Special Issue Introduction: Expanding Qualitative Inquiry on Student Loan Debt

Abstract

This special issue introduction argues that qualitative inquiry is essential for understanding student loan debt beyond the scale and distributional patterns documented in quantitative research. Drawing on eight contributing papers, the authors demonstrate that borrowing is a lived, emotional, and evolving experience shaped by identity, mental health, and shifting life circumstances. The collection examines borrower decision-making that resists rational economic models, the embedded perspectives of higher education practitioners who advise students while managing their own debt, structural inequalities that constrain choice, and the confusion produced by a complex loan system. Together, these studies call for a methodological shift toward centering lived experience in debt research and policy.