학벌주의 정체성에 대한 내러티브적 이해: 서울대생의 사례를 중심으로

A Narrative Research on the Identity of Academic Factionalism among Seoul National University Students

이 연구에서는 내러티브적 접근에 기초하여 서울대생들의 학벌주의 정체성에 대해 살펴보았다. 서울대생들은 “샤부심”이라는 학벌주의적 자긍심 속에서 학벌의 후광효과를 경험하고 있었다. 또 일상적인 호감과 특혜, 특권 속에서 사회적 기회와 편의를 얻고 있었으며, 학벌이 주는 안도감과 든든함 속에서 허영과 과시욕을 경험하고 있었다. 그러나 서울대라는 꼬리표 속에서 선입견과 편견에 시달리고 있었는데, 학벌배경이 드러날 경우 낙인효과와 토큰효과를 겪고 있었다. 또 개인이 아닌 서울대라는 대표성으로 호명됨으로써 인격적 소외를 경험하고 있었으며, 이에 저항하여 부정과 방조, 연극과 가면 등 다양한 정체성관리 전략을 동원하고 있었다. 학생들은 학교라는 제도를 지지하면서 능력주의와 경쟁을 정당화하고 있었으며, 학벌주의의 존재자체를 부정하면서도 학벌기득권자로서의 지위를 누리고자 하였다. 또 학생들은 변화된 사회경제적 상황 하에서 학벌 가치의 하락을 겪으며 학벌과 능력주의의 허구, 경쟁과 불평등의 모순을 깨닫는 가운데 학벌주의 정체성의 위기를 경험하고 있었다. 아울러 학벌주의를 벗어난 자신만의 새로운 가치와 윤리, 태도를 추구하면서 학벌주의를 벗어난 새로운 정체성을 모색하고 있었다. 이상을 토대로 학벌획득자의 학벌주의 정체성과 그 함의에 대해 논하였다. This study examined the academic clique identity of Seoul National University (SNU) students based on narrative approach to analyze how SNU students experienced academic factionalism and what identity they formed. The findings are summarized as follows: The academic clique identity of SNU students can be summed up by the word “shabushim.” They not only enjoyed the halo effect of SNU, but also experienced favorable overvaluation. In addition, they have had various opportunities and convenience in social life because of people's preference for their academic background. Some of them felt relief and reliance on their academic cliquism while experiencing vanity and lust for their school fraternity. However, their academic clique identity also had some negative aspect such as 'stigma' effects, which SNU students suffered from because of sociocultural prejudice in the label of SNU. In special, when the academic background was revealed, they experienced a token effect, which means as they became the center of attention, they were perceived as representative of SNU. Called as “SNU” instead of their own names, they felt the alienation of losing their own personalities. Therefore, some students immersed themselves in their struggling for recognition as personal existences, so that various strategies including negation, giving-up, acting and masking were used. At the same time, the students have had some academic clique awareness and attitude including maintaining a consistent preference and support for the present meritocratic school system and justifying its institutionalized competition mechanism. While some of them tried to deny academic factionalism, others acknowledged the falsity of academic cliquism, experienced identity crisis, and questioned the legitimacy of competitive, meritocratic school system. As a result, as they tried to find their own values, ethics, and attitudes, they constructed their new identity freed from academic cliquism and pursued their own way of living, for example selecting modest jobs far from social standards of success. Based on the above, I interpreted meanings and implications of the findings and discussed limitations.