The Best of the Best

Gaztambide‐Fernández, Rubén

doi:10.4159/9780674053878

Cited by 191 publications

(20 citation statements)

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“…Notably, these studies find that social station socialization carries strong meritocratic messages. Where elite boarding schools previously taught their teenage charges to see themselves as distinguished, worthy, and bound for success due to their breeding and connections, more recently these lessons have become predicated on students' purported hard work and brilliance (Gaztambide-Fernández 2009;Khan 2010). Some students (especially students of color) reportedly see through these back-slapping lessons.…”

Section: Children's Social Stationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Conversely, classic works emphasize lessons about direction in the world, especially children's class trajectories (Bowles and Gintis 1976;MacLeod 2009;Willis 1977). A handful of school case studies-examining children in elite or substantially deprived institutions-depict socialization pertaining to children's sense of position and direction (Bettie 2014;Gaztambide-Fernández 2009;Golann 2021;Khan 2010). 2 This work finds a meritocratic bent to lessons about who they are and where they belong.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…2 This work finds a meritocratic bent to lessons about who they are and where they belong. Elite boarding school students hear constant narratives that they are the "best of the best" and destined for greatness because of their purported hard work and intellectual brilliance (Gaztambide-Fernández 2009;Khan 2010). On the other hand, students in deprived schools are taught that their worth and prospects are imperiled by their alleged failures to successfully learn (Bettie 2014;Golann 2021).…”

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confidence: 99%

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“Everyone Thinks They’re Special”: How Schools Teach Children Their Social Station

Harvey

2023

Am Sociol Rev

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Sociologists have identified many ways that childhood inequalities promote social reproduction. These inequalities are not always explicitly linked to what children are taught about their position and direction in the world, what I term their social station. Extant case studies find that social station socialization has meritocratic underpinnings (e.g., elite boarding schoolers are taught they are the “best of the best”). But societal changes, including increased emphasis on identity in educational institutions’ and employers’ evaluative practices, raise the prospect of similar changes in childhood socialization. I conducted three years of observations in two racially diverse elementary schools—one upper-middle class, the other working class—supplemented by interviews with 101 students, teachers, and parents. Students were taught markedly different lessons about their social station, but neither school predicated this on meritocratic achievement narratives. Overall, children at the upper-middle-class school were taught to see themselves as always-already special because of their internal qualities. Children at the working-class school were taught to see themselves as conditionally good if they adhered to external rules. Variations were visible for Asian American girls at the upper-middle-class school and poor students and Black students at the working-class school. I discuss the importance of school socialization and the implications of discrimination, identity rhetoric, and individualism for social reproduction.

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Section: Children's Social Stationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

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“Everyone Thinks They’re Special”: How Schools Teach Children Their Social Station

Harvey

2023

Am Sociol Rev

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“…Many researchers have reported that pressures related to performance, tests and assessment may be important stressors (Banks and Smyth 2015) and that students at schools with high grade averages may be particularly vulnerable (Eriksson andSellström 2010, Landstedt andGaadin 2012). In the UK, Duffel (2010) has documented severe stress related to the boarding school system, and in the USA, Gaztambide-Fernández (2009) described heavily pressured students at an elite New England boarding school. Thus, more detailed studies of how stressors are shaped by social context are needed, not least studies with an emphasis on elite education.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There are quite a few studies of elite education (Brendon 2009, Gaztambide-Fernández 2009, Howard and Gaztambide-Fernández 2010, Khan 2011, Verkaik 2018. Nonetheless, all these studies ignore the possible impact of the composition of capital (i.e.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Distribution of capital and school-related stress at elite high schools

Pedersen

Eriksen

2021

Journal of Youth Studies

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We investigate school-related stress at two very different elite schools in Norway, using a mixed-methods approach. Schola Osloensis (SO) has a high-grade average and students come from backgrounds with large amounts of cultural capital. At Oslo Commercial School (OCS), students' grades are average, while parents have large economic resources. Data are qualitative interviews of 35 students at each school, photographs taken by students with the mobile phone app MyView as well as focus groups. At SO, academic performance and the struggle for top grades was the most important source of stress. At OCS, much centred on family background and codes regarding style. Lack of integration in key networks was the central cause of stress. We suggest that the most important stressors at the two schools may be shaped by different factors: At SO, surrounded by high aspirations and much cultural capital, stress is a result of the fear of failing academically. At OCS, where tight social networks based in milieus with much economic capital predominate, stress is caused by not getting access to the right social circles. Thus, stress may originate from tensions related to values and codes based in key socio-economic dimensions in social systems.

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