Understanding the first‐generation student experience in higher education through a relational dialectic perspective

Abstract

Abstract The authors use relational dialectics theory to argue that first‐generation college students (FGS) often struggle with a give‐and‐take tension between getting involved in campus life and losing their familial and working‐class identity. They suggest that because FGS straddle two different cultures of academia and home, institutions must address these tensions to improve the students' retention and graduate rates.