Elite Schooling Reflections

As the semester comes to an end, I wanted to utilize my final blog to reflect on things I have learned throughout this research process. Reflection is an important aspect of education for me, as it allows me to recall various lessons and topics and to analyze my thoughts and feelings about what I learned over the last four months. Mari Karm and Katrin Poom-Valickis argue in “Reflective Writing in the University Classroom” that students learn more “deeply and systematically from experience when [they] consciously think [things] over by reflecting upon them critically.” Reflection also allows me to process and articulate major takeaways from my research.

https://media.giphy.com/media/xT5LMtserjL4RtFZQc/giphy.gif

1. When studying elite students, I found myself constantly comparing their experiences to my own at Colby. This was beneficial for me because it allowed me to better understand certain behaviors and pressures, like competition and urgency, that elite students face. However, I believe that when elite students are studying the elite, patterns of behavior are viewed as normal, whereas in non-elite settings, they may seem quite strange. For example, one of the students at the Olive Grove Academy explained that she bonded with her friends by staying up late and studying with them until 2:00 a.m. and having “nervous breakdowns” together. As I read through this, my initial reaction was, “That’s how I became close with my college friends, too.” However, after reminding myself that these were high school students, I realized that in most high schools, such as my own, students don’t usually bond with friends through late nights of studying and having shared mental health crises. Without reframing my perspective outside of my elite schooling experience, this important aspect of friendship formation unique to elite boarding institutions may never have been incorporated into my research.

https://media.giphy.com/media/fSYjlNlW2eDJCSgGvt/giphy.gif

2. It can be challenging to write a research paper without participating in any of the data collection. While reading through the student interviews, I often found myself frustrated with the flow of the interviews and wishing the interviewers had asked follow-up questions. For example, one interviewer asked, “do you do community service?” and the interviewee gave a beautiful description of her work teaching children how to read at a refugee camp. Rather than asking, “Why do you participate in this program?” or “What do you find meaningful about your community service?” the interviewer brushed off the answer and changed topics by saying, “Oh, that’s so cool. Um, have you ever had a job?” Without participating in the interview process, I (and my project group) missed out on guiding the conversation towards topics relevant to the research topic. We were fortunate that we did not have to spend hours interviewing and coding data to write our papers, but, ultimately, I feel our research will not be as strong as possible without conducting primary research.

https://media.giphy.com/media/ounv1hey86r5DM6WhP/giphy.gif

3. The field of elite education is very under-researched. My group struggled to find literature and other studies relevant to my group’s project on school principles and their impact on privilege. Literature related to schooling in Jordan was nonexistent. The challenge in searching for information showcases the importance of the Globally Elite Social Justice Project on Privilege. There are wide gaps in elite scholarship that need to be addressed in order to better understand how the elite class is formed.

https://media.giphy.com/media/giXLnhxp60zEEIkq8K/giphy.gif

Reflective writing can take many forms, and I am thankful that this course has allowed me to reflect through blogging. These exercises have allowed me to expand my knowledge and think critically about concepts we have discussed in class. My second blog, “Shifting Fields and Shifting Perspectives” has even led to a potential honors thesis topic for next year. Reflective writing has allowed me to continue thinking about elite education and to raise questions in an effort to push the discussion further.

Bibliography

Karm, Mari, and Katrin Poom-Valickis. “Reflective Writing in the University Classroom.” Thinking Classroom, vol. 7, no. 3, 2006, pp. 31-37. ProQuest, https://search-proquest-com.colby.idm.oclc.org/docview/220388233?pq-origsite=summon. Accessed 3 May 2021.