Drawing from recent scholarship that examines schooling and the shifting terrain of youth identities, this study examines the identity constructions of Jessica, a Latina high school student. Our portrait of Jessica is part of a larger longitudinal study in which the middle and high school experiences of three Latinas, including Jessica, were examined. For this paper, we used data gathered from Jessica's four years in high school, which included interviews from Jessica and her mother, and field observations from shadowing Jessica's school days during her junior and senior years. Data analysis illustrated two broad themes: Jessica's relationships with her academics and her social life, including the recent positioning of herself as a mother during her pregnancy in her senior year. Findings suggest that Jessica improvised her positions within various realms of school to both resist and reconfigure discourses that shaped her identities as a student and adolescent. This study argues for more research that examines and explores what youth have to say about their school experiences in order to illustrate the complex ways in which adolescents author themselves in school.
The authors present findings from a qualitative study of an experience that supports teacher candidates to use discourse analysis and positioning theory to analyze videos of their practice during student teaching. The research relies on the theoretical concept that learning to teach is an identity process. In particular, teachers construct and enact their identities during moment-to-moment interactions with students, colleagues, and parents. Using case study methods for data generation and analysis, the authors demonstrate how one participant used the analytic tools to trace whether and how she enacted her preferred teacher identities (facilitator and advocate) during student teaching. Implications suggest that using discourse analytic frameworks to analyze videos of instruction is a generative strategy for developing candidates’ interactional awareness that impacts student learning and the nature of classroom talk. Overall, these tools support novice teachers with the difficult task of becoming the teacher they desire to be.
Research–practice partnerships (RPPs) have grown rapidly in the last decade in the United States to challenge traditional notions of education research by emphasizing the importance of researchers and practitioners working together in a spirit of mutuality to develop research questions, collect data, implement interventions, and analyze and use findings. RPP scholarship in the United States has historically advocated for the need to pay more focused attention to issues of equity and justice. To address that need, this literature review examined how RPPs in the United States have addressed equity and justice in their work. Based on five dimensions of equity and justice that could be observed within the 149 examples of RPP work we reviewed, we identified 17 exemplar projects that explicitly and effectively forefront equity and justice in RPPs, what we call equity-focused. Implications suggest that researchers and practitioners who have initiated equity-orientated RPPs may reflect on the partnerships’ existing strengths, specifically related to the five interconnected features that characterize equity-focused RPPs, to sustain and advance equity and justice through RPPs.
Framed around the perspective that identities matter in relation to literacy learning, this case study examined the identity work of June (pseudonym), a lesbian youth in an 11th‐grade high school language arts classroom. Informal interviews with June about her work on a multigenre research project in relation to LGBTQ issues were analyzed using the constant‐comparative method and discourse analysis. Findings indicate that she positioned herself as a reader and writer in new ways because of an assignment that provided her the opportunity to explore her sexuality. I propose that teachers consider making youth's experiences, including LGBTQ experiences, the centerpiece of literacy instruction. More work, however, needs to be done to explore how educators can create curricula and school communities that recognize and celebrate sexual identities as a part of literacy learning.
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