Identity Performance and Middle Grade Learners: Keeping the “Who Am I?” in Middle School Curriculum

• In Event: Improving Outcomes and Engagement for Middle Grade Students: Evidence From Schools and Classrooms

Abstract

Objective: The purpose of this study was to better understand the literacy experiences and practices of a diverse group of middle school girls. As practitioner action research, the underlying objective was to find ways to improve the middle school classroom experience, especially for disengaged learners.

Theoretical Framework: This research draws from the theoretical work of critical literacy, feminist and post-modern frameworks. This study is based on the belief that students do not acquire literacy but use literacy to make meaning in their lives, including understandings of self (Alvermann, 2004; Moje, Dillon & Brian, 2000; Rosenblatt, 1994,). These readings are located within larger systems of power, empowerment and possibility (Freire & Macedo,1987; hooks, 1994). In addition, identity is not a universal fixed state but one which is hybrid, shifting and performative (Butler, 1999; Finders, 1997). Adolescent identities stabilize and destabilize with changes in discourses, audiences and spaces.

Data Sources and Methods: This inquiry is part of a year-long qualitative study of six 8th grade girls at a public urban middle school. The main method of inquiry was a weekly Girls Literacy Discussion Group, which was a pull-out group from one Language Arts class. Other modes of inquiry included individual interviews with the participants and the Language Arts teacher, observations of the students in school, and collection of artifacts.

Results: In this study, the centrality of identity performance was a key finding. One of the most significant ways that students used their literacy practices as identity markers. Books, movies, music and internet sites with which they engaged supported and marked their evolving definitions of self, for themselves and as a signal to others. For example, the self described “geek” read Harry Potter, listened to classical music and visited Harry Potter websites while the other participants read texts like teen magazines, listened to pop music and visited the sites of their favorite musicians. These performances marked racial, class, sexual and gendered identifications in addition to peer group alliances. At times, the performative element of middle grade identification was stunningly clear when students adopted new identities to assimilate to the peer group. For example, one participant was Iranian but called herself “Hispanic” to fit in with the other students. Similarly, one of the girls lived in a trailer in one of the poorest neighborhoods in the city but performed a more middle class identity when describing her home to the other girls.

Scholarly Significance: This research is a reminder to teachers that adolescent identity is performative and therefore it is shifting, evolving, and eroding at any given time. The middle grade years are marked by this liminality, and therefore, it is crucial to include in our curriculum texts that allow for explorations of identity. The Language Arts teacher in my research chose texts, writing assignments and discussion topics that allowed for explorations of “who am I?” and this approach to middle school Language Arts helped students engage in meaningful ways with classroom-based learning.

Author

• Hadar Dubowsky Ma'ayan, Albuquerque Public Schools