Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to reveal the differentiation process of student peer groups and to reveal the mechanism by which the order between students is established and maintained, focusing on the relationship with gender and student subculture in the junior high classroom.
For this purpose, research was conducted through the observations of one junior high classroom and interviews with the students. On the basis of this data, and by using Wiederʼs notion of “the Code,” it was “the Gender Code” that was found to be the studentsʼ interpretational framework by which boy and girl students interpreted and explained their actions from the perspective of their gender.
As the main issue, this paper provides a sociological analysis of the Gender Code.
The following is a summary of the findings.
First, in this junior high classroom, the Gender Code played an important role as the Code which controlled the studentsʼ behavior. Second, the distinguishing feature of the Gender Code was to explain the studentsʼ actions, in which a distance was maintained between boys and girls and boys were ranked higher than girls. Third, in this junior high classroom, almost all of the students held the Gender Code in common. Therefore, applying the Gender Code to the various actions and events in the classroom, the students naturally identified with their gender identities, establishing a clear division of peer-groups. As a result, they themselves maintained their relationships and the gendered order in the classroom, in spite of the fact that gender was avoided by the formal educational system in the school.
Indeed, in the process of the research, at one time the Gender Code was waivered in the conflict between the code of boys and that of girls. Thus, “the Code” may be variable in nature, according to the interpretation of each action.
It is quite possible, therefore, that the gendered order may give way to a new order by use of an alternative code against the Gender Code, and that the Gender Code itself is changed in such a process.
In this research, however, the occurrence mentioned above was once again interpreted according to the Gender Code, and was accepted as a gendered event. Thus, this occurrence resulted rather in maintaining and even strengthening the usual Gender Code through the subsequent interaction and interpretation process between boy and girl students. In this dynamic process, the Gender Code was not changed but was eventually restored.
The findings in this paper suggest that the Gender Code is closely connected to order, especially in the junior high classroom, and performs an important function in relationships among students.
