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Emerging Perspectives 
ep.journalhosting.ucalgary.ca 
 
 
 

 
Insider-outsider adult learners: Culture and the meaning-making of belonging in 

graduate education  
 

Caitlin McClurg1,2* 

1. Libraries and Cultural Resources, University of Calgary, Canada 

2. Doctor of Education Student (Adult Learning), Werklund School of Education, Faculty of 
Graduate Studies, University of Calgary, Canada 

With competing interests on time and resources, adult learners in formal education 
often hold “both-and” identity constructs when describing themselves as students, 
especially considering the multiplicity of their lives in the workplace, and at home. 
Drawing on concepts and discourses related to Bourdieu’s habitus, field, and culture, 
this presentation will engage in a reflexive discussion that considers positionality 
and belonging. Belonging is a personal journey of feeling like an outsider, insider, 
both-and simultaneously. This paper invites readers to consider their positionality as 
both insiders and outsiders, as well as their sense of belonging in academia. This 
conference paper reflects the content of the July 2024 Tapestries of Learning oral 
conference presentation and is part of the Tapestries of Learning Conference 
Proceedings.  

Key words:  Adult learning, graduate education, Bourdieu, belonging 

McClurg, C. (2025). Insider-outsider adult learners: Culture and the meaning-making of 
belonging in graduate education . EPIGREP.  

*csmcclur@ucalgary.ca   

http://ep.journalhosting.ucalgary.ca
mailto:csmcclur@ucalgary.ca


McClurg / Emerging Perspectives (2025)                                 2 

Introduction 
 

This presentation explores graduate education through the lens of French 
sociologist Pierre Bourdieu’s notions of habitus and field, which lead to an examination 
of positionality, cultural norms, and belonging, as well as the scholarly habitus and 
scholarly capital of graduate students in higher education.  

Bourdieu’s Habitus & Field 

Graduate school has a particular sociocultural history. The notion of belonging as 
a graduate student can be considered through the frame of sociologist Pierre Bourdieu’s 
(2020) concepts of habitus, field, and capital. The field “designates the rules that govern 
the working of a social space, the rules of the game” (Bourdieu, 2020, p. 26) whereas 
habitus, a product of history (experiences, dispositions, learning etc.), holds the 
structures of socialization and thus agents (players of the game) will know the doxa 
(rules) of a particular game having been part of that game (Wien & Dorch, 2018).  As 
such, graduate students engage in a field of study with distinct cultural norms and 
scholarly traditions.   

Positionality 

Becoming curious about yourself as a graduate student helps identify relational 
opportunities with the people, places, and expectations in a graduate program of study. 
Most people do not have a singular life focus, having a multitude of hobbies, 
responsibilities and experiences. For students in graduate school, deadlines for school 
may coincide with deadlines and deliverables at work. Time spent reading articles for a 
literature review competes with time spent reading for pleasure or reading to children in 
the family. Each of these aspects ebbs and flows, taking precedence at any given time 
in my day, week, or month. As such, positionality in educational praxis allows for the 
deconstruction of a singular truth (de los Rios & Patel, 2023). Life experience is also 
shaped by race, gender, class, ability and other identities like sexuality and profession. 
Many students are the first in their family to pursue doctoral education and the first in 
their family to work in academia. Positionality can help create a frame of reference 
informing barriers and facilitators to feeling part of the graduate school community. 

 Scholarly Habitus 

Per Bourdesian theory, the habitus defines relational conditions, which includes 
how identity is “defined and affirmed through difference” (Flecha, Gómez & Puigvert, 
2001). Graduate education is distinct from undergraduate education, and there are 
many forms that it can take, such as master's programs, Doctor of Philosophy 

 



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programs, and professional doctorate programs like the Doctor of Education, or Doctor 
of Business Administration. While many programs begin with a brief orientation to the 
program, including deadlines and deliverables, becoming a graduate student at a higher 
educational institution is a process. Authors McCoy and Winkle-Wagner (2015)  wrote 
about the concept of early and intensive socialization for incoming graduate students to 
develop scholarly habitus, or the perspectives, dispositions, and identities as emerging 
scholars.  In their work, they highlight racial disparities, noting that Black students 
earned only 4.1% of the doctoral degrees in Humanities awarded by American 
universities in 2010 (McCoy & Winkle-Wagner, 2015).  In the studies’ summer bridge 
program, rather than pushing scholarship onto participants, incoming students were 
encouraged to take an active role in identifying and embodying their positionality 
(experience with research, cultural background, and scholarly interests) while also 
inviting them into the rigorous world of academic by fostering skill building with 
research, reading and writing skills.   

In the Werklund School of Education (University of Calgary) master's and 
doctoral programs, many specialization streams include summer intensives, where 
coursework is presented in-person in an accelerated, intensive way.  Summer intensives 
are immersive experiences, with graduate students engaging in core program courses, 
with typical assessment involving student attendance, participation (discussion, posting, 
readings), presentations and writing that you would expect in a typical semester-long 
class.  

Cultural Norms of Graduate Education 

In graduate school, students enter fields of study and learn about the cultural 
norms unique to the scholarly traditions, methods and approaches to teaching, learning, 
and engagement with the graduate school process.  Gelfand and Jackson (2016) identify 
that in the field of cross-cultural psychology, there are injunctive norms (what people are 
expected to do in their society) and descriptive norms (what people actually do in their 
society). Take, for example, the potential similarities and differences in experiences and 
expectations for a doctoral student in geology and a doctoral student in curriculum 
studies in K-12 education. What does field work look like? What does the program 
structure look like? Are doctoral studies in these respective fields highly collaborative? 
Or highly independent? What are the cultural norms and scholarly traditions of your 
field? 

Belonging 

In learning the behaviours, rules, culture and guidelines of a social group, 
individuals can feel integrated or remain on the periphery. Without this socialized 
understanding, individuals do not fit (Gardner, 2008).  By situating oneself in the 

 



McClurg / Emerging Perspectives (2025)                                 4 

scholarly conversation of the field, the social networking of the cohort, and the culture of 
academia, graduate students engage in processes of both isolation and belonging. 
Thus, socialization is essential for learning cultural norms in a society that one 
participates in.  The scholarly literature identifies groups of graduate students who relate 
to feelings of belonging, such as women, first-generation students, international 
students, underrepresented students in their field, and distance students (Carvalho et 
al., 2018; Fisher et al., 2019; Zhang et al., 2022). This is aptly described in O’Shea’s 
2021 article, in which she explains how Bourdieu describes the social sorting that 
occurs in higher education, where students are selected and, importantly, reproduced 
according to academic classification. When students do not feel they belong in their 
university or graduate program, habitus dislocation, or the abrupt fissure between the 
old and newly developing habitus, may occur (O’Shea, 2021).   

Social Capital  

Many of Werklund’s graduate programs are remotely delivered and “community 
social capital is defined as the quality and quantity of the social relations embedded 
within the community norms of interaction” (Sheingold et al., 2013, p. 265) . Bridging and 
bonding activities occur on official and non-official forms of virtual interactions  (Heidari 
et al., 2023). Bridging connections are interactions amongst peers that make one feel 
like part of the university (discussion posts, Zoom calls, student leadership, sharing 
resources, group chats) , whereas bonding activities facilitate trust amongst a peer 
group. Who can you trust with your setbacks and successes? Who can you ask for 
help?   

Sheingold et al. (2013) suggest that staff and faculty dedicate international 
strategies to facilitate connectedness, cooperation, mutual understanding, trust, and the 
networking necessary to building community in distance education graduate student. 
For students attending university, whether undergraduate or graduate, who are the first 
in their family, there can be an overall sense of social awkwardness, as unfamiliarity 
with the structure and traditions of higher education can be isolating (Lehmann, 2007). 
Thus, relationality is essential for belonging, including forming friendships, maintaining a 
productive relationship with one’s advisor or supervisor, and engaging in professional 
development networking.   

Conclusions 

Bourdieu’s habitus and field theory provides a sociological perspective for 
framing the conversation around belonging in graduate education.  Fields have 
disciplinary norms, as does graduate education processes  , and students engage in 
scholarly habitus and social capital to either distance or bridge and bond with their 
university program.  

 



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Faculty and staff are encouraged to make active and sustained efforts to foster 
positive relationships within graduate program cohorts, both in-person and for distance 
education (virtual) experiences.  Students are encouraged to articulate their positionality 
to learn where they can contribute and where there are opportunities to network and 
learn. 

 

  

 

 

 



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References 

Bourdieu, P. (2020). Habitus and Field: General Sociology, Volume 2: Lectures at 
the Collège de France (1982-1983) (P. Champagne, J. Duval, F. Poupeau, & M.-C. 
Rivière, Eds.; P. Collier, Trans.). Polity.  

Carvalho, L., Freeman, C. G., Kearney, A., Mentis, M., & Martinez-Maldonado, R. 
(2018). Spaces of inclusion and belonging: The learning imaginaries of doctoral 
students in a multi-campus and distance university. Australasian Journal of Educational 
Technology, 34(6), 41-52.  

de los Rios, C., & Patel, L. (2023). Positions, positionality, and relationality in 
educational research. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 1–12. 
https://doi-org.ezproxy.lib.ucalgary.ca/10.1080/09518398.2023.2268036 

Fisher, A. J., Mendoza-Denton, R., Patt, C., Young, I., Eppig, A., Garrell, R. L., ... 
& Richards, M. A. (2019). Structure and belonging: Pathways to success for 
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e0209279.  

Flecha, R., Gómez, J., Puigveret, L. (2001). Chater 5: Constructivist 
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Gardner, S. K. (2008). Fitting the mold of graduate School: A qualitative study of 
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Gelfand, M. J., & Jackson, J. C. (2016). From one mind to many: The emerging 
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Heidari, E., Salhimi, G., & Mehrvarz, M. (2023). The influence of online social 
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Lehmann, W (2007). "I just didn't feel like I fit in": The role of habitus in university 
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McCoy, D. L., & Winkler-Wagner, R. (2015). Bridging the divide: Developing a 
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O’Shea, S. (2021). "Kids from here don't go to uni": Considering first in family 
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