IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/soinre/v145y2019i2d10.1007_s11205-017-1574-8.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

“Lose at the Starting Line, Win at the Finishing Line”: The Narratives Behind Beating Academic Adversity

Author

Listed:
  • Wai-chi Chee

    (The University of Hong Kong)

Abstract

This study examines media discourse of academic adversity and resilience to understand what are considered to be deterrents of academic success and what are believed to effectively counteract the deterrents and contribute to educational resilience. Data are drawn on discourse analysis of media coverage in Hong Kong of the success stories of students at risk after the release of university entrance examination results. In Hong Kong’s extremely competitive education system, only about 20% of secondary students are admitted to university degree programs. Hong Kong uses a centralized and uniform public examination as the only criterion of university entrance screening, reinforcing an examination-dominated culture. Success in public examination is equated with success in intellectual advancement or even in life. Underprivileged students are often described to be “losing at the starting line,” implying that they are doomed to failure right at the start. Every year after the announcement of the public examination results, success stories of students who have beaten the odds receive significant news coverage for days. This paper discusses how educational resilience experiences are represented in the mass media, how the students concerned articulate their situations, and the implications of such media discourse on academic resilience.

Suggested Citation

  • Wai-chi Chee, 2019. "“Lose at the Starting Line, Win at the Finishing Line”: The Narratives Behind Beating Academic Adversity," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 145(2), pages 741-753, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:soinre:v:145:y:2019:i:2:d:10.1007_s11205-017-1574-8
    DOI: 10.1007/s11205-017-1574-8
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11205-017-1574-8
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11205-017-1574-8?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. -, 2006. "The Hong Kong Conference: An assessment," Comercio Internacional 35972, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL).
    2. Zolkoski, Staci M. & Bullock, Lyndal M., 2012. "Resilience in children and youth: A review," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 34(12), pages 2295-2303.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Claudia López-Madrigal & Jesús de la Fuente & Javier García-Manglano & José Manuel Martínez-Vicente & Francisco Javier Peralta-Sánchez & Jorge Amate-Romera, 2021. "The Role of Gender and Age in the Emotional Well-Being Outcomes of Young Adults," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(2), pages 1-20, January.
    2. Patton, Desmond U. & Roth, Benjamin J., 2016. "Good kids with ties to “deviant” peers: network strategies used by African American and Latino young men in violent neighborhoods," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 123-130.
    3. Pary M. Azize & Ruth Endacott & Allegra Cattani & Ann Humphreys, 2014. "Cultural responses to pain in UK children of primary school age: A mixed‐methods study," Nursing & Health Sciences, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 16(2), pages 186-192, June.
    4. Angie Hart & Emily Gagnon & Suna Eryigit-Madzwamuse & Josh Cameron & Kay Aranda & Anne Rathbone & Becky Heaver, 2016. "Uniting Resilience Research and Practice With an Inequalities Approach," SAGE Open, , vol. 6(4), pages 21582440166, December.
    5. Bouet, Antoine & Laborde, David, 2010. "Eight Years of Doha Trade Talks: Where Do We Stand?," Estey Centre Journal of International Law and Trade Policy, Estey Centre for Law and Economics in International Trade, vol. 11(2), pages 1-22, August.
    6. Patel, Leila & Graham, Lauren & Chowa, Gina, 2020. "Evidence of non-economic indicators as markers of success for youth in youth employability programs: Insights from a South African study," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    7. Bouet, Antoine & Laborde Debucquet, David, 2010. "Eight years of Doha trade talks," IFPRI discussion papers 997, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    8. McCrea, Katherine Tyson & Richards, Maryse & Quimby, Dakari & Scott, Darrick & Davis, Lauren & Hart, Sotonye & Thomas, Andre & Hopson, Symora, 2019. "Understanding violence and developing resilience with African American youth in high-poverty, high-crime communities," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 296-307.
    9. Schofield, Gillian & Biggart, Laura & Ward, Emma & Larsson, Birgit, 2015. "Looked after children and offending: An exploration of risk, resilience and the role of social cognition," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 125-133.
    10. Fan, Xiaoyan & Lu, Mengjia, 2020. "Testing the effect of perceived social support on left-behind children’s mental well-being in mainland China: The mediation role of resilience," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    11. Elham-Sadat Dehghani-Firoozabadi & Jamileh Mohtashami & Foroozan Atashzadeh-Shoorideh & Maliheh Nasiri & Mahrokh Dolatian & Sara Sedghi, 2017. "Correlation between Religious Attitude and Resiliency of Women under Domestic Violence," Global Journal of Health Science, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 9(3), pages 199-199, March.
    12. Altena, Astrid M. & Krabbenborg, Manon A.M. & Boersma, Sandra N. & Beijersbergen, Mariëlle D. & van den Berg, Yvonne H.M. & Vollebergh, Wilma A.M. & Wolf, Judith R.L.M., 2017. "The working alliance between homeless young adults and workers: A dyadic approach," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 368-374.
    13. Yi-Ching Lin & Dong-Chul Seo, 2017. "Cumulative family risks across income levels predict deterioration of children’s general health during childhood and adolescence," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(5), pages 1-13, May.
    14. He, Y.X. & Yang, L.F. & He, H.Y. & Luo, T. & Wang, Y.J., 2011. "Electricity demand price elasticity in China based on computable general equilibrium model analysis," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 1115-1123.
    15. Gwadz, Marya Viorst & Cleland, Charles M. & Leonard, Noelle R. & Bolas, James & Ritchie, Amanda S. & Tabac, Lara & Freeman, Robert & Silverman, Elizabeth & Kutnick, Alexandra & Dickson, Victoria Vaugh, 2017. "Understanding organizations for runaway and homeless youth: A multi-setting quantitative study of their characteristics and effects," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 398-410.
    16. Yue, Yaping & Huang, Jinjiao & Yuan, Haojie & Zhao, Yifei & Lei, Jiayuan & Fan, Jieqiong, 2024. "The mediating role of Self-Competence in the relationship between parental involvement and support and Children’s social Skills: Evidence from China," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    17. repec:diw:diwwpp:dp1802 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Holm, Mathilde Lund & Fallesen, Peter & Heinesen, Eskil, 2023. "The effects of parental union dissolution on children’s test scores," SocArXiv p2qgk, Center for Open Science.
    19. Marcus, Jan & Reif, Simon & Wuppermann, Amélie & Rouche, Amélie, 2020. "Increased instruction time and stress-related health problems among school children," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 70.
    20. Michael H. Finewood & Joseph A. Henderson, 2019. "What higher education can bring to resilience: reports from Pace University’s water resilience conference," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 9(3), pages 316-321, September.
    21. Pritzker, Suzanne & Minter, Anthony, 2014. "Measuring adolescent resilience: An examination of the cross-ethnic validity of the RS-14," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 328-333.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:soinre:v:145:y:2019:i:2:d:10.1007_s11205-017-1574-8. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.