Communications in Humanities Research ISSN: 2753-7072
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Research Article

Learning Under Pressure: Emotional Cultures and Student Participation in Shanghai Secondary Schools

Sumei ZhangUniversity of Shanghai for Science and Technology*

* Corresponding author: [email protected]

Abstract

Shanghai is a well-known high-achieving educational environment in which students' academic performance is shaped by fierce competition, examination pressure, family expectations, and institutional demands. Much existing research has focused on achievement, stress, and mental health in schooling, while the role of emotions in classroom participation has received less attention. This conceptual study looks at how emotional cultures influence student participation in Shanghai secondary schools. Drawing on the sociology of emotions, school climate, and student agency, it contends that involvement is not only cognitive and behavioral, but also emotionally and socially positioned. Students in high-performing school environments are frequently required to be self-disciplined, efficient, resilient, modest, competitive, and emotionally stable. These expectations may help students succeed, but they may also limit their desire to ask questions, demonstrate confusion, express reluctance, and participate in open classroom engagement. Based on educational observations and socio-cultural research, this paper contends that emotional cultures manage involvement through relational safety, perceived exposure risk, and internalised achievement pressure. Emotional culture should thus be viewed as a structural prerequisite of learning and involvement, rather than as a secondary or purely individual concern.

Keywords: emotional culture; student participation; agency; school climate; Shanghai secondary education
Published: July 14, 2026
DOI: 10.54254/2753-7064/2026.35359
Volume: CHR Vol.116
pp. 102-111
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