Ethnicity, achievement and friendship: Korean Chinese students' construction of peer networks

Abstract

This research reported in this article ethnographically examines ethnicity and achievement in the formation of Korean Chinese students' peer networks. With the significance of children's peer networks in their interaction and school experience in mind, this article demonstrates how a group of ethnic Korean students at one Korean bilingual school with its competing ethnical projects of 'model minority' and the achievement of 'Han' students embrace, compromise or contest the officially dominant notion of ethnic integration and construct their peer networks. Through the findings from socio-metric tests and fieldwork, this research results look at the construction of Korean Chinese students' peer networks along the lines of ethnicity and academic achievement. This article emphasizes the need to scrutinize the assumption of ethnic integration under any special context since China's reform period, and points to the importance of multicultural themes in state education for equality and ethnic integration.