Today, community service is a pillar of nearly all elite educational experiences. At Takau English School, an elite K-12 school in Taiwan, engaging in volunteer work is a critical component in the institution’s “Global Citizens” value of their three-pronged mission statement. In its simplest meaning from Merriam-Webster, community service refers to “work that is done without pay to help people in a community”.¹ The heart of this activity, in theory, is to give to others at the expense of self time and investment. What about this commitment to ‘serving others’ is so important to virtually all elite institutions?

To understand community service in an elite educational setting, it is useful to consider the origins of the elite class itself. In his work, “The State Nobility”, Pierre Bourdieu traces the roots of elite status to the Middle Ages, where this higher position in society was reserved for those who humbly acted in service of the king, often as knights in battles, to protect the greater good of their society.² This selflessness in performing such service for the public was considered “noble”, and therefore those descending from these individuals were granted the standard of being elite. Thus, elite status is grounded in the premise of promoting public wellbeing; however, the meaning of “elite” today has evolved towards taking leadership in positions of social, political, and industrial power that have significant influence in public wellbeing itself. 

Nonetheless, given these roots, community service acts as a mode of ascending towards the traditional elite ideal, and therefore may be especially valued by elite schools as a means of helping students attain this higher status. But even more forefront, promotion of community service by elite schools curates an image that reflects positively on their reputations: institutions position their students with significant resources to help those who are less privileged in order to better their larger communities. In theory, such a process would demand students to acknowledge their own privilege when giving back to those with circumstances different from their own, which contributes to the “morally elevated ethos” that Kenway and Lazarus (2017) coin to describe elite institutions that promote it.³ 

In practice, however, community service performance by elite students only acts to further elucidate socioeconomic class divisions in society, which reinforces the distinctions that create eliteness and reproduce privilege in society. Interviewees at TES viewed community service as a means of interacting with those of different social class from themselves, citing service trips as an opportunity for seeing people “who are very underprivileged” and “helping the minority”. Kenway and Lazarus also reported similar claims of students at an elite school in South Africa blindly distinguishing themselves from students outside their institution, one of which stating that “we can mix with anyone – even people beneath us”.³ By viewing others of different socioeconomic background as “beneath” themselves, these students are in part committing themselves to higher standing without recognizing the implications of their privilege. Taken together, these findings support the notion that community service itself may further divide the elite and non-elite classes rather than bridge the privilege gap. 

So should community service at these elite institutions really be viewed as a requirement that betters those of their community? Or does community service instead serve to reinforce students’ elite privilege while attending these schools? Importantly to note, the outcomes of community service are not exclusive to student status recognition: numerous studies cited by Antonio and colleagues (2000) indicated that student participation in volunteering during higher education was positively associated with greater dedication and interest in studies, learning of course material, and commitment to racial understanding.⁴ Therefore, community service in an elite setting may provide valuable mindsets and skills to those who engage thoughtfully, but also may serve the elite student more than the intended community. 

Works Cited:

1. Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). Community service. In Merriam-Webster.com dictionary. Retrieved from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/community%20service
2. Bourdieu, P. (1996). The State Nobility: Elite Schools in the Field of Power (L.C. Clough, Trans.). Polity Press. (Original work published 1989).
3. Kenway, J., & Lazarus, M. (2017). Elite schools, class disavowal and the mystification of virtues, Social Semiotics, 27:3, 265-275, DOI: 10.1080/10350330.2017.1301791
4. Antonio, A.L., Astin, H.S., & Cress, C.M. (2000). Community Service in Higher Education: A Look at the Nation’s Faculty. The Review of Higher Education, 23(4), 373-397. doi:10.1353/rhe.2000.0015.

Elite schools often receive backlash for creating such difficult barriers to entry into their institutions. In more cases than not, individuals must be connected to the school in some way and at the same time have enough economic capital to afford the demanding costs. Without having either of those facets, it makes access to these schools merely impossible and further emphasizes the need to be elite in order to attend elite institutions. However, elite schools tend to claim certain values and virtues to mitigate their “eliteness” and seem more connected with those outside the school. The virtue that several elite schools choose to partake in is the service virtue. Due to the negative connotations surrounding the concept of “elitism,” elite institutions claim that they are serving those who are less fortunate “via charitable community-service activities” in order to maintain a positive image of themselves (Kenway and Lazarus 2017 p.270). By claiming certain values and virtues that make elite schools appear more virtuous, these institutions believe that they take on a greater responsibility than being elite. In spite of that, even though these schools have virtues attached to service, it doesn’t necessarily mean that their practices align with it. 

One of the pillars of the Croft school in Chile is service. It is explained as being a “fundamental part of the development” of the students at the school. Through community service, it is said that these individuals that attend the Croft school will develop a better understanding of “kindness, respect and empathy” and a “social sense of service to the community.” Having said that, throughout my time reading the transcripts of the students at the Croft school, there were numerous instances where the students brought up community service and their experiences when participating in it. Although I didn’t think much of it while I was reading, it quickly became clear that students were participating in this service, but their understanding of service didn’t quite line up with that of the school. As one student states: 

For being like one of the pillars of the Croft, social service, it’s really poor. It’s like really basic. Like you build houses like 3 times a year and then I mean the last times I haven’t gone because it’s like, they don’t need me. You need like small amount of people and it’s just too much so it’s like overdone.

This student’s response clearly shows that the practice of community service doesn’t quite line up with the virtue of service at the Croft school. So, as much as elite institutions want to use service to deflect individuals from the fact that they are elite, actions always speak louder than words. Elite schools can claim all they want that they are serving those who are less fortunate, but how often their students actually engage with those on the outside is something that can easily be manipulated to make elite schools look better. 

Overall, the Croft school is just one example of an elite school claiming a specific virtue to distract individuals from the school’s elite status. Elite institutions firmly believe that if they implement certain practices like service that they are teaching their students an important lesson while also making things more diverse and less exclusive. Nonetheless, these institutions are really using these virtues to mask their advantages in society by saying they are helping others. In the end, elite institutions like the Croft school are still creating elites and maintaining their elite status all while participating in the “virtue” of service. 

Parents undoubtedly play a critical role in shaping the lives of their children. For most children, the environment that they are raised in is directly built and maintained by parents’ decisions, beliefs, and values, which often translate into those of the growing individual. At Takau English School, an elite private K-12 school in Taiwan, we observed that many of the students’ values were acquired from their family through emphasis on their parents’ values. For example, most students indicated that family was incredibly important to them, but one value specifically stressed by their parents was respect for their elders. Also, while several students valued hard work and gratitude as morals gained from their parents, another student expressed that her commitment to contributing to the community was largely influenced by her parents’ roles as doctors that emphasized this value.

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But outside of inherited values and guiding life principles, we also saw instances of parental involvement that seemed overly striking. In particular, while discussing how often he spends time with his parents, Lee shared that “[I’m] with my parents all the time when I come home… they’re just sitting beside me,” and proceeded to point to his parents at the edge of the virtual interview screen. Another student also shared a related experience, in which her mom stepped in to listen to the interview and hence the student introduced her to the interviewer. Although parents aren’t directly intervening in the students’ thoughts or actions through their own here, their constant presence in their childrens’ spaces supports the notion that they maintain hyper-influence over the students’ lives. 

Traditionally, strong parental influence through high expectations for educational outcomes and achievement have been noted particularly in Asian cultures (1). In alignment with this, one perspective in parenting proposes that academic excellence is directed through strictly enforcing students to adhere to a tightly regulated educational schedule, an approach known as authoritarian parenting (2). In contrast to autonomy-granting parenting, which promotes more independence in the process of learning and growing, authoritarian parenting allows little space for independent pursuits and strong emphasis on outcome attainment (2). Authoritarian parenting in several Asian countries has been examined in part as a product of Confucian ideology, where the core value of filial piety requires children to have unequivocal respect for and conformity to their parents’ decisions and desires (1,2). This philosophy inherently undermines individual autonomy in children resulting in stronger tendencies for obeying their parents’ educational demands even if they differ from their own desires – granted if students can recognize how their own needs differ from those of their parents.

Returning back to TES, authoritarian parenting may contribute to the educational values that students expressed. Through our research, we discovered that Confucian ideas are tightly entwined in Taiwanese culture, and as reflected above in our interviews, family is considered an utmost priority to students. Combined with our observation of seemingly hyper-involved parents, we suspect that many students at TES may be subject to authoritarian parenting, which may even more so restrict their ability to recognize their own independence. Lee, who first indicated that his parents are constantly by his side at home, later stated during the interview that “half of [my expectations in school] is my parents and the other half is myself”. Given the discussion above, I wonder how much of ‘his half’ of the academic expectations placed on him are truly his own desire to distinguish himself in school, or instead if these may be a reflection of his personal commitment to the values of filial piety that his family’s culture embraces. 

Works Cited

1. Poon, D. (2013). Parental influence on Asian Americas’ educational and vocational outcomes. Applied Psychology OPUS. https://wp.nyu.edu/steinhardt-appsych_opus/parental-influence-on-asian-americans-educational-and-vocational-outcomes/
2. Hung, J. (2018). Parenting Styles, Academic Demands and Children’s Psychosocial Well-being: Why Today’s Hong Kong Chinese Students Are So Stressed. The Columbia University Journal of Global Health, 8(2). https://doi.org/10.7916/thejgh.v8i2.4854