Doctoral Dissertation Research: Negotiating social identities in an elite independent school

博士论文研究：在一所精英私立学校中协商社会身份

• 批准号: 0425035
• 负责人: Michele Lamont
• 金额: $ 0.75万
• 依托单位: Harvard University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2004
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2004-07-15 至 2005-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0425035&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Negotiating; social

This ethnographic study will focus on how students with different socio-cultural backgrounds at a New England preparatory boarding school construct identities as students of an elite educational institution, and how race, class, and gender influence how they construct these identities and negotiate cultural boundaries. Schools play a crucial role in drawing symbolic boundaries around specific identities. But students do not simply accept the definitions they encounter or behave strictly along established boundaries. Research into this dynamic interaction has focused primarily on public schools and on students from underprivileged backgrounds. Scholars have rarely considered how students in elite educational settings-including students from privileged backgrounds-experience their schooling and in what ways they may reproduce, resist, and/or redefine the repertoires of identity available to them. To observe how students construct and enact identities in an elite school setting, four kinds of interactions will be observed: interactions in official school activities, in informal school contexts, one-on-one interviews, and among participants in a focus group. Several sampling strategies will be combined to identify a group of respondents that includes a wide range of experiences and backgrounds. Four complementary methods of data collection will be employed: participant observation, a student questionnaire, in-depth narrative interviews, and focus groups. The data will be analyzed through grounded theory and narrative analysis strategies. While the experiences of a small number of students at one school can hardly be generalized, this study will shed light into both macro and micro social and cultural processes. It will: 1) improve our understanding of the actual experiences of students who attend schools that have historically served elite groups; b) expand our view of the educational system beyond mainstream public school settings to include the experiences of this select group of students; and c) consider the influence of larger cultural relationships and social forces on student experiences of school in general. The broader impacts of this research include the following: This research will be of interest to scholars of education as well as a broader audience of policymakers and educators, including parents and teachers. Given the urgency to improve public schools, particularly for disadvantaged groups, the lack of interest in elite schooling is an understandable yet critical oversight in policy and theoretical debates; in the interest of leaving no child behind, we must pay attention to the experiences of those who are, presumably, "ahead."

这项民族志研究将重点关注新英格兰预科寄宿学校中具有不同社会文化背景的学生如何构建精英教育机构学生的身份，以及种族、阶级和性别如何影响他们如何构建这些身份并协商文化边界。学校在围绕特定身份划定象征性界限方面发挥着至关重要的作用。但学生们并不简单地接受他们遇到的定义，也不严格地沿着既定的界限行事。对这种动态互动的研究主要集中在公立学校和来自贫困背景的学生。学者们很少考虑精英教育环境中的学生，包括来自特权背景的学生，如何体验他们的学校教育，以及他们可能以何种方式复制，抵制和/或重新定义他们可用的身份剧目。为了观察学生如何在精英学校环境中构建和制定身份，将观察四种互动：正式学校活动中的互动，非正式学校环境中的互动，一对一访谈和焦点小组中的参与者之间的互动。将结合几种抽样策略，确定一组具有广泛经验和背景的答卷人。四个互补的数据收集方法将采用：参与观察，学生问卷调查，深入的叙事访谈，和焦点小组。数据将通过扎根理论和叙事分析策略进行分析。虽然一所学校的少数学生的经历很难概括，但这项研究将揭示宏观和微观的社会和文化进程。它将：1）提高我们对学生的实际经验的理解，这些学生就读的学校在历史上一直为精英群体服务; B）将我们对教育系统的看法扩展到主流公立学校环境之外，以包括这一特定学生群体的经验;以及c）考虑更大的文化关系和社会力量对学生一般学校经验的影响。这项研究的更广泛的影响包括：这项研究将感兴趣的教育学者以及更广泛的受众的政策制定者和教育工作者，包括家长和教师。鉴于改善公立学校的紧迫性，特别是针对弱势群体，对精英学校教育缺乏兴趣是政策和理论辩论中可以理解但又至关重要的疏忽;为了不让任何孩子落后，我们必须关注那些人的经历，大概是“领先”的。"