“I Fell Right into the Stereotype:” Carceral Figured Worlds and Latina Girls’ Identity Development

• In Event: Unforgetting Deficit Depictions: Disrupting Education Systems of Injustice to Unlock the Hidden Geniuses

Abstract

This study explores the educational experiences of three systems-impacted Latina girls who were pushed out of their respective public schools and into alternative and juvenile court schools. This study was guided by two key questions: 1) How do Latina girls who were incarcerated describe their educational experiences in alternative schools and juvenile court schools? and 2) How did those experiences shape their learner and student identities as Latina girls? Perspectives and Framework: Holland and colleagues; (1998) sociocultural practice theory of self and identity is made up of four concepts: figured worlds, positional identities, authoring selves, and making worlds. Figured worlds, along with the other three concepts, is one of four sites where identity production can occur (Holland et al., 1998). Figured worlds, sometimes referred to as “lived worlds,” are where people come to “figure” who they are through the “worlds” that they inhabit and how they relate to individuals in and out of those worlds over time and across different time, place, and social processes (Urrieta, 2007). More importantly, figured worlds are conceived as “socially produced, culturally constituted activities” (p. 40) where individuals “come to conceptually (cognitively) and materially/procedurally produce (perform) new self-understandings (identities)” (Urrieta, 2007, p.108). As such, for the girls in our study who navigated multiple carceral schooling environments, the messaging they received pertaining to who they were as learners was often laced with messaging about who they were, or would be, in society given their law violating behaviors. Sustained commitment, collective dialogue, and the intentional design of just and inclusive learning spaces are essential for transformative change. Ultimately, this process calls for ongoing curiosity, humility, and shared responsibility to build education systems rooted in equity and justice.

Authors

• Julissa O. Muñiz, University of California - Los Angeles

• Armando Lizarraga, University of Texas at Austin