'Best Friends': a case-study of girls' reactions to an intervention designed to foster collaborative group work

In this article, we provide an account of how two high achieving girls reacted to a teaching intervention designed to foster collaborative group work. The study focuses on the varying aspects of the girls cultural practices as they experienced tensions and contradictions in their relationships with each other and with other pupils. Their main interest appeared to involve action to gain support for basic emotional security and the maintainance of their identity as high achievers. The girls were primarily influenced by a competitive individualist ideology which we believe was 'deviant' in terms of the values of the project, but not in terms of the values of the school.