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“They sit over there” : intersections of race, space and popularity in high schools in British Columbia

University of British Columbia

This study examines the interactions of race, space and popularity as they occurred in the educational experiences of fourteen British Columbian high school graduates. It uses one-on-one interviews and participatory mapping to unpack the language that students use as markers of difference and social division and analyzes how these divisions interact with space. It examines how students form identities and subjectivities around the hierarchies and social networks that persist in high schools. It argues that school structures reinforce and duplicate the social hegemonies of their broader environments. These hegemonies include the ways that race, and racial terms are used. Most often a contemporary colourblind rhetoric influences these conversations and works to silence and suppress race talk. This research finds that students who primarily self-identify as white or Canadian are more hesitant to speak about race and racial divisions than those who identify with other racialized categories. Instead, students use techniques such as displacing, delaying and pacing to avoid race talk and the discomfort that accompanies it. Although students were hesitant to speak of social division in terms of race, they noted general social divides and boundaries in their educational spaces. These divides work to maintain and reinforce social groups and statuses. The presence of certain social groups in space can make them uncomfortable for other students. In contrast, the presence of well-liked teachers or other school staff has the ability to make spaces comfortable and safe for students. Students most often used stereotypical high school terms such as popular, nerd, or athlete to categorize other students. They described the main dividing factor of social groups to be differing levels of popularity. Popularity granted students the social power to enforce social and spatial boundaries. This study lends itself to an understanding of how students interact with race and racial identities, as well as how they understand the everyday social divisions and groupings within their schools. It uses participant responses to highlight the divisionary language students use to describe social groups and considers how these groups connect and interact with the broader social structures that exist in British Columbia and their localities.

Text

2020-07-20

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/75222

Interdisciplinary Studies

University of British Columbia

UBCO

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/