FICTIONALISING ELITENESS: UNDERSTANDING HOW ACADEMICALLY UNDERPERFORMING STUDENTS IN ELITE JUNIOR COLLEGES PURSE ELITENESS

Abstract

Being an “elite’ student is not conferred upon one’s admission into a top school but earned and maintained through the performance of various academic and non-academic requirements. The fulfillment of these requirements, however, has to be supplemented by personal narratives of distinction. This is especially true for academically underperforming students in elite schools who find themselves being required to utilise innovative methods in order to position oneself as an elite student. This study finds that underperforming students utilise the process of fictionalisation to justify and portray oneself as an elite student. It is also found that fiction-making is a continuous process which underperforming students are constantly required to undertake in order to maintain the elite student status.