This study investigated how and why high school students in Papua New Guinea may resist education, particularly as these factors affect individual identity and academic success. The study was in response to concern over declining student achievement. In a coastal village and two schools in the provincial capital, informal interviews were conducted with elementary and high school students (grade 6 and 10 graduates), parents, teachers, administrators, and board members; structured group and individual interviews were conducted with 38 high school students at various achievement levels; high school students were observed within and outside school over 7 months; and a questionnaire was administered to 320 secondary school students. Results indicate that a critical mass of students who felt they would return to their villages on graduation preferred social experiences in town and school over academic success, and valued a village-based identity within the student culture. These students policed their peers for signs of Western-based identities and unacceptable levels of academic effort. This anti-academic culture posed dilemmas for higher-achieving students, many of whom curtailed their own academic efforts and hid their aspiration to a job in the "modern" economy. Contains 20 references. (MSE)