Being student leaders or ‘ordinary’ students: children's emotional experiences of relationships with others in a Chinese school

Zhu, Y (2021) 'Being student leaders or ‘ordinary’ students: children's emotional experiences of relationships with others in a Chinese school.' Emotion, Space and Society, 40. e100810. ISSN 1755-4586

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Abstract

The student leader system is commonly used in Chinese schools. Student leaders are children who are elected by classmates, then assigned by teachers, to be responsible for monitoring classmates' behaviour. Based on the data collected through an intensive ethnographic study in a rural primary boarding school in China in 2016, this article discusses emotional experiences in peer relationships reported by both student leaders and other ‘ordinary’ students, who were not student leaders. The article argues that China's student leader system is likely to create hierarchical relationships between student leaders and ‘ordinary’ students, and exposes ‘ordinary’ students to the potential risk of being exploited by student leaders. The article also argues that because of this student leader system and relevant student evaluation values, student leaders and ‘ordinary’ students all feel stressed when they are building up and maintaining peer relationships, such as friendships, with each other.

Item Type:	Article
Keywords:	student leaders, hierarchical relationships, Chinese primary school, emotions, friendship
Divisions:	School of Education
Identification Number:	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.emospa.2021.100810
Date Deposited:	15 Jun 2021 18:00
Last Modified:	08 Dec 2022 01:40
URI / Page ID:	https://researchspace.bathspa.ac.uk/id/eprint/14154

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