retained by author."],"dc:subject":["educational sociology","higher education","education"],"dc:title":["Class Struggle Within the Middle-Class: Academic Competition for Selective College Admissions Among Korean 'Early Study Abroad' Students in the Globalized Arena"],"dc:type":["Text","Dissertation"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-27T19:05:37Z"}