homogeneity – Globally Elite

homogeneity

Wow, What a Ride: An Overall Reflection of the Research Process

Thomas Barry / Globally Elite / Chile, curriculum, Elite, elite schools, eliteness, homogeneity, homogenous, privilege, research, research process, social class, values /

December 4, 2016

While I have completed a number of research projects during my time at Colby, my research partners for this project have arguably been the best ones ever. Each of us has our individual strengths, and I am very grateful to be a part of a balanced group. Collectively, we have rejoiced in moments when the research process has clicked…

… And persevered together when it hasn’t.

Early on in the research process, our group struggled to narrow our focus. In our initial research proposal, our group decided to focus on studying the impact of parental figures on the lives of Croft School students. When we realized there was not enough data on the Internet to analyze the Croft School through this lens, we decided to shift our focus to extracurricular activities. With this focus in mind, one of my group members effectively conducted three interviews with our assigned Croft School student. Shortly after finishing these interviews, my other group partner chugged along and transcribed all three interviews. Interviewing and transcribing are two of the most time consuming parts of this research project, and my partners did an amazing job.

While getting these interviews done was awesome, I was slightly disappointed to learn our student interviewee was not heavily involved in extracurricular activities. Doing a lot of research on two research topics and not having either pan out was definitely discouraging.

However, not being paired with a student who was deeply invested in extracurricular activities was actually a blessing in disguise. It forced my group to learn one of the most important rules of research– letting the data tell you what is important and what to focus on. We soon realized that one of the strongest connections between our class readings, Internet research on elite schools, and our interviews was the theme of homogeneity. Thus, we made homogeneity our research focus, and ran with it.

The Croft School is homogenous in a number of ways. First, the school provides a standardized, homogenous education to all its students; the curriculum is rigid and does not give students very many opportunities to take electives. Second, the social class standing of students at the Croft School is homogenous since most come from upper class backgrounds. Third, the Croft School fosters a particular environment, and upholds specific values, in order to develop a certain type of student — one that is well-rounded, responsible, prepared to attend university anywhere in the world, and equipped to become a trustworthy leader in the future.

mfl0305l — Definition of Homogenous – of the same kind or nature; essentially alike.

After completing our paper outline, my group felt confident in its thought progression. However, when Adam took a look at it, he saw a gap between our literature review discussion about the growth of inequalities around the world, and our claims regarding the impact of homogeneity at elite schools such as the Croft School. While making this connection was difficult, required a lot of brainpower, and required us to use a theory we had not been directly exposed to in class, my partners and I now feel confident that we can finish our paper with this new thought progression.

To be honest, I had not considered what it has meant to be part of a larger research project until Adam asked us to reflect on this question. However, after giving this question some thought, I now have some answers. Since each group in our class is analyzing the Croft School, albeit through a different lens, it has been very helpful to learn about where my classmates have gathered information on the school. Being part of this larger research project has also given me the opportunity to learn more about the elite schools Adam, his previous students, and his research team have explored and analyzed. It has been interesting not only to learn about these schools, but also to look at the similarities and differences between the Croft School and other elite institutions around the world. It feels awesome to be part of a larger research project, and I cannot wait to read more about the Croft School when Adam and his research team publishes research on it sometime in the future.

Besides learning to let the data tell me what to focus on, I have learned a number of valuable lessons during this project. The most important lessons I learned, however, were about my own Eliteness and privilege. I am now more aware of my privilege; how my social class background led me to Colby; as well as the ways I have perpetuated social inequalities — in terms of how I used to see the world, and where I go to school. This awareness has encouraged me to think more deeply about the ways I can impede the perpetuation of inequalities. While I do not have all of the answers to this question yet, I look forward to generating, learning about, and acting on some of them in the future.

Homogeneity – What the data was telling us all along

Thomas Barry / Globally Elite / Chile, Chilean Education System, Elite, elite schools, elite social class, habitus, homogeneity, homogenous, Inequality, Pierre Bourdieu, social class /

November 17, 2016

When I wrote my last blog post, my research group had yet to conduct an interview with our assigned student at the Croft School. At that point, we wanted to focus our research on extracurricular activities.

However, after analyzing the transcripts for our 3 interviews, I noticed a common theme running through the data: homogeneity. To support my analysis of the Croft School in this post, I include relevant questions and responses from our interviews in bold below.

According to the Croft School student we interviewed, most students at the school come from similar backgrounds. Croft School students often come from families that encourage and expect them to attend university. Since this school does not offer financial aid or scholarships, all students at this school come from families that can afford the school’s tuition—in other words, from a high socioeconomic class.

Interviewer: So does the Croft offer scholarships to students who can’t pay the full tuition?

Student: No.

This doesn't exist at the Chilean School! — **This doesn’t exist at the Croft School!**

Since Chile is so economically and socially inequitable, it is not surprising that Croft School students like our interviewee live in areas concentrated with upper-class families, and rarely interact with lower class people.

I: No scholarships? Oh. And then where you live in Santiago, did you grow up exposed to people of different social classes, or do most people who live in the area are from the same social class?

S: All from a similar social class.

I: How often do you interact with people who are not in your group?

S: Not often.

igualdad — **Yup, that looks pretty unequal to me!**

Since a majority of students attending the Croft School come from similar backgrounds/social classes, it appears they also share a habitus. Pierre Bourdieu defines habitus as a system of embodied dispositions that organize the way individuals perceive and react to the world around them. These mental habits, schemes of perception, classification, appreciation, feelings, and actions are shaped by social interactions and personal histories. As a result, different groups (such as a social class) share a habitus.

While students appear to share a habitus before they enter the Croft School, the headmaster’s message and our interviews indicate that the school also teaches an institutional habitus. Institutional habitus is the impact an organization, such as the education system, has on an individual’s behavior. This organization typically reflects the values of a particular cultural group or social class. In this case, the Croft School reflects upper class values.

The Croft School’s curriculum is organized to prepare students for university, and reinforces the expectation that they will attend. The school encourages students to pursue certain high-paying careers (including engineering, law, medicine, economics, and architecture) after attending university. Through an “all-rounder”, holistic education, students are taught the school’s values—the spirit of service, good manners, and fair play. While not explicitly a Croft School value, our research also indicates that the school encourages competition.

According to our interviewee, the Croft way of thinking is synonymous with the Croft values.

I: Many of the Croft thinking is based on competition with others. Like because one of the key elements of school is like sports, sports you have competition. Like I want to get to the first team, things like that. Ummm that’s reflected on like almost every aspect of the Croft, like in aspects where there should be no competition

I: Yes. And that is like the main aspect of the Croft kind of thinking, competition.

Our interviewee also told us that students are rewarded for sharing the same views as their teachers.

I: … There is like discussion groups in my school that are called colloquials, and there is this teacher that organizes it… she like chooses like who has to go… she chooses the students that are friends with her.

I: … Its not popularity… its about thinking the same as the teacher.

Since the Croft School strongly encourages its students to adopt a particular way of thinking, Bourdieu would argue that this school (like most elite schools) acts as a miniature, closed off society that shares a single lifestyle—one that is reflected in the shared goals, opinions, and values of its students.

**If you do not share the same habitus as us, you shall not enter!**

Elite schools like the Croft School attempt to select, and develop within students, a specific habitus. Ultimately, homogenous groups lead to cultural insulation, and reinforce the dispositions and values shared by all classmates. This environment allows the Croft School to produce graduates that will have the necessary capital to join the elite social class.

Citations:

Bourdieu, Pierre. The State Nobility. Stanford University Press: Stanford, 1996. Print

Thomas, Liz. “Student retention in higher education: the role of institutional habitus.” J. Education Policy,vol. 17, no. 4, pp. 423-442, http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.476.2444&rep=rep1&type=pdf. Accessed 16 Nov. 2016.