Lifelong Identity Work: Examining Identity Formation From Preschool to Adult Teachers in a Range of Local Contexts

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

How do innovative educational practices inform identities? How do identities inform teaching and learning? We propose this symposium to examine identity work in schools at various stages of life and in various local contexts. Participants from pre-school, middle school, high school and the teaching profession all provide a window into the relationship between how identities are negotiated, displayed, and developed within particular, local, social and cultural contexts and activities – second language acquisition, classroom literacy activities, developing design thinking, and changing national demographics. While the contexts and participants vary, socio-cultural theories on learning and identity remain constant. The objective of this panel is to consider the relationship between local social context and the ongoing process of identities development across varying life stages.

Sub Unit

• Division G - Social Context of Education / Section 1: Local Contexts of Teaching and Learning

Chair

• Amanda Haertling Thein, University of Iowa

Papers

• Learning English as an L2 in Head Start: Identity, Centrality, and Language Acquisition - Katie Bernstein, University of California - Berkeley

• Make-her-spaces as Hybrid Places: How Design Thinking Enabled Girls’ Critical Literacies - Aaminah Norris, University of California - Berkeley

• Finding Yourself in a Book: Adolescent Identity Work and Literacy Engagements - Anthony Johnston, University of Saint Joseph

• Mediators, Family Members, and Culture Brokers: The Role of Teacher Identity in the Teaching of Multicultural Literature in Rapidly Changing Rural Contexts - Amanda Haertling Thein, University of Iowa; Mark Sulzer, The University of Iowa

Discussant

• Richard W. Beach, University of Minnesota