Due Distinction: Elite Student Status Hierarchies in China
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University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations 2017 Due Distinction: Elite Student Status Hierarchies In China Yi-Lin Chiang University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations Part of the Sociology Commons Recommended Citation Chiang, Yi-Lin, "Due Distinction: Elite Student Status Hierarchies In China" (2017). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 2806. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/2806 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/2806 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Due Distinction: Elite Student Status Hierarchies In China Abstract How do students sort each other into different status groups in school? Research primarily conducted in the United States conceptualizes student status hierarchies as multidimensional systems. Scholars portray multidimensional status systems as exclusionary, constructed by and in the best interests of high status students, and disconnected from adult society. However, these theories are less useful for understanding a unidimensional status hierarchy that determines student status based on a single dimension. This study challenges several assumptions based on multidimensional status hierarchies about status hierarchies by providing insights into how unidimensional status hierarchies are constructed, maintained, and justified. Data for this study come from 15 months of ethnography and interviews with 36 socioeconomically elite students, parents, and teachers at six top performing high schools in Beijing. First, I found that Chinese high school students established a unidimensional status hierarchy based solely on test scores, with the students who achieved the highest test scores on daily practice tests having the highest status. Students sorted each other into four status groups: Intellectuals (Xueshen), Studyholics (Xueba), Underachievers (Xuezha), and Losers (Xueruo). This status hierarchy dominated the school. All of the students recognized it as a legitimate basis for according status. Rather than the status hierarchy serving exclusionary purposes by restricting friendships between students from different status groups, students formed inclusive social associations without attention to status because associations did not threaten the status quo. Second, while literature emphasizes the motivation of high status students to maintain the status hierarchy, I observed that both high and low status Chinese students upheld the hierarchy. Finally, scholars imply that the status hierarchies that govern adolescent society are disconnected from adult society, yet in this study, I observed that teachers and parents supported the student status hierarchy and students believed that school status predicted adult status. The findings from this study underscore the need to improve current conceptual models of the nature of status hierarchies and the factors that facilitate the allocation of people into different status groups. While I use the example of elite Chinese adolescents, the findings carry implications for unidimensional status hierarchies among other social groups. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Sociology First Advisor Annette Lareau Keywords Adolescent, China, Education, Elite, Status Subject Categories Sociology This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/2806 DUE DISTINCTION: ELITE STUDENT STATUS HIERARCHIES IN CHINA Yi-Lin Chiang A DISSERTATION in Sociology Presented to the Faculties of the University of Pennsylvania in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2017 Supervisor of Dissertation ______________________ Annette Lareau Stanley I. Sheerr Professor of the Social Sciences, Professor of Sociology Graduate Group Chairperson ______________________ David Grazian Associate Professor of Sociology Dissertation Committee Randall Collins, Dorothy Swaine Thomas Professor of Sociology Emily Hannum, Professor of Sociology and Education Hyunjoon Park, Korea Foundation Professor of Sociology DUE DISTINCTION: ELITE STUDENT STATUS HIERARCHIES IN CHINA COPYRIGHT 2017 Yi-Lin Chiang This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/ ACKNOWLEDGMENT I could not have finished this dissertation without the support from a wonderful network of family, professors, and friends. First, I would like to thank my family, especially my parents, for their unfailing love throughout graduate school. My mother constantly reminded me to be thankful and to have a long-term vision of my future career. Although fieldwork was foreign to my father as a mathematician, he helped me find contact entry into fieldwork, without which data collection would have been difficult. I am grateful to have an amazing committee: Annette Lareau, Randall Collins, Emily Hannum, and Hyunjoon Park. My advisor, Annette, has showered me with insightful feedback and unwavering support. She has shown me that celebrating the milestones as well as tiny achievements are crucial to sustaining one’s academic career, which I will always remember. As the Chinese saying goes, “once a teacher, always a father.” I am so thankful that Annette has taken on the role of my academic parent. Her mentoring has been a perfect mixture of concerted cultivation and accomplishment of natural growth. Special thanks to Randy for teaching and guiding me through the various theoretical concepts related to my research and his timely reassurance of the value of my work. His depth of theoretical knowledge has been a true asset. I am truly grateful for Emily’s indispensable comments, which I always look forward to, and her tips and wisdom on how to write about China have been extremely valuable. Her encouragement and reminders throughout the years are sincerely heartfelt. I also thank Hyunjoon for his willingness to meet and time spent on discussing my research. His support and expressed enthusiasm in my work is highly appreciated. Deep gratitude also goes to Jere iii Behrman, Irma Elo, and Guobin Yang for their research inspiration and emotional support. I am incredibly blessed to have so many scholars help develop and sustain my academic endeavors. I am fortunate to have friends who sustained me along the way. Alice Yeh and Ben Ross carefully read my many drafts of the articles preceding this dissertation. Members of the writing group have taken time to comment on my work. I thoroughly enjoyed time spent with Yeonjin Lee, Li-Chung Hu, Sarah Spell, Hyejeong Jo, Junhow Wei, Ran Liu, Chris Reece, David Sorge, and Natalie Young in Penn sociology and demography. Much appreciation goes to Audra Rodgers, Aline Rowens, Marcus Wright, and Kathleen Dougherty, who always greeted me with smiles and helped me go through bureaucratic hoops. Jaap Nieuwenhuis, Jen Lee, and Tiffany Lin have been my true cheerleaders. Chia-Yu Chung, Debby Huang, Chiao-Ning Su, Elsie Hwang, Sophie Wei, Kristen Lau, Josh Hui, and Eli Smith made Philly feel like home. At Beijing, Chen Chen, Chenjia Xu, Dennell Reynolds, my roommates at Taiyueyuan, and students at the Chicago Center turned fieldwork into a fun and exciting experience. Genuine thanks to my “uncles and aunts,” Hai-Long Dai, Chao-Tai Tu, Sandra Lee, and Pei-Hsiang Hu, as well as Shijian Yan, Mufa Chen, Xiufang Liu, Zhiming Ma, Zhao Dong and Zhengrong Deng, who took me under their wings in Philadelphia and Beijing. I especially thank Qianhui Lin, Ke-Chia Chen, Adele Gonzaga, Suzannah Waddington, Pat Canavan, Lixin Ji, and the choir and international fellowship at the Tenth Presbyterian, whose prayers and encouragements have sustained me in the dissertation writing process. Finally, special thanks to the participants and schools in the study. The students, teachers, and families received me with open arms in every visit. Their willingness to befriend me and include me in their daily routines gave life to this study. iv ABSTRACT DUE DISTINCTION: ELITE STUDENT STATUS HIERARCHIES IN CHINA Yi-Lin Chiang Annette Lareau How do students sort each other into different status groups in school? Research primarily conducted in the United States conceptualizes student status hierarchies as multidimensional systems. Scholars portray multidimensional status systems as exclusionary, constructed by and in the best interests of high status students, and disconnected from adult society. However, these theories are less useful for understanding a unidimensional status hierarchy that determines student status based on a single dimension. This study challenges several assumptions based on multidimensional status hierarchies about status hierarchies by providing insights into how unidimensional status hierarchies are constructed, maintained, and justified. Data for this study come from 15 months of ethnography and interviews with 36 socioeconomically elite students, parents, and teachers at six top performing high schools in Beijing. First, I found that Chinese high school students established a unidimensional status hierarchy based solely on test scores, with the students who achieved the highest test scores on daily practice tests having the highest status. Students sorted each other into four status groups: Intellectuals (Xueshen), Studyholics (Xueba), Underachievers (Xuezha), and Losers (Xueruo).