Bridging the Divide: Developing a Scholarly Habitus for Aspiring Graduate Students Through Summer Bridge Programs Participation

This multisite case study explored the role of summer institutes in preparing Students of Color for doctoral programs. Bourdieu’s social reproduction theory, particularly the concept of habitus, was employed as a theoretical framework to investigate how the participants further developed habitus (their dispositions, identities, and perspectives) as scholars. The findings suggest that the summer institutes assisted students in developing a scholarly habitus through fostering confidence, cultivating a passion for scholarship, and identifying as an emerging scholar, while still maintaining their prior backgrounds and identities. We assert that the summer institutes were crucial in helping the students to develop dispositions (habitus) relevant to being a doctoral student.