{"id":1243,"date":"2016-11-17T14:34:48","date_gmt":"2016-11-17T19:34:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/web.colby.edu\/global-elites\/?p=1243"},"modified":"2017-01-19T13:30:57","modified_gmt":"2017-01-19T18:30:57","slug":"1243","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/global-elites\/2016\/11\/17\/1243\/","title":{"rendered":"Homogeneity – What the data was telling us all along"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I wrote my last blog post, my research group had yet to conduct an interview with our assigned student at the Croft\u00a0School. At that point, we wanted to focus our research on extracurricular activities.<\/p>\n

However, after analyzing the transcripts for\u00a0our 3 interviews, I noticed a common theme running through the data: homogeneity. \u00a0To support my analysis of the Croft\u00a0School in this post, I include relevant questions and responses from our interviews in bold below.<\/p>\n

According to the Croft\u00a0School student we\u00a0interviewed, most students at the school\u00a0come from similar backgrounds. \u00a0Croft School\u00a0students often come\u00a0from families\u00a0that encourage and expect them to attend university. \u00a0Since this school does not offer financial aid or scholarships, all students at this school come from families that can afford the school\u2019s tuition\u2014in other words, from a high socioeconomic class.<\/p>\n

Interviewer: So does the Croft\u00a0offer scholarships to students who can\u2019t pay the full tuition?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Student: No.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"This<\/a>
This doesn’t exist at the Croft\u00a0School!<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Since Chile is so\u00a0economically\u00a0and socially\u00a0inequitable,\u00a0it is not surprising that Croft\u00a0School\u00a0students like our interviewee\u00a0live\u00a0in areas concentrated with upper-class families, and rarely\u00a0interact\u00a0with\u00a0lower class people.<\/p>\n

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?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

S: All from a similar social class.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

I: How often do you interact with people who are not in your group?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

S: Not often.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"igualdad\"<\/a>
Yup, that looks pretty unequal to me!<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Since a majority of students attending the Croft\u00a0School 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.<\/p>\n

While students appear to share a habitus before they enter the Croft\u00a0School, the headmaster\u2019s 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\u2019s behavior. This organization typically reflects the values of a particular cultural group or social class. In this\u00a0case, the Croft\u00a0School reflects upper class\u00a0values.<\/p>\n

The Croft\u00a0School\u2019s curriculum is organized to prepare students for university, and reinforces the expectation that they will\u00a0attend. \u00a0The school encourages students to pursue certain high-paying careers (including engineering, law, medicine, economics, and architecture) after attending university. \u00a0Through an \u201call-rounder\u201d, holistic education, students are taught the school\u2019s values\u2014the spirit of service, good manners, and fair play. While not explicitly a Croft\u00a0School value, our research also indicates that the school encourages competition.<\/p>\n

According to our interviewee, the Croft\u00a0way of thinking is synonymous with the Croft\u00a0values.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I: Many of the Croft\u00a0thinking 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\u2019s reflected on like almost every aspect of the Croft, like in aspects where there should be no competition<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

I: Yes. And that is like the main aspect of the Croft\u00a0kind of thinking, competition.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Our interviewee also\u00a0told us that students are rewarded for sharing\u00a0the same views as\u00a0their teachers.<\/p>\n

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.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

I: … Its not popularity… its about thinking the same as the teacher.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Since the Croft\u00a0School strongly encourages its students to adopt\u00a0a 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\u2014one that is reflected in the shared goals, opinions, and\u00a0values of its students.<\/p>\n

\"If<\/a>
If you do not share the same habitus as us, you shall not enter!<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Elite schools like the Croft\u00a0School attempt to select, and develop within students, a specific\u00a0habitus. Ultimately, homogenous groups lead to cultural insulation, and reinforce the dispositions and values shared by all classmates. \u00a0This environment allows the Croft\u00a0School to produce\u00a0graduates that will have the necessary capital to join the\u00a0elite social class.<\/p>\n

Citations:<\/p>\n

Bourdieu, Pierre.\u00a0The State Nobility.\u00a0<\/em>Stanford University Press: Stanford, 1996. Print<\/p>\n

Thomas, Liz. \u00a0“Student retention in higher education: the role of institutional habitus.” \u00a0J. Education Policy,<\/em>vol. 17, no. 4, pp. 423-442,\u00a0http:\/\/citeseerx.ist.psu.edu\/viewdoc\/download?doi=10.1.1.476.2444&rep=rep1&type=pdf. Accessed 16 Nov. 2016.<\/p>\n\n

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When I wrote my last blog post, my research group had yet to conduct an interview with our assigned student at the Croft\u00a0School. At that point, we wanted to focus our research on extracurricular activities. However, after analyzing the transcripts for\u00a0our 3 interviews, I noticed a common theme running through the data: homogeneity. \u00a0To support […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5459,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[17717,242446,242435,242451,242456,202812,242452,242453,125511,242454,126835],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/global-elites\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1243"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/global-elites\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/global-elites\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/global-elites\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5459"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/global-elites\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1243"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/global-elites\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1243\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1705,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/global-elites\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1243\/revisions\/1705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/global-elites\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/global-elites\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/global-elites\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}