Studying Identity Construction within Social Worlds

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Studying Identity Construction within Social
Worlds

• Introduction CI8470
• Rick Beach

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Journal assignments project

• Journal assignments analysis of own or anothers
  identity construction
• Language use, narratives, genres
• Cultural models, discourses
• Operating in worlds, spaces, events
• Comparison of own vs. others identities
• Final project combine assignments to create a
  case-study report of yourself and another person
• Comparison understanding oneself in contrast to
  the other

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Different theories of identity

• Modernist consistent individual self
• Psychological behavioral or cognitive processes
  in the mind
• Postmodern rejects notion of individual
• Adopt totally different identities
• Socio-cultural different versions of self
• Identities retain similar stances (Moje)
• Realist/post-positivist (Moya/Alcoff Latino
  feminists)
• Need for ethical/progressive action

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Socio-cultural learning theory

• Learning through participation in activity
  systems or figured worlds (Holland Eisenhart)
• Figured world of romance
• Learning language, practices, roles related to
  engaging in romance
• Categories of males and females
• Socialization by veterans
• Focus on romance versus academic pursuits

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Bettie Identity as performances in worlds

• Performance as display of habitus
• Dispositions/practices cultural capital
• Passing as middle/working class
• Working class students
• resist bureaucratic/language/dress/space
• Chicas tracked into business classes
• Gender performance through style
• Middle-class Cholas performances

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Social Worlds as Multiple Activity Systems

• Systems--schools, workplace, family, etc., driven
  by larger objects or outcomes
• School enhanced students literacy
• Workplace higher profits
• Students coping with contradictions within and
  between systems
• Competing objects/outcomes of different systems
• Learning involves learning to understand and
  reflect on differences between these systems

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Identity construction as mediated by tools

• Cultural models
• Successful players/teams/coaches
• Discourses ways of knowing/thinking
• competition, team-unity, boosterism
  winning at all costs, masculinity,
  femininity
• Genres
• the its not me, but the team explanations
• Narratives recounting of games related to
  constructing identity as star,
• washed-up player, sore loser, unsung hero

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Discourses ways of knowing and thinking

• Identity tool-kit (Gee)
• Discourses of the law, religion, science,
  business, education, race, class, gender, etc.
• Example color-blind racism shaping notions of
  racial difference
• Example business discourse of accountability/bot
  tom-line results applied to education

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Identity and habitus

• Habitus (Bourdieu) dispositions
• Embodied ideologies (Scollon)
• Adopt social practices reflecting stance
• Physical performances/dress/demeanor
• Teacher positions students
• Orienting discourses (Rex)
• Being positioned as college bound (Rex)

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Social genres

• Systematic ways of interacting socially
• Job interviews, classroom discussions, sales
  transactions, assignments
• Defines practices and roles consistent with these
  genres
• Uptake how others respond to the implied
  practices and roles
• Adoption or resistance depends on history of
  previous actions related to identities

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Narratives

• Use of narratives to perform identities
• Performing idealized versions of self
• Hero stories saving others
• Adopting voices reflecting different perspectives
  on self and other

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Moodle entry class and identity construction

• I am the third of four children. My parents had
  raised us to be partakers of chores around the
  house in a way that was fun and not tedious. I
  had always approached tasks and engaged in
  informal labor with enthusiasm.
• When I was about 7 years old, I came into a
  sudden realization of my working-class background
  that complexified my existing social world.

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Class and identity construction

• I was at the local park with my parents and my
  siblings. Typically my parents would always
  phrase our chores as mini competitions between my
  siblings. A day at the park always consisted of
  playing and then my parents would send us off "to
  rescue the environment from the evils of trash."
  They would give each of us a plastic bag and tell
  us that whoever collected more aluminum cans and
  plastic bottles would get a surprise. So off we
  went with our bags and charged with a smile.

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Class and identity construction

• I remember being happy knowing that if I found
  the most cans and battles, not only would I win
  the surprise but I would be helping out my
  parents to make some additional money. I saw some
  kids from my school and continued to go about my
  business. The kids came over and very loudly said
  that I was poor. They laughed and ridiculed me.
  For the first time in my life I had been called
  poor to my face. Yes, I was aware that we were
  poor. My surroundings and lack of resources were
  clear marks of poverty. However, being poor was
  never a deficit for happiness. We always had food
  on the table (basic staples mostly and rarely
  meat) and a place to call home. My dad have built
  our housing unit with his own hands and we had
  all helped. I used to work in the factories as a
  child, sweeping, and cutting loose threads off
  garments.

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Class and identity construction

• Being called poor have been accompanied with such
  negativity and inferiority. I initially felt
  shame. My social world have been subverted and
  redefined by outsiders. I realized that being
  working class carried a negative stigma. I
  constantly felt the need to defend the all too
  common blame associated with people living in
  poverty. That moment as a child really shaped my
  place in the social world. I learned to not mind
  the comments and jeers of my peers because they
  did not inhabit MY social world in relation to my
  family

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Uses of mapping in studying identity construction

• Visually portray performances according to three
  units of analysis
• Events
• Spaces
• Social worlds/systems
• Use maps to prompt interview reflections
• Pointing prompts talk about maps

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Event as unit of analysis

• People act and react to current and future acts
  to create an event or context
• Utterances have consequences
• Uptake of speech acts or lack of action
• Events have boundaries
• People in the event
• People outside the event but still influencing
  the event
• the elephant in the room

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Social Languages Positioning Power

• Use of social language positioning of self and
  others
• Formal vs. informal style
• Hey, whats happening?
• I need a report on all activities by tomorrow
• Texts invites/positions readers
• Positions in terms of class, race, or gender
  stances and practices

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Map Event

• Recall an event in which you adopted or performed
  a certain social identity
• An event that was a bit unfamiliar, unusual, or
  novel
• a job interview starting up as a member of a new
  group, organization, or class
• establishing a new relationship with someone

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Create map Event

• Describe event in circle on the bottom of the
  handout page
• In satellite circles
• Insert traits, beliefs, and goals related to the
  event
• Other people in the event

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Space as unit of analysis

• Spaces as gendered, raced, or classed
• Gendered worlds as mediated by language use
• Thorne children on playground space practices
  not necessarily gendered
• Teacher tells children to group up by boys and
  girls
• Playground space becomes gendered as a binary
  space

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Space as unit of analysis

• Footing/positioning in classroom spaces
• Back versus front of the classroom
• College dorm bedroom spaces (McRobbie Lincoln)
• Doing college work
• Fashion/beauty/pre-going out
• Sleeping zone/post-going out

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Public vs. private spaces

• Personal relationships in public
• Adopt normal appearances or civic inattention
  (Goffman)
• Remedial work repair fractures
• Social creating social ties/networks
• Face-time in college rec center
• Need for civic inattention
• Virtual space MySpace.com
• Private display in a public space

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Space related to time

• Meanings of events time of event
• nighttime, playtime, work-time,
  break-time, naptime, quality-time
• Time and place/space
• time-out, time-on-task, completes work on
  time, never on time

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Map space(s) related to your event

• In middle circle(s), identify space(s)
• Classrooms, meeting room business, home, coffee
  shop, online site, etc.
• In satellite circles, describe the norms and
  discourse operating in this space(s)
• Draw lines from these norms/discourses to aspects
  of event

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Social Worlds/Institutional Systems

• Social worlds/activity systems/institutions
• schooling, workplace/economic, family, health
  care, justice, government/political, media, etc.,
  
• Driven by larger objects or outcomes
• School enhanced students literacy
• Workplace higher profits

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Membership in worlds Outsider versus Insider
status

• Participation and trajectories in community of
  practice
• Peripheral, Inbound, Insider, Boundary, Outbound
  (Wenger)
• Socialization by veterans into world
• Figured world of romance sorority sisters
• AA veteran members narratives

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Mapping social worlds/systems

• In circles at top of page identify social worlds
  shaping the spaces/event
• family, school, workplace, peer,
  community, virtual, etc.
• Overlap congruent relationships
• No overlap distinct worlds
• Draw lines from worlds to related aspects of
  spaces and events

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Reflection/interview questions

• What practices did you adopt in the event?
• How were those practices shaped by spaces and
  social worlds/systems?
• How are your identities constituted by
  discourses/cultural models?
• Where in these spaces/worlds would you most
  versus least like to be?