| dc.description.abstract | Research is limited on friendships in childhood, particularly that of Chinese
rural children. To fill this gap, this research explores Chinese children’s
understandings and practices of peer friendships in the context of a rural
primary boarding school. Data for this research were collected through
intensive 5-month ethnographic fieldwork with Primary Year 5 children in a
rural primary boarding school (given the pseudonym “Central Primary School”)
in Hubei Province, China in 2016. Given the importance of ethics in childhood
studies and the sensitivity of talking about friendship experiences, ethical
guidelines have been carefully followed and are reflected throughout the
research process.
Through analysing children’s talk about and interactions with different peers
who were named as “friends”, this research argues that those who are friends,
and what friendships mean and look like, are contextualized. Research
findings can be summarized in three points. Firstly, children’s friendships can
be categorized into different types with different purposes and expectations. In
Chinese children’s friendship groups, friendships can be formed on a basis of
intimacy between individuals (“intimate friendship”), of friends’ “usefulness” in
helping one to improve school experiences (“instrumental friendship”), or of
individuals’ shared identity as “in-group members” (zijiren) of the same
“collective” (jiti). Secondly, friendships are dynamic, with the levels of intimacy
between friends potentially being upgraded or downgraded in friendship
practices; therefore, conversion can happen amongst these forms of
friendships. Thirdly, gender, power structures amongst children, hierarchical
relationships between children and significant adults (teachers and parents),
and China’s Confucian and collectivist values significantly shape these
Chinese children’s constructions and practices of peer friendships. This
research points out that these elements are not isolated but related when
shaping children’s friendships.
This research has four main contributions. Firstly, it contributes to sociological
conceptualizations of friendships through providing rich findings on Chinese
children’s various definitions, patterns, and practices of peer friendships in a
boarding school context. Secondly, it uses a Chinese case to enhance our
understandings of children’s capacities as social actors in the construction of
their social relationships in childhood. Thirdly, through discussing difficulties
that Chinese children experienced in relationships with others at school, this
research contributes a critical reflection on current practices in China’s schools
of relationship education, school organization, and student evaluation
mechanisms. Fourthly, this research brings knowledge and methodological
contributions to the English language literature on Chinese school studies. It
offers details about what life in a Chinese rural boarding school is like, how
such schools function, and the embedded socio-cultural norms in the Chinese
school setting. It provides a reflexive account of the applications and
challenges of ethnographic methods and ethics in Chinese school studies (e.g.,
approaches to gaining access to a Chinese school setting, and to dealing with
ethical dilemmas caused by hierarchy in Chinese relationships). | en |
