Seeking Identity Within Predetermination: Autobiography and the Study of Place

• In Event: 46.024 - Creating Spaces to Transform Social Justice Dissertation Research Into Teaching Practice

Abstract

Life does develop within a vacuum absent of cultural influences; the same can be said for the development of a student within the classroom. Therefore social instruction received by students is not equal throughout the country and instead the local atmosphere reinforces social constructs. “Place is not merely a physical dimension; it is also a psychic terrain, one that has already been tilled and cultivated by a broader myth that can be examined in a range of discourses” (Casemore, 2008, p. 49). Whitlock (2006) further explored the problematic nature of the American South in the difficulty of overcoming its history. “The South is actually and metaphorically a place not only in mythic dimensions but also of mythic distortions, in its historical, social, and cultural constructs” (p. 129). The complicated history that troubles the reality of this region is still palpable for those who must learn to negotiate the social norms needed to exist within such an environment. “To be born here is to inextricably linked, marked, and channeled into roles molded through decades and generations” (Haynes, 2007, p. 110). Gender roles are reinforced at a young age with subtle directions that dictate emotional displays, appropriate actions, and limits on the development of self.
“Women themselves have been conditioned to ‘knowing’ and ‘understanding’ who they are in culturally coded ways reducing opportunities for true self-awareness, respect for other women, and an accurate understanding of their own history and possibility” (Crocco, Munro, & Weiler, 1999, p. 12). Perhaps the most emancipatory realm for students developing within such constriction is exploring the third place as described by Serres in a classroom. Education is not just a method for imparting academic knowledge but also a method of awakening an unknown self through challenging social, political, and religious institutions. “Identity is always in formation within the nexus of power relations” (Munro, 1998, p. 37). To explore the self in the freedom of an emancipatory classroom is extremely significant to the students who find themselves discovering non-traditional identities as well as helping all appreciate differences instead of becoming the self-ascribed enforcers of Old South identities.

Author

• Anna Grace Waddell, Georgia Southern University