The School Cafeteria: Feeding Self-Identity

How lunchtime routines shape students' personal development, from research by Sandi Graham of Marywood University

The cafeteria is known to be the center of high school social interaction. This is where students make decisions beyond PB&J or pizza, fresh fruit or French fries. Among the lunch trays and foodstuffs teens make choices and encounter situations that shape their self-identity and the way they’re perceived by peers, teachers, and administrators. As a 2004 study showed, not all cafeterias are created equal. Factors such as school size and lunch schedules can affect social dynamics in a cafeteria and influence how students' identities develop.

The study, approved by Marywood University and the State University of New York at Binghamton, centered on observations by a group of nine undergraduate students from Marywood University. As these participants reflected on their recent experiences in high school cafeterias, researchers identified trends among student who attended the same type of school or had the same type of scheduling system.

Grouped into Grades by Administration or Peers
The focus group participants attended a variety of schools, but all the schools followed one of these two policies regarding scheduled lunchtime:

• Students were assigned a lunch period based on grade level, so that all members of a grade or grades went to the cafeteria at the same time.
• Students went to lunch whenever there was an opportunity in their class schedule, so they would be in the cafeteria with students from a range of grades.

Students who had lunch with their entire grade reported that where one sat in the cafeteria was determined by one’s extra-curricular activities or unique academic standing. Julie, explained, “We basically sat by categories. I sat with the cheerleaders. I was a cheerleader. About half of my friends were not cheerleaders so they sat at another table. I was friends with half of the cheerleaders (outside of school) but we all sat together.” Julie labeled other groups within the school and the cafeteria as the smart kids (the brains), the musical kids, and the vo-tech kids. Many of the respondents mentioned similar groups. Some social groups varied by school, but almost all participants mentioned the vo-tech students.

Vo-tech groups were students who participated in vocational training programs. These students would attend the school for half of a day, taking required academic courses; they would spend the rest of the day at a career and technology center for vocational courses. Participants in the focus group identified these vo-tech kids as outcasts. At Julie’s high school, they were called “vo-tards.” According to Elizabeth, “The vo-tech kids always get a bad rap. They are not there half of the day so they are missing out. "The school tried to keep them at the school when there were special events. But every other day, they are not around for half of the day. They definitely get left out.”

In schools where lunchtime was based solely on the students’ free time between classes, groups still segregated themselves by grade. Angela and Elizabeth, who attended the same high school, described how freshmen interacted with freshmen, sophomores with sophomores, and so on. “The seniors sat with the seniors,” explained Elizabeth. “Occasionally a junior might sit at a senior table, but definitely not a freshman.” Both women commented on how close their senior class was, even though the graduating class was over 350 students.

Self-Established Rules & Routines
Regardless of the policies that determined lunchtime, all participants in the focus group described elaborate rules that governed the cafeteria’s social order.

• The best tables (unofficially designated by previous graduates) belonged to seniors.
• In most cases, these “best tables” were geographically superior (near windows) or round tables that offered a more intimate eating experience than the long rectangular tables.
• Usually, a table became the group’s table after they sat there daily for three weeks.
• Angela reported having one of her friends reserve the table for the group. Her friend was designated that responsibility because the friend’s class before lunch was the closest to the cafeteria. Other students had similar methods for table reserving, including one peer who was the “runner.”

School Size & the Ability to Explore Identities
The size of the participants' schools determined whether the students considered their cafeteria experience as relevant to their personal development. Students who graduated from larger schools (with graduating classes over 150) didn't seem to think their identity was significantly influenced by their lunchtime routines. On the other hand, students who attended a high school where the graduating class was less than 120 saw a strong connection.

One of the respondents from a small school, Michelle, described her experience with very strong emotions. Michelle entered high school as a member of the band. She explained that when she started high school, she felt shy and nervous in the cafeteria. Then a senior band member told Michelle and her friend that “they ate in the band hall.” From then on Michelle joined the other band members, an arrangement that let her finally feel socially comfortable. In this divided small school situation, Michelle remained in one social group, developing her identity as "band member."

Barry, a participant who attended one of the large schools, could not identify a particular table that he sat at every day. Without being locked into one safe-and-secure place, Barry says he was completely comfortable within his regular cafeteria setting.  “I ate with two friends, but after we finished our lunch, we floated around the cafeteria talking to all kinds of friends.” Barry was able to easily negotiate the cafeteria within the many contexts of his identities. His friends also participated with many groups and therefore, Barry was able to exercise freedom of identity. He and most likely his friends did not suffer any repercussions by participating in the internal and external discourses that made up their identities.

As the participants in this study reported, the cafeteria is part of students' regular school day. Where they sit and with whom they socialize may be determined by how the lunch period is scheduled or the size of the school. School administrators might be able to make this non-class time valuable for students by finding ways to unify groups of students or alleviate barriers that prevent students from exploring social identities. By examining school schedules or adjusting rules, they may discover ways to help students develop their identities.