Identity Construction and the Schooling Experiences of Adolescent Girls of Caribbean Descent

• In Event: Gender, Identity, and Race: Examining Black Females' Sense of Belonging in Secondary and Postsecondary Contexts

Abstract

Anglophone Caribbean students are a unique group within the U.S. education system. Although they are considered immigrants (or first generation Americans), they do not possess the traditional characteristics typically associated with these groups. Anglophone Caribbean students come to school with significant knowledge of U.S. American culture and the English language. However, because they are phenotypically Black, they are often erroneously categorized as African Americans, which ignores the linguistic, cultural, and historical differences that exist between African American and Anglophone Caribbean students (Nero, 2005; Pratt-Johnson, 2006; Waters, 2000).

The purpose of this study is to highlight the ‘voices’ of two Black, female, Anglophone Caribbean adolescents regarding the influence of dominant discourses and ideologies regarding their identities. Through highlighting their voices, we gain an understanding of the influence of family, peers, teachers, society, and spirituality on these adolescents’ identity construction and negotiation in various contexts.

Black feminist epistemology and its concept of intersectionality was the primary theoretical framework (Collins, 2000; hooks, 1990, Crenshaw, 1991) used to examine the ways these participants constructed and negotiated their identities. The primary investigator also utilized resistance theory to highlight the ways that they accommodated and resisted cultural and gender stereotypes (Brown & Gilligan, 1992; Rogers & Way, 2015; Way et al., 2013).

Case study methodology was used to investigate and achieve an in-depth understanding of each girl’s identity and negotiation processes by studying their real life contexts and their experiences within these various contexts (Yin, 2002; Merriam, 1998). Data were drawn from a larger collection of case studies examining identity construction processes among immigrant and first generation Anglophone adolescents.

Semi-structured interviews, photographs, and questionnaires were collected over a six-month period. Interview transcripts and photograph captions were coded using Braun and Clarke’s (2006) thematic analysis process (i.e. to highlight participants’ beliefs, perceptions, and experiences as they constructed and negotiated their identities in the context of school.

Cross data analyses reveal four recurring themes related to the participants’ discourses regarding their identities, explanations of the ways they constructed and negotiated their identities, and their exposure to identity-related ideologies and discourses in the context of school. The first theme Becoming Jamerican provides a glimpse into how both participants perceived and reacted to the pressures of family and friends to identify as either Jamaican or Black American. The other themes were Constructing and Negotiating Blackness, Exposing School Discourses & Teacher Ideologies, and Being Made in His Image. Findings also suggest that participants’ accommodated and/or resisted negative ideologies through their expressed beliefs and actions.

Identity has been theorized from either a racial perspective (Cross, 1991; Poston, 1990) or an immigrant perspective (Berry, 2003; Waters, 1999). Female Anglophone Caribbean adolescents represent the intersection between these two broad categories, and the added dimension of gender provides an additional layer that must be considered. It is hoped that an examination of identity (construction) through Anglophone female Caribbean adolescents’ discourses and experiences might encourage scholars to re-examine the ways in which we think and talk about identity and identity construction.

Author

• Kisha C Bryan, Tennessee State University