THE EXPATRIATE AND TRANSNATIONAL DISTANCE STUDENT PHENOMENON: A SERIES OF INVESTIGATIONS by William H. Stewart III A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Education in Educational Technology Boise State University December 2019 William H. Stewart III SOME RIGHTS RESERVED This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. BOISE STATE UNIVERSITY GRADUATE COLLEGE DEFENSE COMMITTEE AND FINAL READING APPROVALS of the dissertation submitted by William H. Stewart III Dissertation Title: The Expatriate and Transnational Distance Student Phenomenon: A Series of Investigations Date of Final Oral Examination: 13 September 2019 The following individuals read and discussed the dissertation submitted by student William H. Stewart, and they evaluated the student’s presentation and response to questions during the final oral examination. They found that the student passed the final oral examination. Youngkyun Baek, Ph.D. Chair, Supervisory Committee Patrick Lowenthal, Ph.D. Member, Supervisory Committee Norm Friesen, Ph.D. Member, Supervisory Committee The final reading approval of the dissertation was granted by Youngkyun Baek, Ph.D., Chair of the Supervisory Committee. The dissertation was approved by the Graduate College. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I would like to acknowledge the ongoing support and assistance from my advisor, Dr. Youngkyun Baek, as well my committee members Dr. Patrick Lowenthal and Dr. Norm Friesen for their wise counsel and invaluable feedback from the early stages of the dissertation process, to the drafts of chapters, and throughout the development of this manuscript. Second, I would like to acknowledge my brother, Eric Lopez, and my friends Dr. Mohammed Mannaa, Dr. Robert Lawrence, Tyrone Maxey for being compassionate and constructive sounding boards as I navigated the doctoral process. I would also like to thank my wonderful friend and colleague, Walter Foreman, who was instrumental in supporting me throughout my studies. Moreover, I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge my mother, Kathi, and twin sister, Laura, who supported and endured me throughout an often challenging journey. Lastly, I would like to acknowledge the wonderful people who volunteered to participate in my research. Not only did they graciously volunteer their precious time to speak with me, but they even more graciously invited me into their homes, and introduced me to their families, spouses, and children. They shared with me rich vignettes of their lives, which ultimately helped me to better understand their experiences and perspectives, and provided me with answers to the questions driving my research, and to ask new ones that remain to be answered. iv ABSTRACT The scale and scope of distance education has changed significantly over the last 250 years. Technology, from the early days of correspondence courses to radio, television and satellite broadcasting, has continually increased the scope, scale, and access potential to education. Distance courses and programs, however, were typically serving local, regional, or national communities. The Internet, by contrast, has transformed distance education by enabling access to education by virtually anyone, anywhere in the world. Students are no longer limited or constrained by geography or residency, yet how such potential has been conceptualized, identified, and subsequently researched has been limited by homogenous frames of reference. The homogenization of student conceptualizations and classifications for distance students situated outside of a national context has resulted in both unclear discussions, as well as the omission of differing perspectives. This dissertation investigated the phenomenon of transnational distance education, and particularly the expatriate and transnational distance student perspective from a vantage point in the Republic of Korea across three related studies. The first investigation, an exploratory study, proposed a framework that organized and defined four distinct types of student (national, international, expatriate, transnational) and subsequently collected demographic and program characteristics of expatriate and transnational distance students from 33 survey respondents. The second study utilized a multicase approach to collect data on the experiences of expatriate and transnational v students and document their experiences, similarities, and differences by examining eight cases. The third study, a grounded theory approach, explored the motivations and decision-making process of expatriate and transnational students and why/how they choose their education programs with a sample of 10 participants. Though the three samples were not representative of all foreign-residents in Korea, they provide additional perspectives to the distance, transnational, and international education literature, as well as scholarship on university attendance. Key findings from study one suggested that expatriate and transnational students were disproportionately male, and most likely completing distance programs in their home countries. Findings from study two described how, as first-generation adult immigrants in Korea, students were funneled into the same career path by virtue of national/linguistic background which prompted them to seek out further higher education opportunities to become qualified in their fields. Lastly, findings from the third study suggested that the concept of repatriation (i.e., return to their home countries), whether realized or not, played a recurring role in their decisions to pursue higher education, and was similarly related to their reasons for choosing distance programs usually in their home countries. Moreover, these findings suggested an ecosystem as both a push and pull factor where various obstacles (e.g., no background knowledge on university programs, no information available in participants’ L1) to entry in the local educational ecosystem pushed them to choose educational opportunities mostly in their home countries as a path of least resistance to achieving their educational goals. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................ iv ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................... v TABLE OF CONTENTS ...............................................................................................vii LIST OF TABLES ...................................................................................................... xiii LIST OF FIGURES ...................................................................................................... xiv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ........................................................................................ xv CHAPTER I .................................................................................................................... 1 Introduction to the Studies ................................................................................... 1 Statement of the Problem .......................................................................... 2 The Korean Context ................................................................................. 4 Summary .................................................................................................. 9 CHAPTER II ................................................................................................................. 10 A Review of the Literature ................................................................................. 10 Introduction ............................................................................................ 10 Distance Education ............................................................................................ 12 Definitions and Characteristics ............................................................... 13 Early Distance Education........................................................................ 14 Modern Distance Education .................................................................... 18 Online Courses ....................................................................................... 21 vii Summary ................................................................................................ 35 Distance Students: A Complex Portrait .............................................................. 36 Ideal versus Actual Online Students........................................................ 37 Prior Experience, Expectations, and Motivation ...................................... 39 Summary ................................................................................................ 43 Transnational Education ..................................................................................... 43 Definitions and Characteristics ............................................................... 46 Modes of Delivery .................................................................................. 48 Diverse Global Circumstances ................................................................ 52 Summary ................................................................................................ 58 Transnational Distance Student Considerations .................................................. 58 Recognizing Cultural Paradigms ............................................................. 60 Dynamic Polycultural Identities .............................................................