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

Zhu, Yan; (2021) Being student leaders or ‘ordinary’ students: Children's emotional experiences of relationships with others in a Chinese school. Emotion, Space and Society , 40 , Article 100810. 10.1016/j.emospa.2021.100810. Green open access

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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.

Type: Article
Title: Being student leaders or ‘ordinary’ students: Children's emotional experiences of relationships with others in a Chinese school
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1016/j.emospa.2021.100810
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.emospa.2021.100810
Language: English
Additional information: This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher's terms and conditions.
Keywords: Student leaders, Hierarchical relationships, Chinese primary school, Emotions, Friendship
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Education, Practice and Society
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10171163
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