‘I so wanted to be English’: Constructing Identity and Belonging in the Diaries and Memoirs of Kindertransport Refugees

The increased flexibility facilitated by Information and Communication Technologies has enabled anti-war activists to garner great control over representations of their arguments. This paper explores the value of the symbolic dimension of collective action through three cumulative forms of analysis: understanding how the symbolic domain is used; explaining the strategic choices behind this use; and, finally, linking these representational choices to the subjective experience of the individual and their processes of political identity construction. Many groups lacked a coherent online strategy. The reasons for this are threefold. First, use reflects the organizational structure and ideological principles of the groups. Second, by emphasizing diversity and inclusion most groups wanted their online material to be as accessible as possible and as a result censored anything too opinionated or deemed too radical. Third, there was an enduring emphasis upon local place and face-to-face communication. This made groups' online interventions lack coherence because they were often aiming their representations at particular populations. In a study of Muslim anti-war activism the relationship between these representational choices and the processes of identity construction were explored. Muslim activists sought support by asserting a collective religious commonality and by aligning with sympathetic others to counter stereotypes of Muslims as terrorists. This re-ignited a historical tension as to the place of religion within anti-war activism. Consequently, Muslims struggled to articulate their claim to multiple identities, and online representations limited those who attempted to develop overt and complicated new religious political identities.

Purpose While a number of scholars have observed that the contemporary self has to negotiate a “push and pull” between autonomy and a desire for community (Austin & Gagne, 2008; Bauman, 2001a, p. 60; Coles, 2008; Giddens, 2003, p. 46, the struggle between the “self” and “others” that is at the heart of symbolic interactionist (SI) understandings of the self is often missing from sociological discussion on the “making of the self” (Coles, 2008, p. 21; Holstein & Gubrium, 2000), and the current chapter contributes to this literature. Design/methodology/approach To gain insight into “the making of the self,” in-depth life history interviews were conducted with 23 former members of new religious movements (NRMs) specific to their construction of self. Interview data was analyzed for variations in the ways in which individuals describe their construction of self. To make sense of these variations, SI understandings of the self are applied. Findings Analysis indicates that the extent to which individuals are informed by the social versus the personal in their self-construction is a continuum. From an SI perspective the self is conceptualized as to varying degrees informed by both the personal and the social. These two “domains” of the self are interrelated or connected through an ongoing process of reflexivity that links internal experiences and external feedback. From this perspective, “healthy” selves reflexively balance a sense of personal uniqueness against a sense of belonging and social connectedness. While a reflexive balance between the “self” and “others” is optimal, not everyone negotiates this balance successfully, and the extent to which individuals are informed by the social versus the personal in their self-construction varies and can be conceptualized as on a continuum between autonomy and social connectedness. The current findings suggest that where individuals are positioned on this continuum is dependent on the availability of cultural and personal resources from which individuals can construct selves, in particular in childhood. Those participants who described themselves as highly dependent on others report childhood histories of control, whereas those who described themselves as disconnected from others report histories of abuse and neglect. Research limitations The problems of relying on retrospective accounts of former members should be noted as such accounts are interpretive and influenced by the respondents’ present situation. However, despite their retrospective and constructionist nature, life history narratives provide meaningful insights into the actual process of self and identity construction. The analysis of retrospective accounts is a commonly recommended and chosen method for the study of the self (Davidman & Greil, 2007; Diniz-Pereira, 2008). Social implications/originality/value The current findings suggest that significant differences may exist in the way in which individuals construct and narrate their sense of self, in particular in regards to the way in which they experience and negotiate contemporary tensions between social connectedness and individuality. In particular, the findings highlight the importance of childhood environments for the construction of “healthy” selves that can negotiate contemporary demands of autonomy as well as social connectedness.

New leaders from outside organizations are often stuck in all kinds of troubles and challenges after they arrive in the organizations. And the biggest challenge is that even if they have the title of leader, their subordinates don’t recognize their ability and identity, thereby hindering their managerial role. Thus, to achieve the effectiveness of leadership, they need to construct their leader identity. According to previous research on the theme of leader identity construction, on the one hand, they can’t find the mental characteristics that fit in with the environment and challenges that new leaders from outside organizations are confronted with; on the other hand, most of previous studies investigate new leaders’ identity construction mechanism from the perspective of new leaders and they ignore the role of the interaction between new leaders and their subordinates. Even if few studies begin paying attention to the interaction between new leaders and their subordinates, the interaction is abstract instead of concrete, a part that must be clarified if we want to investigate how new leaders construct their leader identity. As a result, considering the limitations above, to investigate how new leaders get themselves out of trouble and construct leader identity, we make a case study of five new leaders from Wowprime’s young lion plan. By multiple case study method, we firstly show that they are faced with the challenging environment, including high exterior pressure, high risk, previous problems and anti-acceptance and anti-recognition form their subordinates. And the environment clues motivate their ego-resilience and further the ego-resilience has the influence on the proactive behaviors. Those new leaders who have high ego-resilience have the urgent wish to change the negative environment, so they will take the proactive behaviors positively. Then the three proactive behaviors including feedback seeking, social networking and information seeking have the influences on the results of leader identity construction, which include the promotion time, leadership effectiveness, recognition from the subordinates, and the appraisals from the higher level. Also, based on the interactive perspective of leader identity construction, we know that leaders’ benevolence and ability that subordinates perceive also have the influences on the results of leader identity construction. When a subordinate has the perception that the new leader is kind and capable, he will form a good impression of the new leader and project the impression on the proactive behaviors of the new leader, thus producing positive interpretation results and then bringing effective identity construction results. In conclusion, we induce a mechanism model of the influence of leaders’ mental characteristics on identity construction from the interaction perspective to show the relationship among ego-resilience, proactive behaviors, perception of benevolence and ability, and the results of leader identity construction. The theoretical innovation is that we choose ego-resilience as the antecedent which is more related with the study context and introduce and quantize the participation of subordinates in the process of new leaders’ identity construction. The conclusions above are theoretically valuable to expose the managerial challenges that new leaders are confronted with and investigate the identity construction tactics. At the same time, the research has some limitations. The similarities of new leaders’ education background and age are not good for the generalization of the conclusions. We don’t talk with the young lions that have left the organization and future research can emphasize on this part. We ask the young lions and their subordinates to recall the process of new leaders’ identity construction process, which may not describe the moment precisely and would result in recall and narrative deviation. Researchers can adopt the tracking investigation to record the whole process of new leaders’ identity construction precisely in time so as to get more scientific and precise conclusions.

Professional teachers are an essential element in realizing the quality of education (Boyle, 2013). The teaching practice program is conducted as one of the training programs to become professional teachers for the pre-service teachers. During this program, EFL pre-service teachers begin to construct their teacher identity with various images of teachers. This case study explored the process of the pre-service teachers' identity construction from the perspective of sociocultural theory and the factors that contribute to the process. By distributing interviews and personal narratives to three EFL pre-service teachers in Wiralodra University, findings demonstrated that the process of pre-service teachers' identity construction is complex and personal. The teachers' identity construction involves both personal and social perspectives. From a personal perspective, it involves emotions and the self (self-image and self-esteem), and social perspective involves experiences and social interaction. This study also found that the preparation of materials and the choice of suitable methods and media for learning became challenges for the pre-service teachers. In addition, the pre-service teachers' identity construction is influenced by some factors. For example, they were mentoring and supervising, tensions, identity recognition, previous teaching experiences, pedagogy, content-area knowledge, relationship with students. That led to the development of pre-service teachers' identities.

Long-term recovery from substance use disorders has been described as a process of identity construction, through which the stigma of being a substance user is replaced by a new identity of a non-user. Identity construction has been widely acknowledged as a significant factor in different pathways of substance use cessation, such as self-change and treatment-change. However, almost no articles have discussed the role of identity construction in desistance and recovery among both self-changers and treatment-change. The aim of this narrative review was to explore this subject in the two groups. Based on the recovery capital approach and the social identity model of recovery, I posited that self-changers and treatment-changers undergo different processes of identity construction. Moreover, the prospects for successful identity construction depend upon personal and social resources (recovery capital) that provide identity-building materials such as relationships, attitudes, and role models. This article contributes to the field by presenting the different identity constructions in the process of long-term recovery from SUDs.

Autobiographical narrative is “a selective reconstruction of the ruminative past” and an account that serves to explain, for the self and others, how the person came to be whom s/he is at present (McAdams, 2011) and thus can provide a rich source of data for sociolinguistic analysis and a speculation in the studies of identity construction processes and narrative combined. The present paper aims to investigate how narrators — through the subtle exploitation of tense patterns manage to reflect an integrated vision of their identity and evaluate these identity construction processes. To do this, I will a) develop a model of identity construction and evaluation processes in autobiographical narrative that is based upon the writings of McAdams (1985 & 2011) and Luyckx et al. (2011)’s identity model; b) closely examine how narrators subtly use tense patterns to combine the acts of narrative with moments of reflection and finally, c) relate these linguistic features of autobiographical narrative to the process of identity construction and evaluation. For this purpose, I use as data two speeches by two females each representing a different socio-cultural background: an ex-female slave from pre-civil war America and a Lebanese author in which both reflect upon their ruminative past and how they became who they are at present. The model and the analysis give empirical evidence that a close investigation of tense patterns in autobiographical narratives is an effective analytical and explanatory tool that shows how narrators reflect their evolving self, display, and evaluate identity on its individual, relational and collective levels and make a stance on social constructs such as race and gender.

The article reflects on the process of identity construction in the context of a reality described as global change. According to numerous scientific reports, this process constitutes the most important developmental task in human life, with its most sensitive and significant stage occurring during adolescence. However, in reality, it is a complex, multidimensional process that lasts from conception until death. Moreover, this process undergoes numerous transformations that do not occur in a “vacuum”; on the contrary, they strongly resonate with the conditions of the modern world, which are characterized by dynamism, global reach, and fundamental transformations, particularly in terms of norms, standards, and social values. This article is a review-based work grounded in scientific literature on both identity formation and the nature of global changes that significantly influence the process of human identification. The analysis presented in the article invites reflection on what the task of identity construction truly entails today, what challenges and risks it poses, and whether, in the face of global transformations, it is still possible to discern any stable values within the composition of human identity. In an effort to avoid marginalization, individuals follow trends present in contemporary social and cultural spaces. Their actions are driven by personal desires and aspirations, but also by mechanisms and trends observable in sociology. In this sense, human identity can be compared to a multicolored mosaic or a puzzle, where its components can be freely rearranged, creating an entirely new form. Although the process of identity construction, in many respects, occurs naturally through personal experiences and participation in diverse social structures, it remains a challenge that significantly impacts both psychological and physical well-being.

This research aims to explore how two Chinese English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) teachers construct their professional identity as nonnative English teachers with the influence of the social factor – nonnativeness. It adopts a modern approach of identity that its formation is an ongoing process, and Wenger’s (1998) theory of identity that one acquires identity through the participation in various communities of practice. It is designed to be a qualitative study of two Chinese EFL teachers’ construction of teaching identity. The subjects negotiate the meaning of “teaching English” within various communities of practice. Findings suggest that the process of negotiation begins long before they enter their teaching career. And this process has been going through the whole process of identity construction. Findings also reveal a duel identity discursively constructed by the two subjects – both as an English teacher and learner. In addition, their nonnative speakership has played a significant role during the formation of teaching identity and has greatly influenced the way they teach. Finally, being nonnative can be advantageous in terms of language teaching.

Configuring ethnic identities: resistance as a response to counter- terrorist policy

Este trabajo parte de una investigación sobre la construcción de las identidades de género trans que realicé en la provincia de San Luis (Argentina) entre 2013-2015. Mi propósito es demostrar que el reconocimiento de las/os otras/os, los modos en que entendemos el género en la cultura occidental y los modelos predominantes de feminidad y masculinidad condicionan la construcción de las identidades de género de las personas trans. Para lograrlo empleo una estrategia cualitativa que diseñé a partir del trabajo inductivo con los datos, similar al propuesto por la Teoría Fundamentada. Concluyo que la identidad de género trans se construye en colaboración con las/os otras a partir de un trabajo permanente de negociación del reconocimiento, y que se enmarca en los patrones de género vigentes en nuestra cultura.

This paper investigates the mediated narratives and identity construction of a reading club of female workers in call centers of multinational corporations in Dalian China, where the discourse of an empowering ‘female force' has been popularized and scrutinized on Chinese social media. These professional workers manage and construct their emerging middle-class identities through embodied experiences and mediated discourses fostered by an English reading club that is both online and offline. Responding to recent critiques of neoliberal feminism in the Chinese context, this study uses a mixed-method approach to unpack the complex processes of these women's identity construction and performance through participatory reading practices. This includes ethnographic participant observation in offline reading club activities, in-depth interviews, and a discourse analysis of mediated narratives on social media (WeChat). We argue that Chinese working women's identity construction and performance are shaped by complex intersections of class, nation, gender and workplace/institutions, where their encounters are in flux, given the changing neoliberal globalization process after China’s four-decade long opening up reform. This study challenges and extends the critique of neoliberal feminism and finds evidence of agency and tactical engagement whereby female workers negotiate their emerging middle-class identities and forge possible solidarities within a networked workplace.

PurposeThe study aimed to investigate how two English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers integrated their teacher and researcher identities to achieve sustainable professional growth in the context of a changing academic landscape.MethodsUsing purposive sampling, two EFL teachers from a non-elite public university in China were selected as participants for this qualitative study. Data were collected and triangulated from multiple sources, including semi-structured interviews, narrative frames, document analysis, and the academic profiles of the participants. A qualitative, inductive thematic approach was employed in the data analysis. Adopting “identity” as an analytical lens, this study examined how the two participants underwent different identity trajectories to develop into teacher-researchers under the influence of their personal values and beliefs, as well as contextual factors such as institutional research policy.FindingsThroughout their identity construction process, the two participants encountered identity deficits and tensions between multiple professional roles, leading to their struggles with identity and complex identity (re)construction. While the participants underwent interactions between various forms of identity throughout their careers, they enacted agency to take actions and draw on available resources to address their identity deficits and conflicts, ultimately resolving them by pursuing a sustainable career path as teacher-researchers in their situated socio-institutional environment.ConclusionDespite their different identity trajectories, the construction of the participants’ teacher-researcher identity facilitated their continuing professional development. This study contributes to our understanding of the complexities of EFL teachers’ identity (re)construction when seeking to establish sustainable career paths in a changing academic context. This study also has implications for both EFL academics and university management on how to assist EFL teachers in integrating teacher and researcher identities to achieve sustainable professional development in higher education.

This qualitative study explores novice nurse academics’ experiences and perceptions of academic identity formation through the theoretical lens of space. We analyse the data from four participants through semi-structured interviews, supplemented with information from demographic questionnaires and career incident maps. Our analysis shows a dual, inter-reliant, tension-filled and on-going process of identity construction – the formation of an academic identity and the reinvention of a clinical identity. This identity construction happens when the nurse academics move back and forth between academic and clinical spaces and is manifested in the emergence of the nurse academic identity. Findings reveal shifts within nursing as a profession and an academic discipline. To conclude, we suggest a contextualised approach to academic identity research to recognise the variability and complexity of academic identities (and spaces) in universities and the need to facilitate clinical engagement in the academic spaces of nursing to foster academic identity formation.

Conceptualizing identity in processual terms as identity work has long been acknowledged within the broad field of critical management and organization studies. However, recent studies show that the process by which identities evolve is still under-explored. Although extant research has considered how discourse and other symbolic means play a part in this process, this article expands such perspectives by foregrounding the relationality of discourse-materiality in identity construction processes. Using the example of an empirical analysis taken from a case study within education in Denmark, the author examines the process of identity construction by considering the ways in which discourse-materiality works to perform identities. The author combines insights from new materialist thinking with organizational discourse studies in the development of an analytics to approach the process of identity construction – coined as identity intra-activity. In doing so, the article demonstrates how an informal middle-management positioning of selected teachers is performed within its organization. By advancing the notion of identity intra-activity, the findings enable an understanding of identity work as materialized by multiple discursive-material and embodied resources – all enacted in/through the teachers’ practices – creating a petri dish for examining the co-constitutive role of discourse-materiality and enabling new ways of thinking about identity work.

Anorexia nervosa can be comprehended as an illness in the broader context of Western culture. The myth of the Fall, narrating a forbidden act of eating, provides a symbolic background of a philosophical-anthropological comprehension of the identity of man, which frames a clinically relevant point of view of anorexia nervosa. The formation of identity in its broader anthropological sense and particularly with people suffering from anorexia nervosa is subjected to a philosophical and psychological analysis consulting the relevant philosophical, sociological and psychodynamic literature. The order of eating in terms of interdiction and disobedience anthropologically constitutes the identity of men: by ignoring the divine taboo, men can reach consciousness and culture. Philosophy and psychoanalytical theory have focused on this process regarding an emerging capacity to symbolize and on its relation to emancipation and the pursuit of autonomy. Under postmodern conditions with a decline of stable cultural value systems and traditional structures the process of an emancipatory identity construction becomes critical. Surrogates replace missing values; thus, injunctions such as to enjoy substitute interdictions. This paper sheds light on the impact of these cultural conditions and their postmodern changes on the identity construction of anorexia nervosa. Moreover, implications for psychotherapeutic treatment are outlined. Besides the medico-scientific models, a multifaceted understanding of anorexia nervosa has to consider cultural contexts and symbolic processes that matter in the disorder in order to provide a broader background for the treatment approach of the anorectic patient.