Notes for Identity Development I readings

The readings for Tuesday consist of an excerpt from Wigfield & Wagner on identity development in adolescence, plus a set of descriptions of identity development from research or from the perspective of adolescents themselves. The following notes should help you make sense of these readings and prepare for class discussion.

Identity development is a critical aspect of adolescent development. In this period of transition, adolescents are working on who they will become socially, intellectually, physically, and morally. Teachers, peers, and parents all play important roles in helping adolescents work on these issues. Identities are developed through interaction with others. As you become teachers, your teacher identity will be developed in part through your interaction with your CT, your supervisor, your students, your colleagues and peers, and perhaps your professors. One way to think about identity development is in terms of processes that drive it.

Affiliation or identification. People choose others as models for what they might become. You may have a terrific CT and aim to become a teacher like him or her. You might be impressed with the group of teachers in your department, and begin to adopt teaching practices they use. Your students may look at other students with high status and begin to imitate their ways. They may also find affiliation in a group of peers (gang, team, activity group, club) or may see you as a model of a scientist, writer, or thinker that they want to be like. People also seek to dis-identify with certain groups, to distance themselves. Look for examples of affiliation or identification in Callahan, Cain & Hilty, and Eder, et al., as well as examples of disaffiliation.

Positioning. Identities develop in relation to groups or contexts. You will develop an identity as a student teacher in relation to your field placement school and department. As a newcomer, you will be establishing a position within this social context through your interactions with students, teachers, administrators, and supervisors. In the ways you interact, you will position yourselves as teachers (or student-teachers), and others will position you. When you assert your authority over the behavior of students, you are positioning yourselves as a teacher. When students ask you for help or to explain something, they are positioning you as a teacher. If a teacher in the department says to students, "X is a student teacher who is just beginning to learn how to teach," this positions you as a novice and can diminish your authority or status in the eyes of the students. In the same way, you position your students as thinkers, as boys or girls, as persons worthy of respect, through your words and actions. Think about how Matika was positioned by others in school and in her book group; think also about how specific things she did positioned herself in those contexts. How is Callahan positioning herself in her essay? How do her arguments relate to the idea of positioning? How do the kids in "School Talk" position each other?

Thinking about identity development in terms of the processes involved makes it easier to see how you can play an important role in the development of students' identities. In class we will discuss this and other implications of these readings for your teaching.