Identities as a Process: Asian Female Scholars' Identity Formation

• In Event: 66.035 - Situating the Identities of Asian/American Girls and Women Across Multiple Contexts and Institutional Settings: New Paradigms for Explicating "Gendered" Experiences

Abstract

Norton (2000) defines identity as how one “understands his or her relationship to the world, how that relationship is constructed across time and space, and how the person understands possibilities for the future” (p. 5). Crafter and Abreu (2010) also explored three complementary identity processes: “identifying the other,” “being identified,” and “self-identification.” The person’s identity shifts dramatically depending on the language a person uses and who the person associates with in the context, particularly in sociopolitical and cultural contexts such as academia. The concepts of identity have been explored as local, situated, and ongoing processes (Lee & Anderson, 2009). The purpose of the study is to examine Asian female scholars’ identity formation, emphasizing their self-identifications, influential factors of developing their identifications, the process of identity formation as scholars in higher education.

This multiple-case study developed both within-case and cross-case analyses (Creswell, 2007), obtaining data from 4 Asian female scholars in academia who are also English language learners. I conducted two semistructured interviews with 4 Asian female scholars and collected email exchanges. Interviews included a main interview and a follow-up interview for member checking (Lincoln & Guba, 1985). The interviews included participants’ personnel demographic information and experiences as well as their reflections, and insightful stories of their identity formation focusing on their perceptions and experiences in academia.

Interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using data-analysis software. Data analysis involved three stages of coding similar to open coding, axial coding, and the process of relating codes to each other after open coding (see Corbin & Strauss, 2007). Stage-1 coding aimed to sort incoming data into precategories and newly discovered categories and explored the interrelationship of categories, compared to each other and to other instances. At Stage 2, coding served to sew pieces of saturated subcategories together to form new themed categories. At Stage 3, evolved themes were compared across the two settings’ findings to intensify similarities and differences.

The findings of study include (1) identity formation is dependent on the participants’ concerns and their personal identities, shaped by their histories and social relationships in contexts as well as reflection of others’ perceptions. (2) Asian female actively identified themselves while being recognized by others as creating their sense of “being” and “becoming.”(3) Asian female scholars tend to make meaning based on their ethnic identity and develop their social identity. (4) Their choice of language usage is closely linked to their identification while engaging in discourse and reflecting their currency of identity. (5) Their professional identity as a scholar is significantly linked to their social status.

The results of the study demonstrated that Asian female scholars’ identity formation is complex and fluid as they become members of academia. Significant factors of identification formation are language usage, ethnicity, and professionalism. Their identities were multiple and linked to each other and bring unique discourse in a particular context. While they belong to various memberships in the social context, their identities are dynamic, and they make meaning depending on space and time, and with others around them.

Author

• Deoksoon Kim, University of South Florida