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At the Everdeen school, there is a complex relationship that is based on the duality of competition and collaboration that is instilled in the culture of elite institutions. Students are required to be involved in a variety of extracurricular activities, including athletics and community based service clubs. Athletics hold an essential role in the development of competition, as well as providing a basis for elitism to be perpetuated through the success of the teams. By having success, the school is able to obtain more capital. Since Everdeen requires students to participate in athletics, they maximize their potential for success by ensuring that they are utilizing the talents of the students.   With the requirement that students are supposed to be engaged in many different activities, there emerges a culture of competition and collaboration that influences the way that the students experience their education at Everdeen. In nearly all of the interviews of current students and alumni, they mentioned their involvement in school sanctioned activities or sport. Specifically in one student interview, they explained that “…there is a lot of opportunity for us to be a part of programs that help charities or …we have different house teams like we will split into different houses and have competitions”, which furthers this idea of involvement and the emphasis that they school has on creating an environment that is rooted in the culture of constant improvement through competitive practices. The implementation of competition among the houses promotes the inter-school challenges, which creates an environment in which students are trying to demonstrate their ability to be the best. Community programs allow for students to practice leadership skills to a variety of different people with varying socioeconomic status, but they also provide a structure where elite students are able to demonstrate their cultural capital over another social group. Bourdieu explains “…power is primarily wielded invisibly and anonymously, through “mechanisms” such as those that achieve the reproduction of economic capital through the apparently anarchical, yet structured actions and reactions of networks of agents and institutions…” (Bourdieu, 386). These “mechanisms” are the avenues in which the elite are able to perpetuate their elite status through education and utilization of people who belong to lower socioeconomic classes.  

Within the elite educational institutions, competitive practices are utilized as a method to perpetuate the idea of globalization to the students. Globalization in itself, is fundamentally ingrained in the practice of international influence which is practiced (at the school level) through modes of competition and collaboration. By requiring students to partake in school activities and athletics, Everdeen is able to ensure that students are obtaining the skills that are necessary to become successful global citizens. Extracurricular and community orientated service projects are used to provide students with collaboration skills that are needed to have global influence, as well as giving them the skills to thrive amongst those of elite status and those who belong to lower socioeconomic classes. Athletics provide a basis for competition that is crucial for the establishment of globalization and influence that is needed for global impact. 

At the Everdeen school, there are pillars of school culture within the institution that allow students to achieve their academic endeavors, as well as preparing them for continued success. In what ways does this prestigious school perpetuate the cycle of elitism within its presented curriculum? Are there nuances that also promote elitism that aren’t directly included in the curriculum? In what ways are students being prepared to continue their education at other elite schools post graduation? These pillars are the premier goals for the school, focusing on global involvement and influence, and most importantly, the perpetuation of elitism through education.  

Students who attend prestigious institutions are provided with opportunities in order to ensure that they continue on a cycle of elitism. In one interview with a student they stated that they were “spoon fed” the materials and opportunities to ensure success. For example, the student stated that they were given strict outlines for essays and other assignments, as well as being provided with comprehensive outlines so students were able to follow the examples. They were also taught exactly how to structure their work, implementing a curriculum that follows a teaching model that is dependent on the mastery of literacy and numeracy. The school promotes this teaching model at the junior school, which is intended to provide students with a comprehensive background before they go to the upper school. Since the school provides  extensive practice of the expectations that are prevalent within the classroom, they are preparing students to succeed in the proceeding levels of schooling that they are expected to attend. This furthers the idea that elite students are constantly being prepared for the continuation of their elite status from their prestigious institutions.

In “The Sociology of Elite Education”, the author explains the multifaceted approach of the perpetuation of elitism through methods other than the curriculum, and expresses the  “emphasis on the non-academic side of campus life, which helped students master the subtleties of the dominant status culture and accumulate contacts crucial for success”. (p. Zanten, 331). In the alumni interview, the former Everdeen student recalls having extensive opportunities for leadership within the school. They describe their experience being a “house captain” as well as the community service initiative that they were a part of. The opportunity to be a house captain is an experience that is determined by extracurricular and athletic involvement. By being involved in these school orientated activities, students are able to develop the skills needed to be in the upper social class. Furthermore, by demonstrating leadership, the students that attend Everdeen not only gain valuable skills, but they are also able to improve their resume for applying to further their education at university. In the interview, the former student described their university experience, and the process they went through in order to choose the school they were currently attending. The interviewee explained that the university they are attending was one of the most prestigious universities in the country, which is why they ended up choosing it. However, without the skills and opportunities that they received at Everdeen, they most likely would not have been able to get into a university of that caliber. It is also essential to acknowledge the name power that Everdeen has within the country which also perpetuates the cycle of elitism. Since the school has a reputation of preparing students for furthering their education at other elite schools, there is an expectation that they will thrive in other prestigious institutions.

In The State of Nobility, Pierre Bourdieu outlines the factors that are integrated within elite and prestigious institutions, which create the basis for the perpetuation of societal dominance through education. Bourdieu specifically analyzes that, “… a rite of institution aimed at producing a separate, sacred group; whether, in other words, the technical functions of elite schools does not effectively disguise their social function as agents of ritual exclusion, to give a seemingly rational justification to the ceremonies of consecration through which societies claiming to be rational produce their nobility” (Bourdieu, 73). Bourdieu essentially defines prestigious institutions as foundations for the wealthy and elite to maintain their societal hierarchy through the “functions” that only the elite have access to.

  At the Everdeen school, these desires to perpetuate the cycle of elitism and produce students who belong to the highest societal hierarchy is maintained through the institution’s practice of “global citizenship”. Throughout the interviews of students who were currently attending Everdeen, one clear overarching theme was prevalent. In each interview, the students described the school’s emphasis on creating “global citizenship”. How does the Everdeen school represent Bourdieu’s understanding of the “sacred group” through the implementation of global citizenship? Is global citizenship only practiced in elite spaces? 

Everdeen works to be an institution that develops leaders for future generations, which means that in order to further superiority over other members of society, it needs to provide students with the skills and cultural capital that is needed to thrive within elite spaces. This inherited form of cultural capital is crucial in the separation of the from the non elite. One specific example of the school instilling these understandings within its students is through global citizenship and the experiences that the institution wants the students to have internationally. In traditional public schools, students may be exposed to global understandings through curriculum, but their lived experiences may be drastically different, and these lived experiences are most often reserved for the elite. At Everdeen, students are compelled to have international engagement, as well as having global curriculum and events present at the school. One student described that “…there is a big push for us to like go out and do things in a global sense and there is a lot of opportunity for us here if we want to…and I think we have a lot more chance, then kids in other schools, maybe, and I think they teach us to be really well rounded and to understand the environment that we are in”. As the interview continues, the student describes the many opportunities that the Everdeen school provides for global engagement through study abroad programs and international events at the school. Within the school’s promotion of global citizenship through experience learning and curriculum, there is also a strong emphasis on “social justice”. Social justice is defined by the distribution of wealth, opportunities and resources throughout the social hierarchy. By practicing social justice within the educational setting, it establishes the understanding that there is one social group that is above others, one that is more privileged than the rest and able to provide leadership to groups that are below them. This exemplifies Bourdieu’s idea that prestigious institutions further establish the “sacred group” which is perpetuated through Everdeen’s continual integration of global citizenship throughout their educational practices.