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Reimagining the Purpose of Schools and Educational Organisations pp 173–188Cite as

The Costs of Being the Best: Consequences of Academic Achievement on Students’ Identity, Perfectionism, and Vocational Development

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Abstract

Academic achievement is viewed as an indicator of success starting from an early age, when children enter into the educational system. Culture plays an important role in how academic achievement is viewed. In Romania, a post-communist country, society in general and parents and teachers in particular reinforce and pressure children to be competitive academic achievers. Thus, students believe their choices and future are highly dependent on their grades. In this context, academic achievement is connected with conformity and conscientiousness rather than creativity or actual competencies. Not surprisingly, high academic achievement comes with many costs. It has consequences not only in relation to stress, but also for students’ identity, perfectionism, and vocational development. That is, academic achievement shapes who students become. In this chapter, we discuss the implications of connecting grades with success and propose directions towards a healthy conceptualization of academic achievement.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

    L. E. Damian, O. Negru-Subtirica, E. I. Pop & A. Baban

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  1. L. E. Damian
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  2. O. Negru-Subtirica
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  3. E. I. Pop
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  4. A. Baban
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Correspondence to L. E. Damian .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Educational and Social Policy, University of Macedonia, Thessaloniki, Greece

    Anthony Montgomery

  2. School of Education, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, United Kingdom

    Ian Kehoe

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Damian, L.E., Negru-Subtirica, O., Pop, E.I., Baban, A. (2016). The Costs of Being the Best: Consequences of Academic Achievement on Students’ Identity, Perfectionism, and Vocational Development. In: Montgomery, A., Kehoe, I. (eds) Reimagining the Purpose of Schools and Educational Organisations. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-24699-4_13

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-24699-4_13

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