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My group—researching and analyzing Olive Grove Academy in Jordan—began the complex process of writing our paper and dividing up the workload. We began by choosing what each of us felt most comfortable writing about. Eventually, I settled on writing the Narrative Findings section for one of our themes, “Elite Western Identification.”

I identified that both the administration and teachers at Olive Grove play significant roles in enabling students to identify as elite under a Western lens. However, as I dove into the data and searched for quotes, I found that the teachers contribute in multiple forms to the Western identification of students. The headmaster described the demographics of teachers as 75% expatriate and 25% local. This did not stand out to me initially as the data reflected sentiments describing an international faculty with diverse backgrounds. Although I honed in on two teachers specifically, one from Japan and another from Newton, Massachusetts. The teacher from Japan described a community of teachers from America and the English language as a form of currency within the school. I was intrigued by this “community,” which I found was reinforced by data from a fairly new, teacher that represented a schooling and geological background in New England. He noted the community of young American teachers like himself to be comforting and reassuring as he became acclimated to teaching abroad. These descriptions struck me as crucial to include in “Elite Western Identification.” Although, I dug deeper and tried to translate my feelings of discomfort with the push of elite Westernization from these teachers unto my experience here at Colby.

Since I represent a similar background in schooling and location as many students as well as teachers at Colby, I had never thought deeply about the potential effects of such a demographic on those who hail from very different origins. I went to private school in Massachusetts and have frequently had conversations with professors where we are able to find a commonality based in my educational background or upbringing in New England. However, I can imagine it is uncomfortable or impossible to connect with a professor whose educational model or teaching style is based on an elite background within New England if the student does not represent that similar elite identity. I do not know how this can be addressed or remedied; however, I do know now that I will be more conscious of my identity and comfortability as a previous private school student from New England on this campus.

Recently, our group finished the process of condensing codes into themes and writing our group paper outline. As we condensed codes into themes, our group chose “Glocal Tensions” and “Elite Western Identification” as our two central pillars within narrative findings. The majority of our codes for our collective analysis of student, teacher, and alumni interviews were “Western Influence” and “Glocal.” These two codes allowed us to quickly highlight findings that led us to our central ideas for our future research paper. However, our theme “Glocal Tensions” became increasingly more complex as we found contradictions within the data.

These contradictions manifested in the form of answers to various questions in the interviews that surrounded descriptions and analysis of individual’s identities at Olive Grove and the school’s identity as an institution of elite education in Jordan. When coding my student interview, the student stated that he is Jordanian and identifies with many of the Jordanian students at Olive Grove. He said that social circles are comprised of students with many different nationalities and interests; however, he described all of these identities as existing within a Jordanian context. The student argued that the school’s location in Jordan and the many Jordanian and Middle Eastern students affect much of the social and cultural interactions. I coded these descriptions as “Local Influence.” Addressing the global influence and impact of Olive Grove, the student retorted that the school’s identity as an institution within the Middle East is affected by the geography and cultural context rather than the mixed demographic and global self-identification. However, the teacher within another interview argued a different perspective. The teacher represented a Western background—hailing from a suburb in Massachusetts. He argued that the school’s identity in recent years has been cemented as “Global.”

Furthermore, the teacher justified this through the mixed student body and complex web of cultural identities at Olive Grove. He did not highlight the location within Jordan as a major factor within the school’s identity besides the geography’s relationship to student trajectories after Olive Grove. The student focused more on his personal identity as Jordanian and his history with the location surrounding Olive Grove while the teacher projected his own experience working abroad and chose to underline the cultural mixing as a sign of global and international identity.

Inevitably, I classified these contradictions as “Glocal Tensions.” These varied answers regarding the identity of Olive Grove and its student body represent an important paradox. On one hand, students who represent a local demographic analyze their experience at Olive Grove through that lens. Conversely, teachers and alumni who represent a background outside of Jordan or the Middle East project their own identity unto the potentially “global” identity of the school itself. It is difficult to discern which perspective determines the identity of Olive Grove. However, I believe these contradicting viewpoints serve as the real truth behind the institution’s self-identification—an identity struggling to combine their Middle Eastern geography and western influence.

The process of coding is not a simple one. When I received the cumulative and qualitative data from our elite school in Jordan, I felt greatly overwhelmed. Even after the initial explanation and walkthrough of coding data, I could not help but feel as though there was simply too much data to be condensed into simple codes.

Initially, we divided up the work among our group and began picking away at the pile of data—student interviews, teacher interviews, images, and more. However, as I began to code the student interviews, I found it difficult to develop the codes themselves. I felt an avalanche of words and phrases tumbling through my mind, each code seeming well suited to the section of data I wanted to apply them to. I could not decide on the literal codes that would capture the various essences of the sentences, phrases, and passages. I discovered my inability to choose a code when I read and re-read a certain portion of a student interview that I had conducted myself. My friend from high school took her a year and a half off, choosing to spend time at the elite school in Jordan after her self-described “unexpected acceptance.” I asked her one question regarding the social groupings and interactions at the school in Jordan, curious if her answer would reinforce some of the descriptions of the social scene in other student interviews. Her answer noted a mix of identities and cultural expectations; however, in her opinion, these potential divides did not separate social groups but forced social groups to become more of a “mixed bag.” This answer did reinforce a similar description in another student interview. I began to think of different codes that could encompass all of the identities described and interests that intermingled through these diverse friend groups.

I continued to pressure myself to find a code that could portray the reasoning behind these multifaceted social groups. The difficulty I found was that the codes like “social formations,” “social groupings,” and “multicultural connections” did not seem to distinguish these unique social cohorts from simple social pairings rooted in similar interests or hobbies. However, the process began to become an unnecessarily heavy burden and prevented me from continuing coding. Ultimately, I forced myself to look up how to code qualitative data. Immediately, I was blown away by the simplicity of the codes. Some of the codes pulled directly from the sentences or phrases while other’s captured a clear, overarching description of the specific piece of data. I found that I was drastically overthinking the entire process. I recognized that the codes were not supposed to give an in-depth explanation of the purpose behind the pieces of data they represent. The sheer amount of data combined with the number of necessary codes in my head made the coding process seem like a painstakingly slow and grueling activity. Yet, my own indecision and tentativeness was the real factor peeling away time from my other work. I settled on “mixed social circles”—a direct quote from her description of the complex social process. After deciding on this code and becoming more familiar with the process, I found I could assign a code exponentially quicker than I had before.

As I move forward through the process of coding and exploring the sizeable set of data, I know that I cannot overthink the process. Now, I know the most important parts of coding are trusting my intuition and communicating with my group to establish uniform codes that will eventually be consolidated into themes. If I were to think as long about every code as I did this one, the process really would never end

While I was researching for our presentation on the Jordanian system of education, I was struck by the complex ways that gender is perceived and divided in society. After corresponding with a friend from high school who spent a year at King’s Academy, she reinforced some of the information that I had found for our presentation.

Initially, I was researching laws and legal affairs in Jordan. I found that many laws in Jordan are based in the Koran and Hadith—the Islamic sacred book and the collection of sayings from the prophet Muhammad. These laws are referred to and enforced in religious courts in Jordan titled “Sharia Courts,” which deal with interpersonal matters. However, at this point in my research, I stumbled upon certain laws as well as aspects of society that are determined by social understandings rooted in the Koran and Hadith. Despite the shifting conversations about gender and sexual identity in the United States, I found that chastity is demanded of all single women in Jordan. The belief of chastity as necessary in any single woman is grounded in the Hadith. I did not understand the gravity of this notion until I read about an incident where a female who lost her virginity before marriage had a male relative feel the need to murder her in order to maintain the honor behind their family name. After reading this, I felt my perception of Jordan and Jordanian society begin to shift.

As I continued to dig into the ways Sharia law affects Jordanian society, I found out how Sharia Courts handle situations like the case I read before. I found that in the case of crimes related to chastity or gender, many of the charges end up dropped or the murderer is sentenced for a short period of time. Compiling this information, I continued to feel more frustrated as I allowed my life in the U.S. to normalize my experience and reject Jordanian laws, culture, and society due only to a lack of familiarity. I uncovered more information about Jordanian society and the gender divide embedded into their lifestyles. Many public schools are not co-ed and many restaurants force men and women to eat separately unless they are married or related to each other. Looking back, I found that my anger and frustration with discovering these realities in Jordan was only due to my projection of the shifting of normative gender roles here in the United States. I forced myself to look back at many history courses and conversations with my father and mother. I had heard stories from family members or teachers that mirrored the same sentiments in these Jordanian laws and customs despite them being rooted in different religious, social, and historical contexts.

Ultimately, I researched the crime rate and safety rate in Jordan as I reconciled my own preconceptions of gender norms in relation to respective cultures. It was hard for me to understand how, subconsciously, my own experience living and going to school in the U.S. could wire my mindset to perceive our way of discussing gender roles as the only and best way. As of 2018, Jordan’s crime rate has been confirmed as “Low” relative to other countries and their safety at night and day has been deemed “High.” This experience researching Jordan taught me a lot about the country and myself. I realized that I cannot impose my own customs and perspectives of what is “normal” or “right” on another country’s or people’s culture because I live hoping that others from different locations and backgrounds will give me a chance to show the validity behind my westernized habits, lifestyle, and identity. If I expect to truly “see” someone else then I must be open to looking at life and society from a perspective far removed from my own.