Peer Networks and School Performance

Abstract

This thesis examines the social relationships of 12/13 year old school pupils. The thesis's intentions are three fold:- I To answer four basic questions about school pupils and their social relationships; a) How do pupils of this age range organise their social lives at school? b) In the network of these peers! social relationships are there distinctive sub-cultures? c) How do these peer networks form? and d) How do the peer networks interact with school performance, future careers and life chances of these pupils? ii In attempting to answer these questions a theoretical framework has been adopted which takes account of both interaction and structure. iii Methodological procedures have been employed which have allowed the in-depth, intensive study of one class group of pupils to be set in relation to the entire cohort of pupils. The peer network is certainly the dominant form of social organisation in the school lives of these pupils. The girls form clearly defined networks rather than pairs while the boys' peer networks are large, undifferentiated and bounded by the class group. The peer networks do exhibit distinctive, and in many ways different subcultural patterns. The dominant, and it often appeared the only, concern of the boys was football. The girls' peer networks had some features in common while other features, particularly attitudes and orientation to school and commitment to elements of teenage culture, differentiated the girls' peer networks. Organisational features of the school and the social structural features of the pupil's family and background in addition to age and gender are the factors which most affect the formation of peer networks. The peer network was, particularly for girls, the arena where school and social pressures were discussed, and strategies developed to cope with these pressures, and consequently of considerable importance in terms of orientation and future career at school and life chances more generally.