Exploring connections between identity and learning

Abstract

Learning is situated in the practices of communities, such that children learn by participating in the communities they inhabit. Learning through participation in the practices of a community influences interpretation of and engagement with the social world, and has implications for the identity of the learner as a participant in a community. In this article, the connection between learning and identity will be explored from a sociocultural perspective. Children participate in many communities and must appropriately generalize learning across communities such as home and school. Research in the connection between identity and learning in schools will be reviewed because in many countries where schooling is mandatory it is an important context for this generalization. Then the paper will explore the choice of when and how to generalize across contexts and whether this choice is conscious. Lastly, the paper will propose some ways that the connection between learning and identity may complicate this generalization.     

The role of cultural identity as a learning factor in physics: a discussion through the role of science in Brazil

In recent decades, changes in society have deeply affected the internal organization and the main goals of schools. These changes are particularly important in science education because science is one of the major sources of change in peoples’ lives. This research provided the opportunity to investigate how these changes affect the way teachers develop their classroom activities. In this work, we focus on science as part of the cultural identity of a society and how this identity affects the process of teaching and learning inside the classroom. Other works have shown that certain social characteristics such as gender, race, religion, etc., can create a cultural barrier to learning science. This results in an obstacle between those particular students and the science that is taught, hindering their learning process. We first aim to present the notion of identity in education and in other related fields such as social psychology and sociology. Our main purpose is to focus on identity in a school setting and how that identity affects the relationship students have with the science content. Next, we present and analyze an intervention in the subject of Modern and Contemporary Physics composed by a sequence of activities in a private school in the region of Sao Paulo State, Brazil. This intervention serves to illustrate how scientific topics may be explored while considering aspects of cultural differences as an obstacle. The intervention was completed in two steps: first, in the classroom with a discussion concerning scientific works and nationality of scientists, with one being a Brazilian physicist; second, taking students to visit a particle collider at the University of São Paulo. One of the results of our research was realizing that students do not perceive science as something representative of the Brazilian cultural identity. At the same time, the activity gave the students the opportunity to make the connection between doing physical sciences at an international level and the national level in Brazil. The findings of this study suggest that it is possible to reshape the cultural identity of Brazilian students.     

Bungie Jumping and Supervision of Higher Degree Students

Abstract

This article engages with four key informants from a school into the meaning of soccer in the lives of the informants and the disparity between the school's practice and the cultural meanings attached to soccer, at the school and community‐based clubs. We will demonstrate how their ability and the cultural knowledge developed through playing club soccer over most of their lives provided them with an identity and meaningful membership in communities built around soccer. Drawing on Bourdieu (1884), we see this physical and cultural knowledge as embodied capital. While it provided them with meaningful membership, social status and position within the communities of their soccer clubs, it had far less value at school. Within the community of the school, their embodied cultural capital provided them with few opportunities to develop a sense of social distinction, personal identity, self‐expression and self‐determination.     

初中物理教学中学生科学探究能力的培养

初中物理教学要适当开展科学探究活动,加入科学探究活动的初中物理教学课程更加注重学生学习的过程,注重学习过程可以确保学生在融入科学探究活动的初中物理学习时进一步提升对物理学习的兴趣,培育学生自主学习的能力,从而达到提升学生物理综合素质的目的。结合传统物理教学实践,我们通过物理融入实际生活、物理结合实验教学、重视物理与其他学科的联系等途径提高初中学生的科学探究能力。     

Raising the Educational Requirements for Teachers in Infant Toddler Classrooms: Implications for Institutions of Higher Education

This article describes preschool teachers' espoused mental models (EMMs) or, in other words, their naïve understanding of young children's learning. Our research goal was to examine differences within the teachers' EMMs regarding the minds and learning of young children from different cultural backgrounds. The subjects included 18 preschool teachers from the center of Israel, all of whom belonged to the mainstream cultural background and taught in the national school system. Their classes consisted of 5- to 6-year-old children from the mainstream cultural group as well as children from Ethiopian immigrant families. We conducted individual semistructured interviews that were transcribed and analyzed to identify the original EMM structure. While analyzing the parts of the narratives that referred to Ethiopian children, we discovered a metacategory that did not exist in the original model: Culture. This finding contributes to the construct of espoused mental models for teachers of children from diverse populations.     

Inviting conversation: meaningful talk about texts for English language learners

In Canada, as in other anglophone countries, classrooms are becoming more diverse as the number of English language learners (ELLs) increases. More and more teachers are faced with the task of meeting the needs of culturally and linguistically diverse students. In this article, I share excerpts of dialogue between ELL students, native English‐speaking children and their teacher during guided reading events. Excerpts will illustrate how conversations around texts during reading activities can shape and extend the construction of meaning for the benefit of all, but especially for ELL students. Based on Vygotsky's (1986) proposition that learning is socially situated, I suggest four ways for teachers to structure meaningful conversations: through questioning, teaching vocabulary, engaging in collaborative talk and recognising that the culture and identity of the child are important to literacy learning.     

“Wearing a mask” vs. connecting identity with learning

Contemporary insights regarding identity emphasize its situated, negotiated nature (i.e., identity is shaped by – and shapes in response – the contexts in which it is formed;  and ) Recent work also suggests that this identity/context intersection holds powerful implications regarding engagement in learning (Brophy, 2008). This pair of qualitative studies drew from contemporary models connecting learning with identity (Study 1: cultural modeling, Lee, 2007 and third-space/hybrid-identities, Gutiérrez, 2008; Study 2: Kids’ business inquiry projects, Fairbanks, 2000) to explore the nature and impact of such connections among disaffected ninth-grade English students at a high-needs school. Results demonstrate evidence of: (1) a significant connection between identity and learning; (2) students’ negotiation of engaged patterns of participation; (3) the relevance of student voice to this process; and (4) the impact of connections between identity and learning on students’ participation in, and affective response to, learning.     

Asian Indian American Children's Creative Writing: An Approach for Cultural Preservation

Many children from diverse cultures experience disconnectedness between their home and school. As they attempt to reconcile the conflicts among their multiple worlds, they must negotiate their situatedness in a variety of contexts, i.e., home community versus school, and construct a multifaceted identity. Absent support from school, Asian Indian American adolescents engage in acts of cultural preservation (CP), which, in turn, support their scholastic achievement. This article explores the thematic content of a group of Asian Indian American children's creative writing generated for the Kahani Project—a culturally contextualized version of Writers’ Workshop. In their texts, the six adolescents discuss the importance of their cultural traditions as tools to contest the various micro-aggressions they experience in school. Data from this study argue for cultural inclusion, not only for those at risk, but also for those students who successfully navigate a mainstream curriculum.     

“Rights are the Words for Being Fair”: Multicultural Practice in the Early Childhood Classroom

This article addresses the practices of multiculturalism and social justice as they are explored by an early childhood classroom. In response to the school requirement of participation in the Martin Luther King assembly, the children and their teachers seek to create a meaningful contribution reflective of the children’s voices and conceptions of justice and equality. The article examines classroom practices as children and teachers co-construct meaning around multiculturalism in early childhood. Through classroom research and discussion, the children develop their own concepts around these issues, finding meaningful ways to share their knowledge with the larger school community.     

Empowering Parents in the College-Planning Process: An Action-Inquiry Case Study

Involving parents in the college-planning process is essential to increasing access for students from low-income communities of color. Using the action inquiry model, we explore how collaboration between a school district and a university can empower parents to engage in meaningful conversations and planning related to college access. This qualitative case study draws from 3 years of data gathered from the development and implementation of a college-access program designed for underperforming middle and high school students who would be first-generation college students. Our findings suggest that parents want access to specific information, desire a deeper connection with other parents going through the process, and lack proper knowledge to feel empowered to lead discussions with their children.     

Empowering personalized learning with an interactive e-book learning system for elementary school students

Today various types of tablet computers are used, including iPad and Android Tablets. These individual portable digital devices can be used as e-book readers to support mobile personalized learning. Though many studies have investigated e-books by targeting undergraduate students, yet less attention has been paid to children. Therefore, an Interactive E-book Learning System (IELS) was developed for elementary school students in this study. The interactive principles in multimedia learning were adopted to empower students?? personalized learning experiences with e-books. Meanwhile, in order to meet student??s learning needs, a group of in-service teachers were consulted for acquiring their domain expertise. Personalized learning functions, such as e-annotation and bookmarks, content searching, and learning process tracking, were designed to reinforce student learning. Two investigations were conducted for evaluation of the developed system. The first investigation was conducted with 166 elementary school students to evaluate the usability and functionality of the developed system and the feedback from the students. It was found that the usability and functionality of the developed system were well-suited for most of the students. The second investigation was to evaluate the learning effect of the developed system. The results showed that using an e-book or printed book made no significant difference to the students?? reading accuracy; however, the learning process tracking technique of IELS can provide detailed logs about the actual learning processes which can be used by the system to provide further assistance to individual learner. This study concludes that such a tailor-made e-book learning system could achieve a better personalized learning experience for elementary school students.     

Experiential learning and values education at a school youth camp: Maintaining Jewish culture and heritage

In our post-modern, globalised world, there is a risk of unique cultural heritages being lost. This loss contributes to the detriment of civilization, because individuals need to be rooted in their own specific identity in order to actively participate in community life. This article discusses a longitudinal case study of the efforts being made by Australian Jewish schools to maintain Jewish heritage through annual experiential religious education camps, coordinated in a programme called Counterpoint. The researchers’ aim was to analyse how a school youth camp can serve as a site for socialisation and education into a cultural and religious heritage through experiential learning and informal education. During research trips which took place over several years, interviews enabling insights into the process of experiential education were conducted with a total of three different Directors of Informal Jewish Education, two Jewish Studies heads, five participating teachers, seven youth leaders, as well as seven student focus groups. In their analysis of the semi-structured interviews, the authors of this article employed a grounded theory approach using a constant comparative method, which enabled a more nuanced understanding of the main phenomenon investigated. Over the years, they were able to observe two philosophical approaches, one of which focused more on socialisation, with immersion into experience, while the other focused on education, with immersion into Jewish knowledge. Their findings reveal that some educators aim to “transmit” knowledge through “evocation”, with the students involved in active learning; while others focus more on students’ “acquisition” of knowledge through transmission. Experiential learning activities were found to be more meaningful and powerful if they combined both approaches, leading to growth.     

Participation in transition review meetings: a case study of young people with learning disabilities leaving a special school

Transition into adulthood has been identified as a critical period in the lives of young people with learning disabilities, with national guidance and legislation emphasising the role of participation and inclusion as central to the transition process. In this article, Steven Carnaby, a clinical psychologist working with adults with learning disabilities in London and a lecturer in learning disability at the Tizard Centre, University of Kent; Patricia Lewis, head of the sixth form and SENCo; Di Martin, senior teacher and former SENCo; John Naylor, deputy head of the sixth form and head of arts; David Stewart OBE, headteacher, all from the Shepherd School, Nottingham, report the outcomes of a small-scale case study exploring these issues. The project ran for four years and, in Phase 1, evaluated the ways in which students with learning disabilities were involved in their transition review meetings as they entered their final year at school. This first phase found that many students were excluded from meaningful discussion in their planning meetings, highlighting students with more severe disabilities as being more vulnerable to exclusion. After a series of recommendations were made for improving practice in terms of inclusion and participation, Phase 2 of the study assessed ways in which practice in these areas had improved. The school had developed more individualised ways of working using person-centred techniques to enhance meaning for students. At the close of this article, the authors summarise these improvements and propose further strategies for enhancing the participation process.     

The Myth of “Migrants as Problems”: Public School in Neoliberal Times and the Construction and Contestation of “Migrant” Identity

This article reports the findings of a sociolinguistic ethnographic inquiry into the constructions of internal rural-to-urban migrant students by one urban public school in China, and how these students positioned themselves to these constructions against the background of the school’s neoliberal transformation. This inquiry finds that, due to the case school’s pursuit of exam-performance-based academic excellence, its official documents discursively constructed migrant students as being of “low quality,” and a problem for and potential danger to the school. However, the daily positioning practices of school administrators, teachers, and these students did not just reproduce this uniformly negative discursive construction; rather, they contested it in a complex and contradictory manner. This article offers further evidence showing the complexity of identity constructions in late modern urban schools, wherein professionals and students are all involved in a marketized education context that brings crises and dilemmas to institutions.     

Towards Cultural Competency with a Latino Community: A Cross-Cultural Teaching Model

Social work programs that prepare students for culturally competent practice rely on the principle that cultural identity and differences are positive; and that social work services need to be delivered in ways which are culturally acceptable to clients and enhance their ethnic group participation and power. Cross-cultural experiences facilitate the development of cultural competence. Equipping students in the necessary affective, cognitive, and behavioral areas for cross-cultural learning and competent practice call for teaching approaches that capitalize on the adult learning process; and where meaningful learning can be transformed to a learning process beyond the academic experience. This paper presents a cross-cultural teaching model designed to facilitate a culturally transformative learning process within the classroom and with the Hartford Latino Community in Connecticut.     

教师情境学习:潜藏于教师教学实践中的学习力量

教师情境学习是教师在工作情境中的一种社会文化实践学习,是教师在教学实践参与过程中,与所处社会、文化环境持续互动,观察与学习他人教学行为,判断与解决实践问题,协调自身与环境关系,与同事、专家、材料等进行互动,不断改进教学实践,从而适应学校文化、建构专业身份并不断获得实践知识、提高专业能力的过程。教师情境学习具有情境性、实践性、身体性、社会性、文化性等特征。教师情境学习有助于促进教师协调自身与环境的关系,促进教师身份建构与教学效能感提高,并促进学校文化传递与组织整体能力提升。     

Race,Ethnicity, Class and Identity: Implications for Study Abroad

This study addresses study abroad and second language acquisition. The number of U.S. students studying abroad is increasing. However, students’ cultural and linguistic immersion experiences abroad can be disconcerting, challenging their sociocultural identities, values, learning objectives, and expectations. This study employed critical race theory to explore how a Black male student’s race, ethnicity, and class affected his interactions with locals and his language and culture learning, and how his experiences had strong repercussions on his identity negotiation process. The results of this study had strong implications for this student’s full immersion and academic learning. This article concludes with considerations for study abroad programs and how they should address discrimination, racial microaggressions, and racial battle fatigue.     

When Collaborative Learning Meets Nature: Collaborative Learning as a Meaningful Learning Tool in the Ecology Inquiry Based Project

This research suggests utilizing collaborative learning among high school students for better performance on ecology inquiry-based projects. A case study of nine 12th grade students who participated in collaborative learning sessions in the open field and in class is examined. The results show that the students concentrated on discussing the methods of measurement and observation in the open field, rather than the known methods from class or from the laboratory. Another major part of their discussions concentrated on knowledge construction. Knowledge construction occurred between students with same or similar learning abilities. The role of the teacher in these discussions was crucial: she had to deal with and dispel misconceptions; and she had to bridge the gap between low-ability and high-ability students, for enabling meaningful learning to occur. The article ends with a number of recommendations for using collaborative learning as a tool for achieving meaningful learning in high school ecology inquiry-based projects.     

Higher education learner identity for successful student transitions

Student success in higher education (HE) is dependent on the possession of a positive learner identity, the development of which is a complex longitudinal process of change. Exploring the growth of learner identity within the transition between school and university is therefore apposite, especially for learners from disadvantaged backgrounds who may not have sufficient cultural capital to make an easy intellectual transition from school pupil to university student. Learner identity is positively linked with both the academic and social context of learning as well as with concepts of engagement and a sense of belonging in HE. This article explores the findings of a Scottish study involving 30 students who took part in a unique widening participation model based on immersing learners in the university environment whilst still at school. Findings include evidence of the development of a transformative HE learner identity which is enabled by an immersive experience of university prior to entry. A model for HE learning identity formation is suggested. In the context of the current dialogue on fair access and widening participation to HE internationally, findings point policy makers to the benefits of long-term immersion in HE prior to entry for successful transition to university.