Peer Matters: Student Dynamics and Academic Achievement in Elite and Non-elite High Schools

• In Event: 599 - Section on Children and Youth Paper Session. Peer Cultures of Children and Youth

Abstract

Studies show that peers affect individual’s academic outcome. Yet, research less often scrutinizes how peer dynamics vary by academic achievement. Drawing on ethnography in two elite and a non-elite high schools with identical curricula and in the same educational track, this study investigates peer dynamics between students’ with different levels of academic performances. Specifically, I examine peer reactions to public shaming and praising based on students’ test results. I find that, while shaming and praising similarly occurred in both schools, elite and non-elite students exhibited differently reacted to shame and praise. Elite students actively shamed peers by dramatizing the mistakes made, but showed minimal response to praise based on academic achievement. Non-elite students avoided taking part in peer shaming, but enthusiastically congratulated peers who were praised. By comparing students’ different (even opposite) reactions to comparable academic evaluations, this paper argues that peer dynamics affect adolescents’ schooling experiences by shaping student experiences of academic achievement.

Author

• Yi-Lin Chiang, University of Pennsylvania