Creating new spaces: Investigating opportunities for identity exploration in a high school English classroom
Year: 2007
Type: dissertation
Abstract: The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine how identity exploration \noccurred in a high school English classroom. This semester-long study employed \nethnographic methods of data collection, including student and teacher interviews, \nclassroom observations, and video and audio recordings of classroom events. Data was \nanalyzed using the constant comparative method and discourse analysis (Davies and \nHarré, 1990; Gee, 2005; Strauss and Corbin, 1990). Sociocultural theories of language \nand literacy and theories of identity and agency were used to inform analysis about the \nrelationship between identity and literacy in this high school English classroom with a \nWhite teacher and African American and Latino/a students (Bakhtin, 1981; Holland, \nSkinner, Lachicotte, and Cain, 1998; Wells, 1999). \nFindings suggest that the following four categories of instructional practices and \ntalk were used to facilitate identity exploration by the teacher: (a) connection of \nclassroom literacy practices to the everyday lives and literacies of students, (b) \nencouragement of multiple perspectives and viewpoints, (c) engagement in the \ninvestigation of sociopolitical issues, and (d) development of student agency. These \npractices and ways of talking attempted to create a figured world that valued students’ \nbackgrounds and discourses. The case studies of three students provided insight into how \nthey appropriated, resisted, and/or transformed identities and literacy practices during \nidentity work. The students’ stories indicated that identity exploration provided a space \nfor them to reshape old identities and imagine new identities, to transform the classroom \nstructure in order to be successful, and to examine tensions in order to make changes \nwithin their local contexts. This study offers insight into the possibilities of identity \nexploration in literacy classrooms and argues that identity work may be one way for \nteachers to transform opportunities in the classroom for students with diverse \nbackgrounds.
Author: Amy Vetter
Language: English
Subfield: Education
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1951641390