MORE THAN MERIT: STRATIFIED EXPERIENCES WITHIN AND ELITE GIRLS’ SCHOOL AND SOCIAL REPRODUCTION

Abstract

There has been rising concerns on persistent issue of inequality. One of the key areas that draw criticism is elite schools that enjoy vast resources but have been argued to be reproducers of the privileged. Studying the elites is a study of inequality from the top (Khan 2011). Examining elite institutions would provide useful insights into the workings of inequality which is often perpetuated by those at the top of the hierarchy. However, not all students in elite institutions are from privileged backgrounds and not all elite school students become elites. Nonetheless, they may also contribute social reproduction of inequality. Through a study of Green Girls’ High - an elite school in Singapore, I point out that the student population in elite schools is not always homogeneous in terms of class background and their experiences are not uniform. The comparison across generations show how the understanding of meritocracy has evolved over time; and the comparison within the generations show how experiences may vary due to class background and how the different experiences contribute to more nuanced ways of social reproduction. In summary, in addition to reproducing the advantages of the already elite class, elite schools through the fluid ideology of meritocracy: (1) absorb high-performing individuals from the lower class who later take up the elite ideology and reproduce the unequal class relations; and (2) continue to limit social mobility of the lower class by narrowing the definition of elites.