Researching Community, Constructing Selves: Appalachian Adolescents’ Identity Positioning in English Class

• In Event: When the Global Becomes Local: Seeking Agency Through Educational Research With Diverse Communities

Abstract

Objectives or purposes: The objective of my study was to examine how Appalachian adolescents engaged sociocultural discourses to socially position identities for themselves, others, and their community through language and literacy practices in the context of their senior English class with a non-Appalachian teacher.

Perspective(s) or theoretical framework: In this study, identity construction is seen as social positioning (Castanheira, Green, Dixon, Yeagerb, 2007; Moje and Luke, 2009). Social positioning is understood in this study to be informed by available and internally persuasive sociocultural discourses, and negotiated through the language and literacy practices. Thus, I draw from Bakthin's theory of language, New Literacy Studies, and 'identity as social positioning' theory to support situated, relational, and critical understandings of language, literacy, and identity (Bakhtin, 1982, 1986; Barton, Hamilton, Ivanic, 2000; Castanheira, Green, Dixon, Yeagerb, 2007; Gee, 1996; Heath, 1983; Holland,D., Lachicotte, Skinner, D., Cain, C., 2001; Moje and Luke, 2009).

Methods, techniques, or modes of inquiry: The study was a critical teacher-research project which used ethnographic methods of data collection and discourse analysis (Campano, 2007; Fecho, 2001).

Data sources, evidence, objects, or materials: The primary data sources were audio recordings of classroom interactions and of one-on-one interviews with focal students. The three focal students include a young woman with Appalachian heritage who recently moved into the community, and a young man and young woman from the community. Additional data sources were students' in-class writings, and teacher-researcher reflective field notes.

Results:
Data analysis indicated that the sociocultural discourses around "insider", "outsider" and "insider/outsider" were particularly powerful discourses. The focal students demonstrated a critical consciousness as they drew from these discourses in rhetorically dexterous and agentive ways to socially position themselves and others in the following ways:

1. Drawing on a regional and historical "we" ethnic identity position when in interaction with an "outsider's" negative discourse on Appalachian or "hillbilly" identity positions.

2. Marking the negative discourses on Appalachian or "hillbilly" identity positions as being socially constructed and uninformed, yet materially and socioculturally consequential.

3. Constructing an educative, self-affirming "we" identity position when explicitly writing to a non-Appalachian audience in their community-based research papers.
4. Strategically using sociocultural language practices to construct a "we" inclusive of newcomers to the community.

Scholarly significance of the study: The discursive construction of the Appalachian region has historically been around themes of limitation and lack, and little educational scholarship has focused on the strengths of the communities in this region (Heath, 1983; Hicks, 2002; Purcell-Gates, 1995). Like many marginalized communities facing long-term economic and sociocultural denigration, many Appalachian residents have internalized these discourses. Yet, we have extremely limited understanding of the agency with which Appalachian adolescents respond to the complex discourses around Appalachian identities. Empirically informed understandings of adolescents' rhetorical dexterity are critical to the preparation and professional development of teachers and educational policy so as to better serve the strengths and needs of adolescents from marginalized communities.

Author

• Audra Slocum, West Virginia University