Developing Identities as Learners in Context: The Identity Consequences of Racial Stratification in Learning Academies

• In Event: Complexities and Opportunities of Conceptualizing Race as Multidimensional

Abstract

The development of identities in the context of classrooms and school is incredibly complex (Esmonde, 2009; Nasir, Snyder, Shah, & Ross, 2012; Reynold, 2001), and the process of becoming a learner is integral to the type and degree of learning that occurs (Hand, 2010; Herrenkohl & Mertyl, 2010). Many students from marginalized racial and social groups attend to school in urban schools and districts, which provide a range of identity pathways, related to learning outcomes (Nasir, 2012). Such identity pathways provide a range of versions of racial identities and learner identities for students. While most research on learning and identity focus at the level of the classroom level, this paper focuses on the interactions between the way identity issues that play out in the classroom and how access to particular kinds of classroom environments is structured by the institution at the school level. It focuses on data from a case study of Redwood High School, and majority-minority relatively high performing urban high school, which houses several learning academies. The case study involved classrooms and school observations over a 6 month period, as well as interviews with teachers (n= 6), students (n= 20), parents (n=4), and other school staff and administrators (n= 8). We develop the theoretical frame that theeorizes racialized learning pathways (Nasir & Vakil, in progress), to highlight how the structure of the learning academies at Redwood High, and the racialized nature of student participation in them had severe consequences for the learning identities students were able to develop. Findings illustrate 1) how highly racialized the academies were at Redwood (some academies had over 80% African American students, while others had as few as 5%), 2) how this racialization contributed to a narrow view of who could be a learner (especially in relation to STEM), and 3) how these processes constrained access to rigorous math and science instruction, and perpetuated racial stereotypes and misinformation. Further, the racialized access to rigorous STEM learning academies was obscured by a narrative of choice, that couched the racialized patterns in the desire, will, or preparedness of the students. This paper contributes to an examination and theorization of the ways learning identities are constructed within multiple layers of context, and are deeply connected to issues of access, privilege, and racialization at the institutional level.

Authors

• Nailah Suad Nasir, University of California - Berkeley

• kihana miraya ross, University of California - Berkeley

• Sepehr Vakil, University of California - Berkeley

• David Philoxene, University of California - Berkeley