| 内容 |
A school caste system is an informal social hierarchy among students, that is created by students, and which impacts students behavior and classroom performance. Most scholars describe the system as having three categories: higher or top groups, middle groups, and lower groups. Each group has their own characteristics, and responds to like situations in unlike ways. However, as it is not a formal system, researchers have defined these relationships in various ways. Especially in the United States, psychologists and sociologists have shown how peer relationships have caste-like divisions. Japanese research in the field has a shorter history than in the United States, but peer relationship research has received increased attention in recent years. This thesis begins with a comparison of Japanese and American school caste systems, focusing in particularly on cultural differences. The results show that some researchers in both the United States and Japan have concluded that peer relationships are not hierarchies but rather flexible systems that change according to the situation. In other words, students can simultaneously belong to cliques of various orientations, or belong to crowd, with loose divisions. Examining these connecting ideas places the existence of a school caste system in doubt. Thus, this study conducts that the concept of a school caste system is too narrow to fully understand peer interaction and dynamics in the classroom environment. |