Exploring the Intersection of Student Identity and Educational Well-Being

• In Event: 30.053 - The Emerging Age of Engagement, Identity, and Well-Being: New Research Findings From Ontario

Abstract

The province of Ontario names well-being—defined as “a positive sense of self and belonging”—as one of the four pillars of Achieving excellence: A renewed vision for education in Ontario document (2014, p. ?). From large populations of indigenous students and Syrian newcomers, to other minoritized students like LGBTQ youth and students with special needs, the 10 districts studied in this project displayed a multiplicity of identities that need support, advocacy, and inclusion in their schools.

This presentation addresses how districts are working towards—and sometimes struggling with—one aspect of Leading from the Middle: responding to local needs and diversities (Hargreaves & Ainscow, 2015). By engaging all educational stakeholders to collaboratively support the many intersecting identities within schools, these districts are attempting to cultivate a positive sense of identity and belonging for their students. On the one hand, policies and practices of inclusion have, in Goffman’s (1963) terms, inverted what were once stigmatized identities (such as having a physical or learning disability, experiencing mental health problems, or being part of the LGBTQ community) by including, capitalizing on, and sometimes celebrating such identities in the curriculum and culture of the school.

At the same time, newcomer identities of language and culture in a diverse and officially bilingual and multicultural society are also complex. They encompass what Baumann (2004) calls vagabond identities, which refers to refugees or agricultural migrants who are moved from one place to another as they seek security and sanctuary. Many such newcomers also develop multiple, transnational identities, reflecting feelings of belonging to multiple communities (Skerrett, 2015). However, too often, residual practices of standardized testing actually undermine the emergent efforts to promote identity and well-being—for example when students from non-dominant cultures are forced to answer test questions featuring content that is culturally incongruous or foreign.

By using an intersectional lens (Crenshaw, 1991) and applying Kumashiro’s (2000) 4 principles of anti-oppressive education, this paper identifies ways in which districts are moving towards providing an education that changes students and society through inclusive curriculum materials, policies, projects, and pedagogical practices. Adopting an intersectional lens surfaces tensions and dilemmas such as in some Catholic districts that ignore LGBTQ identity or in emotional regulation programs that promote normative ways of emotional well-being that are dissonant for children representing a range of cultures and identities.

The scholarly significance of this paper is threefold:
1. It highlights how achievement and equity can and should be addressed by also attending to issues of student identity and well-being that are emergent practices in Ontario and other systems.
2. It points to ways in which normative and universalized understandings and programs of well-being and emotional regulation may suppress or sidestep the emotional aspects of different intersecting identities.
3. It illustrates how emergent engagements with well-being and identity can continue to be affected and afflicted by the persistence of standardized testing practices.

Author

• Mark D'Angelo, Boston College