Framework Of Identity Development Research Articles

Becoming a White antiracist counselor: A framework of identity development

AbstractIn this constructivist grounded theory study, 12 White mental health counselors committed to antiracism were interviewed to explore their professional identity development. The emergent theoretical model of antiracist counseling identity development is a multifaceted lifelong developmental process that manifests through personal and professional experiences and is enacted within antiracist actions.

Challenges of cultivating critical citizens in Hong Kong

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to offer the latest empirical findings of the difficulties and challenges in teaching New Senior Secondary (NSS) Liberal Studies in Hong Kong from the perspective of pre-service teachers.Design/methodology/approachThis qualitative study is based on Danielewicz’s critical pedagogy framework for identity development. A sample of four pre-service teachers were recruited from the last cohort of final-year bachelor of education students at the University of Hong Kong. They were invited to engage in dialogues of enquiry, through which they recount their teaching encounters during their teaching practices. Emphasis would be put on two relevant pedagogical principles, including deliberation and reflexivity, which are of particular relevance to the case of Liberal Studies.FindingsChallenges revealed the dispositions of conformist learning among the students, manifested in forms of misquoted information and the populist sentiments mirrored from mainstream media, which cost teachers extra efforts to facilitate inquiry-based learning. Adopting deliberation and reflexivity as pedagogical principles, student–teachers responded with attempts to reconnect daily life experiences to teaching, bringing back the social context of knowledge and seeking synergy between traditional and liberatory teaching methods.Research limitations/implicationsThis study is drawn from a relatively small sample of pre-service teachers and may run the risk of over-generalization. Moreover, this study tends to neglect other factors such as classroom dynamics, school culture, colleagues’ rapport and students’ responses.Originality/valueGiven the novelty of Liberal Studies as a compulsory subject under the NSS curriculum and its specificity in Hong Kong education system, the amount of literature devoted to this area has been inadequate; among the available studies, the majority tend either to focus on the macro level, addressing the broader narratives of education policies and curriculum studies (e.g. Fung and Yip, 2010; Cheung and Leung, 1998) or to discuss the topic with exclusive reference to political transition and post-colonialism in the 1980s and 1990s (e.g. Morris and Chan, 1997). Studies on the micro level have generally paid little attention to the dynamics of Liberal Studies teaching, focusing instead on its relationships with other aspects such as private tutoring (Chan and Bray, 2014) and cultural representations of religion in Liberal Studies textbooks (Jackson and Han, 2016); pedagogical studies on the subject remain a minority.

The Role of Doubt in Religious Identity Development and Psychological Maturity

The need to develop a strong religious identity has concerned clergy and educators for many years. However, how religious identity development occurs has seldom been analyzed or used to guide educators' efforts to promote identity development in their students. This discussion delves into the framework of identity development as described by Marcia in 1966 and illustrates parallel processes for the development of religious identity. The characteristics of each stage that Marcia proposed are described and the construct of doubt is analyzed as an essential factor for successful identity achievement. Educational interventions are proposed for creating school environments that promote, rather than inhibit, religious identity development.

Adolescent Girls’ Involvement in Disability Sport: Implications for Identity Development

The social institution of sport reflects a society that presupposes the values, mores, norms, and standards of the majority and subsequently determines who can participate in sport and who can be identified as an athlete. Recognizing the growing importance of disability sport to people with disabilities, the purpose of this study was to use the construct of symbolic interactionism to examine the identity development of adolescent girls with physical disabilities who participate in organized wheelchair sports with a specific focus on athletic identity development. An understanding of how the girls’ interaction with various socializing agents through a wheelchair sport program to develop an athletic identity was developed through interviews. Results are presented utilizing Keliber’s framework for identity development through leisure participation, including sport.

Adolescents' Exposure to Sexually Explicit Internet Material, Sexual Uncertainty, and Attitudes Toward Uncommitted Sexual Exploration

The link between adolescents' exposure to sexual media content and their sexual socialization has hardly been approached from an identity development framework. Moreover, existing research has largely ignored the role of adolescents' exposure to sexually explicit Internet material in that association. This study introduces two characteristics of adolescents' sexual self—sexual uncertainty and attitudes toward sexual exploration—and investigates these characteristics as potential correlates of adolescents' exposure to sexually explicit Internet material. Drawing from a sample of 2,343 Dutch adolescents aged 13 to 20, the authors find that more frequent exposure to sexually explicit Internet material is associated with greater sexual uncertainty and more positive attitudes toward uncommitted sexual exploration (i.e., sexual relations with casual partners/friends or with sexual partners in one-night stands). The findings call for more attention to adolescents' exposure to sexually explicit material on the Internet and identity-related issues.