School hierarchies: performance and popularity

Abstract

This article presents the results of a research that aimed at identifying the presence of a double hierarchical structure in school, the official and unofficial hierarchies. The official hierarchy is characterized by good performance of students in academic subjects. Through it, knowledge is transmitted to students and they develop skills for social interactions, insertion in the labor market and overall progress. However, the educational system contributes to the creation and maintenance of an unofficial hierarchy. Students considered physically stronger, shrewd and popular and those considered physically fragile, less shrewd and unpopular represent this type of hierarchy. Based on a competitive capitalist society, this double hierarchical structure indicates forms of competition during the schooling period. The research sought to verify the existence of these hierarchies and if they are maintained by the students along their schooling period, from middle school to higher education. The official hierarchy was identified by school performance; the unofficial hierarchy was identified by performance in team sports, dating and popularity. A scale was applied to 135 students from public universities who rated their performance through self-assessment. Self-assessment of the performance in sports remains the same in the three levels of education; academic performance is distinguished between middle and high school and higher education. Social skills and popularity receive the same treatment as academic performance, since they seem to change their attributes throughout schooling. Fundamentally, the results confirm the existence of the two school hierarchies, which has consequences for society and for the development of the individual regarding, especially, what kind of performances are valued and devalued in both hierarchies.

Keywords Critical theory of society; School hierarchies; Competition