Abstract
This study examines the patterns and substance of student self introductions in nine fully online graduate courses in education. A composite of social identity frameworks with an emphasis on language as the tool for self-presentation is first developed to guide the analysis and interpretation of these data. In particular Sfard and Prusack’s operationalization of the telling of identity, along with Bruner’s construct of turning points in self-tellings are discussed and employed as analytic lenses. The question of how, in a tightly defined social/academic context, adults use written language to present themselves to others is taken up through content analysis supported by linguistic concordancing. Two hundred twenty-three “Meet Your Classmates” entries are examined for their form and content. Entries composed by preservice teachers, inservice teachers, and doctoral students reveal differences regarding academic and professional identity-telling with the tenacity of institutionally situating and situated forces prevailing.
Highlights
What do we know about students in our online distance education courses? What do they choose to tell us about themselves? What mechanisms do they use to present this information? When asked for a self introduction in an asynchronous online course, what autobiographical stories do students tell? In attempting to address these questions, theoretical principles from four broad areas are employed: language in education, critical discourse analysis, narrative identity, and computer-mediated communication
Using these multiple points of entry, we examined the text archives of the Meet Your Classmates (MYC) entries of 223 graduate students in educational theory and practice in an attempt to characterize patterns of selfpresentation
The content of the MYC entries appears to have been developed through a sense of who writers saw themselves as, individually and collectively, in their degree programs and, by extension, to others in the same or similar academic programs: practicing teachers relate themselves as teachers, preservice teachers as preservice teachers, students as students
Summary
In attempting to address these questions, theoretical principles from four broad areas are employed: language in education, critical discourse analysis, narrative identity, and computer-mediated communication. Using these multiple points of entry, we examined the text archives of the Meet Your Classmates (MYC) entries of 223 graduate students in educational theory and practice in an attempt to characterize patterns of selfpresentation. Patterns of self-tellings were examined by states as defined by Sfard and Prusak [1], and what Bruner [2] terms the “turning points” that are characteristic of self-tellings These two analytic tools were used to compare the forms and substance of self-introductions by students’ academic status: preservice teacher, inservice teacher, and doctoral student. We present the findings of our analyses and discuss their implications for online instruction and for instruction broadly conceived
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