semorg24

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Enduring the Game

April 21, 2025

Education can be a tricky field to navigate for anyone. Throughout the course of this research project, I have become increasingly interested in the ways in which youngins have the ability to navigate certain pressures pinned against them while enduring school in an elite institution. As I continue to understand the ins and outs of specific students’ lived experiences at Olive Grove, in Jordan, I have noticed a rigid intersection between “elite pressures” and elite education systems. One specific exterior pressure I would like to highlight is this desire to “conform” to an elite mold. While many of these institutions, like Olive Grove, pride themselves on their diversity and holistic values, through reading various student transcripts, I uncovered an undertone of this “need to fit in”. To dive a bit deeper into this desire to conform, I want to understand what specific drivers cause students to mold themselves into an elite student.

To understand this concept even further, I have chosen to explore the relationship between elite pressures and the idea of the “monster” as examined by Marx. Specifically, in the article by Kenway and Howard, Elite Universities: Their Monstrous Promises and Promising Monsters, they use the metaphor of the “werewolf” to illustrate how elite institutions place intense, often damaging pressures onto their students as well as the fact that these institutions often tend to “transform” students paths, wishes and desires. The metaphor portrays students as “monsters” which essentially means that these students are shaped by the overarching system they are part of. I found this to be a rather intriguing analogy: just as a werewolf undergoes a painful and somewhat uncontrollable transformation under the full moon, students at elite institutions are expected to transform themselves to meet the institutions’ demands for excellence and sometimes conformity. This transformation is not always voluntary; it is driven by the unspoken desire to succeed, obtain power and gain prestige. As a result, students may begin to lose touch with their true selves. The “werewolf” metaphor highlights how elite institutions, in their pursuit of creating “promising monsters,” often end up producing students who are perhaps emotionally overtaken and shaped by the institution’s intense expectations of themselves.

While this is the case for many, I would like to note that not every student feels and experiences these pressures in a negative tone. Some students at elite institutions are able to transform the pressure to conform into an opportunity for meaningful self-growth. For instance, the student I have been studying quite in depth throughout this research project prides themselves on their civic engagement as well as their ability to compete with close friends academically and socially which is something they would attribute in part to their institution. While reading through the transcripts, I discovered an interesting response to the question: “What kind of social pressures do you experience at school? Or pressure from your peers to do well in school?” The response goes as follows: “There is a huge competition and everyone wants to become something. You feel like there is a competition within class, within activities, but you’re all friends at the same time. It doesn’t feel bad! I think it’s good to have competition, even with my closest friends. We do work hard and I think there is a huge competition in this school for everyone to be the best. But I think it’s a good thing”. This truly highlights the fact that students at Olive Grove, as well as many elite institutions across the board, feel this pressure to succeed, however, this desire to “conform” only plays its role in certain students’ lives. This makes me wonder what factors contribute to certain individuals needing to transform into an elite mold? And how do others have the inner wherewithal to overcome these pressures?

Taking into consideration the “werewolf” metaphor I’ve mentioned above, it is important to understand the ways in which students experience social and educational pressures tended specifically towards those in elite institutions. For example, many elite schools often pride themselves as producing “future leaders” which could mean that students may feel burdened by the expectation to become activists, democratic leaders or innovators before they’ve even graduated. While it is human to occasionally feel this need to fit in, or to conform, I have found it incredibly intriguing to uncover the hidden truths about how these pressures are heightened through the lens of a student submerging themselves in their education and social lives at elite institutions.

Sources:

Jane Kenway & Adam Howard (2022) Elite universities: Their monstrous promises and promising monsters, Curriculum Inquiry, 52:1, 75-96, DOI: 10.1080/03626784.2021.1994837 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/03626784.2021.1994837

Crafting Some Ideas

semorg24 / Globally Elite /

April 1, 2025

Attaining a state of tranquility can be quite difficult in our fast-paced everyday lives. While this proves to be a struggle for everyone, the challenge becomes increasingly difficult through the lens of a student enrolled at an elite institution. The research project my group is embarking on this semester aims to explore how Olive Grove in Jordan prepares its students to become democratic leaders. We have each been given a transcript to analyze which involves three different interviews with one student who we will continue to read about for the remainder of the term. Working off of this overarching research question, I have taken a specific interest here in the different ways in which these students interact with their inner selves. As an individual who is constantly inspired by those around me, through intentional conversation and daily practice, I am always quite curious about the ways in which different cultures experience that interconnected relationship with themselves. What I mean by “interconnected relationship” is that aspect of a person’s internal being that is altered and ever changing due to the environment they live in. I believe people are profoundly shaped by their environment. This is why this project has been an incredible opportunity to explore a culture very different from my own. In fact, the research conducted thus far has even gone as far as to give me a unique perspective into the world of elite, upper-class freedom and leverage that arises from certain backgrounds.

The beginning stages of this process involved getting familiar with one student from Olive Grove. Through this process I was able to get incredibly comfortable reading the dialogue while beginning to understand the relationship this student has with themselves and with the world around them. This student is an incredibly hard worker who comes from a stable background, and happens to be very close with their mother which is something I want to explore further. Though their hard work pays off tremendously, something I am curious about is the ways in which my student appears to be very hard on themself. This is a trait I picked up on while reading through numerous transcripts from my fellow group members. Interestingly enough, something I was quite interested in uncovering through this process was how the rigorous environment attached to many elite educational institutions affects the wellbeing of its students, particularly in regards to mental health. I find myself wandering down this path because I, myself, have struggled with many different emotional battles and personal agency while living within the walls of an elite institution. In order to find a symbiotic relationship between personal growth and academic success, one must live among balance, which can be quite challenging to find, especially through the lens of a growing student. This proves to be especially true after analyzing much of the data from this project.

Continuing to think about these concepts of personal agency and human flourishing, something that stuck out to me was how influential the student’s mother was in their educational decisions. Something we just read about in Bourdieu’s The State Nobility, is how elite institutions often impose such rigorous tradition and value into their students, that they maintain those traits and qualities throughout the rest of their lives. I want to explore this because while my student has not talked too much about pressures from the institution itself, they remark upon the times they changed their interests and desires from wanting to be a lawyer into a more “suitable” path that their mother has chosen for them. This is an interesting relationship to explore because it highlights how powerful the mother’s voice is amongst the inner workings of the child. I find myself thinking about why this is often the case?

The final point I want to discuss is the relationship my student has with community engagement and how this connects to inner agency. I recognized how important it was to this student to be involved in the world around them. I was hesitant at first, thinking this was perhaps based on a desire to “get ahead” institutionally, only to be proven wrong when this student mentioned the fact that they engage in community service solely for enjoyment. In fact, a quote from the transcript says it best; “if people like me don’t exist, all the stereotypes about Arabs, all the stereotypes about Muslims, they’re never going to change”. This is a beautiful trait to come across while reading data, and has got me interested in understanding these intricate relationships with inner agency and self-awareness. Going forward with this project, I am incredibly excited to see what new questions arise through more in-depth analysis and conversation with my group members.

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Enduring the Game

Crafting Some Ideas