Identity Formation Research Articles

Presentation of national identity on social media in times of crises: The case of a Palestinian anti-violence movement in Israel

This case study offers an understanding of the perception and use of social media among social activists as means of collective identity formation. It focuses on the case of a Palestinian anti-violence movement in Israel. To learn about the identity presented by the United Fahmawi movement, interviews with two of the movement’s leaders and its Facebook posts were analyzed. The findings show a multi-layered, complex identity. The identity is presented as Palestinian, mainly centered around the city of Umm al-Fahm. Otherness is a crucial aspect of this identity, as Palestinian identity stands in opposition to the Israeli one. Furthermore, the police are presented as the source of the crime crisis, while also seen as responsible for reducing it. This study shows how indigenous social activists use the intersectionality between the social, the political, and the national to present an identity.

Self-Concept in Mild Cognitive Impairment and Mild Dementia due to Alzheimer's Disease Is Affected on Tests of Self-Generated Statements.

Several studies show that Alzheimer's disease (AD) and other neurocognitive disorders have a negative impact on the self and identity formation. Most studies have included persons with mild to moderate dementia, but how AD patients in the earliest phases retrieve information about themselves has only been studied scarcely. The aim of this study was to investigate if persons with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and mild AD would generate fewer self-related statements than healthy controls. From a memory clinic, we included 17 aMCI patients, 17 patients with mild dementia (AD; MMSE ≥ 24), and 30 healthy controls. Three Events Test and Twenty Statements Test (TST) were applied to all participants. The persons with mild dementia gave significantly fewer statements compared to the controls (p < 0.001) and the aMCI patients (p < 0.01) on TST. Fewer statements were also produced by the aMCI patients compared to the control participants (p < 0.05). Persons from both patient groups produced significantly fewer contextual details compared to the controls on the Three Events Tests. There were significant associations to lexical fluency for both the TST and Three Events Test, but only a limited amount of variance was explained, and the results cannot be explained solely by a fluency effect. The results from this study are in accordance with findings from previous studies demonstrating that mild AD leads to a decline in both autobiographical memories and a diminished sense of self. Further, this study shows that changes in self-concept may occur even in the earliest clinical stages of AD.

Countdown to the apocalypse: the legitimization of white Christian violence in religious programming on the History Channel

ABSTRACT This paper describes the results of a content analysis of the History Channel’s religious programming, which shows that roughly 44% of episodes about religion from 1996 to 2020 prioritize violence. Additionally, an ideological critique of 17 selected episodes reveals that non-Christian violence is portrayed as inherent to geographic contexts outside the United States while Christian violence is portrayed as justified, heroic, and exceptional. From this we show how the History Channel’s telling of religious history perpetuates the deep and troubling alliance between American identity and violent forms of white, Christian nationalism.

More Than Body Parts: A New Ethos of Anatomy Education

Abstract A new ethos of anatomy education goes beyond the learning of body parts in the traditional curriculum. In the traditional curriculum, the focus of only providing information on the structure of the human body left certain learning opportunities overlooked, marginalized, or dismissed as irrelevant; thus, opportunities to foster and shape professional attributes in health care learners were lost. Furthermore, changes in curricula structures and reductions in anatomy teaching hours have necessitated a transformation in how anatomy education is perceived and delivered. This article presents an examination of a contemporary ethos of anatomy education that draws together concepts from teaching theory, educational trends, and emerging research to maximize the anatomy learning experience with body donors. Social constructivism, the spiral curriculum, and the hidden curriculum can be leveraged to facilitate a unique educational experience. Furthermore, contemporary perspectives on the ethics and history of anatomy that support contextual learning indicate how these subjects are well suited to authenticate and consolidate learning, while supporting the relational and humanistic delivery of health care education. When anatomy education is conceptualized as a first clinical experience in a health care curriculum, it provides the opportunity to develop and enhance professional identity formation at a foundational stage. By embracing and incorporating a wider range of considerations into educational practice, a new ethos for anatomy education fosters history-informed professional identity formation that offers transformative learning opportunities for an ethical practice in the art of healing.

Recovered History: Chicanx Representation in the Dual Credit Classroom

Abstract Recent legislation in Texas effectively prohibits K-12 educators from addressing issues of racism and explicitly prevents teachers from discussing the place of racism in Chicanx relations across Texas history. University educators, and dual-credit instructors especially, must intercede if future generations of learners are going to encounter the true and complete history of border culture, colonialism, and the complex relationship that Chicanx people have with the Southern region of the United States. I argue that the use of digital archives and recovered history like the internet project Are We Good Neighbors? Mapping Discrimination Against Mexicans in 1940s Texas, which catalogs racial discrimination through individual testimony, the Library of Congress database of Mexican American documents, and Chicano! History of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement offer educators an opportunity to incorporate key research skills into the classroom while also establishing a linear context for liminality as a feature of identity formation in contemporary Chicanx literature. The combination of research and critical inquiry is vital to instructing students on the realities of Chicano relations and introducing them to the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement, a key element of American history that is not only conspicuously absent from most K-12 curricula but also an inescapable influence on identity formation and contemporary discussions around Mexican American relations. The use of digital archives to recover and center Chicanx history is actionable on a small scale and serves as an important opportunity to resist anti-ethnic legislation in real time, a vital act of subversion that sidesteps prolonged challenges to censorship at the legislative level.

What It Means To Be Palestinian

Abstract In this essay, I argue that during moments of extreme flux and danger, such as the ongoing Israeli war against Gaza, it becomes relevant to consider how Palestinian identity is constructed and performed by a variety of actors, by Palestinians and by their supporters, as the most compelling contemporary form of a transnational anti-colonial identity emerging within and in opposition to persisting colonial structures, oppression and subjugation. It is also in these moments, I propose, that it becomes necessary to resituate, reconfigure and re-center Palestine in the imagination, not as a pre-determined bounded entity, but as an entity that is always in conversation with its imagined spatiality and temporality and with national and transnational communal anti-colonial struggles.

A systematic scoping review on group non-written reflections in medical education

BackgroundMedical education is tasked with shaping how medical students and physicians think, feel and act as professionals, or their Professional Identity Formation (PIF). This process has traditionally rested upon imparting knowledge; integrating sociocultural, professional and organizational expectations and codes of conduct; inculcating program and practice beliefs, values and principles (belief systems); and imbuing shared identities – quintessential elements that, together, comprise the socialization process. Key to supporting this socialization process is reflective practice. However, regnant approaches to mobilizing reflective cycles are faced with resource, personnel and time constraints, hindering efforts to nurture PIF. Group non-written reflections (GNWR) – broadly defined as facilitator-led discussions of shared reflective experiences within groups of learners – may prove to be an effective compromise. To address diverse approaches and a lack of effective understanding, we propose a systematic scoping review (SSR) to map the current use of GNWR in medical training and its role in shaping PIF.MethodsGuided by the Systematic Evidence-Based Approach (SEBA)’s constructivist ontological and relativist epistemological position, this SSR in SEBA searched for articles on GNWR published in PubMed, Embase, Psychinfo, CINAHL, ERIC, ASSIA, SCOPUS, Google Scholar, Open Grey, GreyLit and ProQuest databases. The data found was concurrently analyzed using thematic and direct content analysis. Complementary themes and categories identified were combined, creating the domains that framed the discussion.ResultsOf the 8560 abstracts and 336 full-text articles reviewed, 98 articles were included. The four domains identified were: (1) Indications of use and their value; (2) Structure and how they can be used; (3) Models of reflective practice in GNWR; and (4) Features of communities of practice and the socialisation process.ConclusionThis SSR in SEBA concludes that GNWR does impact PIF when effectively structured and supported. The Krishna-Pisupati Model for PIF platforms a model that explains GNWR’s effects of PIF and advances fourteen recommendations to maximize GNWR use.

Constructing Ethnolinguistic Identities: A Critical Examination of Language and Power Dynamics in Diasporic Communities

This research investigates the complex interplay between language and power in the formation of ethnolinguistic identities within diasporic communities. As globalization accelerates, diasporic groups navigate a complex landscape where traditional linguistic practices intersect with new socio-political realities. This study aims to critically examine how language functions as a tool for negotiating identity and power within these communities, emphasizing the role of language ideologies and practices in shaping social dynamics. The primary objectives are to explore how language serves as a medium for the construction and negotiation of ethnolinguistic identities and to understand the influence of power relations on these processes. Specifically, the study seeks to identify the ways in which language practices reflect and challenge power structures within diasporic contexts and how these practices contribute to the formation of collective and individual identities. This research is a multi-sited ethnographic approach,and integrates discourse analysis across several diasporic communities. Findings reveal that language serves as a strategic resource for negotiating social status and ethnic belonging. Diasporic individuals employ code-switching, language reclamation, and multilingualism to assert identity and resist assimilation pressures. The study highlights how language ideologies both reinforce and contest existing power structures, demonstrating the dynamic role of language in shaping ethnolinguistic identities amidst shifting socio-political landscapes.

Athletic Identity and Sport Injury Processes and Outcomes in Young Athletes: A Supplemental Narrative Review.

Background: Identity formation, a primary developmental task of adolescence, may be particularly relevant to another commonly occurring event for young athletes-sport injury. Relationships between a subdimension of self-identity-athletic identity-and sport injury processes and outcomes have been documented in the general athlete population. The purpose of this supplemental narrative review is to explore the potential role of athletic identity in the risk of injury occurrence and responses to and consequences of injury among young athletes. Methods: Studies on athletic identity in relation to sport injury, with a focus on young athletes, were extracted from a recent scoping review and identified through an updated literature search from April 2020 through June 2024. A total of 23 studies were examined. Results: Across the studies reviewed, high levels of athletic identity were associated with a reluctance to report injury-related symptoms, a tendency to endorse attitudes and behaviors reflecting a willingness to play through pain and injury, intensified physical and psychological symptoms after injury, a disposition toward over-adhering to rehabilitation, high levels of postinjury coping skills, and better functional and return-to-sport outcomes after injury among young athletes. Conclusions: Athletic identity may, therefore, be a source of both strength and vulnerability in young athletes in terms of sport injury processes and outcomes.

The Impact of Ableist Microaggressions on Identity Formation Among Adults With Disabilities

This study examined the impact of ableist microaggressions on the formation of a disability identity, with a heavy focus on the microinsult of presumed lack of intellect. Participants were 267 adults with cognitive and/or physical disabilities, ages 18 to 65, living in the United States. Experiences of ableist microaggressions were assessed using online survey data. Our analyses indicated ableist microaggressions appear to increase pride in a person’s disability instead of the negative impact that was originally hypothesized. However, the microinsult of presumed lack of intellect was correlated with increased shame towards disability as hypothesized, also negatively impacting one’s acceptance of their disability identity. Results also showed there is statistical significance when comparing gender differences in amount of ableist microaggressions encountered. Strengths, limitations, clinical implications, and directions for future research are discussed.

Effect of the community of simulated participant model on the identity formation of simulated participants: A qualitative study

Health professional education is rooted in patient interaction. The utilization of the simulated participant method is a widely accepted approach in this regard, as it enables students to engage in experiences that closely resemble real patient interactions. So, the simulated participants need to be well-prepared and well-engaged in the concept of their roles. The purpose of the study is to evaluate a new model for identity formation of simulated participants based on communities of practice theory. An 8-month follow-up study with pre- and post-interviews, observations, and reflective diaries designed with a qualitative approach. The results were categorized together under the five themes: “motivation of simulated participants”, “background of simulated participants”, “interaction between simulated participants as a part of a community of practice”, “limitations from simulated participants’ perspectives”, and “roles of simulated participants in simulation”. Our model based on communities of practice theory is an effective method for the formation of identities of simulated participants. Educators have the responsibility to improve the quality of simulated participant–based simulation. Our model can be thought of as an effective tool to use in this regard.

Local knowledge of Mecula Haroano Laa as social cohesion of agricultural communities in Buton utara district

Mecula Haroano Laa is a local wisdom that includes beliefs, norms, and practices passed down from generation to generation in the context of agricultural resource preservation and community cultural identity formation. The author is interested in investigating the practices of the Mecula Haroano Laa tradition, which is unique to North Buton Regency and has unique specifications and characteristics. This research uses a qualitative approach. The data collection techniques used in this study are in-depth interviews and participatory observations. The results of this study demonstrate that Mecula Haroano Laa in North Buton society is more than just an agricultural custom; it is also an attempt to strengthen social solidarity among community members. This practice reflects the spirit of solidarity, gotong royong together, and respect for the environment. The North Buton community is actively involved in implementing Mecula Haroano Laa as a form of participation in developing sustainable agriculture. This research contributes to understanding the importance of local wisdom in building social cohesion in communities. Research implications include sustainable planning and efforts to empower communities in developing farms in North Buton Regency. Natural resource management policies may incorporate. Mecula Haroano Laa’s effective and sustainable resource management techniques to promote wise use, environmental conservation, economic resilience, and dependency reduction.

‘We’re all like brothers’: religion’s role in Afghan Uzbek identity formation

ABSTRACT Studies on Muslim self-conception within Central Asia have flourished over the past twenty years in post-Soviet Central Asia as they did in the 1960s and 1970s within Afghanistan. This research provides qualitative data to compare studies on identity formation within Central Asia, particularly among Uzbeks. From 2018–2019, the author interviewed 20 Uzbek speakers and conducted participant observation in a community of Afghan Uzbeks in northern Afghanistan. The study sought to understand how Uzbek-speaking Sunni Afghans negotiate their identity, particularly with regard to the role of religion in that identity formation. This data was analysed using the grounded theory tools of coding, memo-writing and theory development. The study found that religion played a role in defining identity and ethnicity by reinforcing their membership in the collective identity of the nation of Afghanistan. It also indicated the importance of foreign association in formulating diverse expressions of Muslim identity.

PERTENCIMENTO E RECONHECIMENTO NO CONTEXTO DA EDUCAÇÃO DE JOVENS E ADULTOS: REFLEXÕES SOBRE MEMÓRIA E IDENTIDADE

This article discusses the importance of belonging and recognition in the context of Youth and Adult Education (EJA), with an emphasis on its implications for memory and education studies. Based on a theoretical review based on the works of authors such as Baumeister, Leary, Maslow, Hegel and Honneth, we seek to explore how these concepts influence the construction of identity, the retention of information and the social interaction of educational subjects. The feeling of belonging and recognition in the educational environment are essential for the academic and emotional development of students, directly impacting engagement and motivation for learning. The main objective of this research is to investigate the role of belonging and recognition in EJA, analyzing the contributions to the formation of identity and the academic development of students.

Campus Life in Contemporary Polish, Slovak, and Ukrainian Fiction

The article focuses on the image of campus life as presented in a selection of novels written in Polish, Slovak, and Ukrainian after 1989. The author presents generic peculiarities of Slavic campus fiction and analyses the theme of (academic) coming-of-age in Slavic campus fiction. The maturation of student characters in Maryna Hrymych’s Yura and Pavol Parkov’s The Legend About the Language occurred in Soviet Ukraine and Czechoslovakia, respectively, around 1968. In contrast, the protagonists of Jagoda Grudzień’s Erasmopeja and Tania Kalytenko’s Antero undergo academic identity formation in contemporary Scandinavian countries as participants in academic exchange programs. While Hrymych and Rankov portray characters navigating totalitarian societies of the past, Grudzień and Kalytenko situate their students within the anxieties of the globalised world, where remembering the past remains crucial. The author concludes that contemporary campus fiction written in Slavic languages addresses the issues significant for the cultural memory of the particular nation. Collectively, these novels contribute to a sense of continuity in academic culture within East-Central Europe.

Understanding teacher ethico‐political identity formation from a Foucauldian perspective

AbstractIn recent years, we have seen an increased politicisation and objectification of what teachers should know, what teachers should do and who teachers should be while they are doing it. While evident across the continua of teacher education, such politicised constructions are particularly acute at initial teacher education. Given such attention to constructing what has been described as a ‘preferred’ teacher identity, this paper explores how prospective teachers construct themselves in ethico‐political terms (i.e., how prospective teachers construct the relationship that they have with themselves and how they account for themselves in that regard). Informed by a Foucauldian perspective and using a composite case that draws on interview data (photovoice and semi‐structured interviews) from a small sample (n = 4) of prospective Irish primary school teachers at various stages during their final semester of initial teacher education, this paper addresses ethico‐political identity in terms of substance, authority sources, self‐practices and telos. Findings illuminate prospective teacher ethico‐political identity as: (i) substance as the basis for nascent teacher practical knowing‐in‐action and pedagogical sensitivities; (ii) temporally organised authority sources; (iii) dynamic and interrelated self‐practices; and (iv) telos as a form of identity prolepsis that emphasises three major valuational endpoints. The paper concludes by contemplating the generativity of an ethico‐political conceptualisation of teacher identity (re)formation for teacher education purposes in terms of its conceptual, contextual, critical and reflective utility.

Recapturing the Past: The Role of Historical Memory in Polish and Hungarian Populism

Collective memory is a driving force in populist and nationalist politics. The emotional appeals of a shared history, particularly relating to notions of victimhood and resistance, are deeply influential in national identity formation. In this essay, Hungary’s Fidesz party and Poland’s Law and Justice party (PiS) are explored in relation to their tendency to manipulate history to construct self-serving collective memories. Both Fidesz and PiS successfully employ selective interpretations of historical events to not only mobilize support but also to quell dissent, employing emotive appeals and moral justifications deeply rooted in the national psyche. In order to combat the illiberal and anti-democratic tendencies of populist manipulations of collective memory, this essay argues that strong civil societies and the promotion of alternative narratives of collective memory are necessary. Editorial Note: This final version of this piece was to be titled "The Past Reimagined: The Role of Historical Memory in Polish and Hungarian Populism". Due to an editorial error, a draft title was published in the print edition. In the spirit of continuity between the print and online edition, we have kept the title of the print edition's in the online version, but have included this note to explain the discrepancy. Our apologies to the author for the error.

Race and Populism. A Comparative Study of Thatcherism, Peronism and the American Populists

Abstract This article re-examines the race-populism nexus. It asks: Does populist political construction of the figure of “the people” necessarily involve processes of racial othering? We answer this question by revisiting three emblematic cases of populism. Each historical case illustrates a basic type of identity formation that can have an i) exclusionary, ii) ambivalent or iii) positive impact on racial justice. The first case is Thatcherism, whose “authoritarian populism” feeds on and reinforces anti-Black racial prejudice. The second is Peronism, which has an ambivalent relationship with race that promises to shed important new light on this classic case of populism. The third case is that of the American Populists, whose pioneering experiments in interracial politics remain an enduring illustration of populism’s progressive potential. In each case, we focus on a key document from that political regime/movement: the Conservative Manifesto of 1979, the Peronist Constitution of 1949, and the Omaha Platform of 1892. The article concludes that populism, as a logic of action, acts as a catalyst that intensifies whatever specific content is mobilised – racist and anti-racist content alike.

The Impact of a Study Trip to Auschwitz: Place-based Learning for Bioethics Education and Professional Identity Formation.

There are increasing calls for coverage of medicine during the Holocaust in medical school curricula. This article describes outcomes from a Holocaust and medicine educational program featuring a study trip to Poland, which focused on physician complicity during the Holocaust, as well as moral courage in health professionals who demonstrated various forms of resistance in the ghettos and concentration camps. The trip included tours of key sites in Krakow, Oswiecim, and the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camps, as well as meeting with survivors, lectures, reflective writings, and discussions. In-depth interviews and reflective writings were qualitatively analyzed. Resulting themes centered on greater understanding of the relationship between bioethics and the Holocaust, recognizing the need for moral courage and social awareness, deeper appreciation for the historical roles played by dehumanization and medical power and their contemporary manifestations, and the power of presence and experiential learning for bioethics education and professional identity formation. These findings evidence the significant impact of the experience and suggest broader adoption of pedagogies that include place-based and experiential learning coupled with critical reflection can amplify the impact of bioethics and humanism education as well as the process of professional identity formation of medical students.

Grammar and the Formal Identity of Name and Object

In this paper, I will be arguing that the basic infrastructure of an ineffable formal identity between name and object which is presented in the Tractatus is still very much involved in Wittgenstein's early development of the concept of grammar. First, it will be necessary to clearly describe how the identity between name and object is initially formulated in the Tractatus. Hence, in section 1, I will show how the 'picture theory' is ontologically grounded on the identity of linguistics' and worldly atomic structural elements. I will discuss the ‘picture theory’ only briefly, since my main interest is to illuminate how that infrastructure remains a core aspect of Wittgenstein's “middle period” thinking: that is, in what way the identity of name and object is contained and presupposed within his concept of grammar and how it is still used as a condition for our symbolism to make sense. Another way to describe this paper's aim, this time from its end backwards, would be to say that it is to reveal that grammatical systems of rules are nothing other than the implementations of that special kind of identity, for the latter is always and already manifest within our symbolism