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Identity Work at a Normal University in Shanghai
Author(s) -
Cockain Alex
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
anthropology and education quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.531
H-Index - 46
eISSN - 1548-1492
pISSN - 0161-7761
DOI - 10.1111/aeq.12154
Subject(s) - sociality , identity (music) , disappointment , construct (python library) , sociology , ethnography , power (physics) , action (physics) , work (physics) , pedagogy , gender studies , social psychology , psychology , anthropology , aesthetics , mechanical engineering , ecology , philosophy , physics , quantum mechanics , computer science , engineering , biology , programming language
Based upon ethnographic research, this article explores undergraduate students' experiences at a normal university in Shanghai focusing on the types of identities and forms of sociality emerging therein. Although students’ symptoms of disappointment seem to indicate the power of university experiences to extinguish purposeful action, this article suggests they are associated with students' identity work, central to which are attempts to cope with disintegrations to school‐related identities and efforts to construct alternate senses of self.