Process Of Identity Construction Research Articles

‘I want to learn to do that’: subcultural heritage, identity, and learning graffiti in Pamplona

ABSTRACT Graffiti culture has expanded rapidly since its inception in the 1970s, and is now an established practice. Graffiti is part of the visual culture of many societies, and constitutes the visible part that is hidden to the common pedestrian. As such, it is argued that graffiti has become part of many countries’ subcultural heritage. This article focuses on the processes of learning and identity construction of graffiti writers in Pamplona, in Spain, and considers the consequences of this for the concept of subcultural heritage. The data were collected via interviews and participant observations conducted over eight months. The findings suggest that graffiti writers’ identities are constituted via their artwork, which is influenced by emotions and praise that serves to fuel their ego. The findings also indicate that these writers tend to hide the fact that they have learned from others, claiming instead to have learned on their own. Hence, graffiti subcultural heritage is defined by ideas that writers themselves have about graffiti, and their learning of the previous heritage. The paper concludes that writers leaving their mark and receiving feedback from their community contribute to their subcultural heritage, and that these two aspects represent specific characteristics of this subculture.

Re-exploring Language development and identity construction of Hui nationality in China: a sociosemiotic perspective

Abstract The present study attempts to investigate and analyze the relationship between the language used by the Hui nationality, its social situation, and identity construction from a sociosemiotic perspective, and makes a further discussion on the process of identity construction via language convergence, divergence, and maintenance. It goes further to put forward the distinction between social identity/ethnic identity and group identity/personal identity as well as the roles that language convergence and divergence have played within these identity constructions, proposes that language convergence and divergence are the two crucial language strategies utilized by people in code switching, therefrom constructing a dynamic balanced identity system recursively.

“Rural but not rural”: gendered and classed moral identities in liminal spaces in Guangdong, China

ABSTRACT China is woven into the fabric of territorial demarcation between rural and urban space, which shapes people’s life chances. Grounded in the study of rural-urban and local/non-local inequalities, we explore the identity constructions of people-in-between – rural local villagers (commonly named “urban villagers”) in chengzhongcun (villages-in-the-cities). Based on in-depth interviews and participant observations in Shenzhen and Guangzhou, we found stereotypes of rural local people’s as ill-mannered and lazy; yet economically well-off. Women and men who considered themselves rural locals challenge the stereotype by drawing upon the gender- and class-appropriate understandings of their identities. Rural local women crafted a “model woman discourse” by emphasizing their traditional Chinese feminine traits, othering rural migrants for manipulating sex for upward mobility, and criticizing urban women for being too assertive in relation to men. Some rural local men, in contrast, created a subculture that defined their version of success; others embraced urban masculinity. In any case, the processes of identity construction often reinforce stereotypes based on rural/urban and local/non-local divide, class, and gender.

PRESENTING PERFECTION: CONSTRUCTING IDENTITY IN THE REHEARSAL STAGE OF ONLINE INTERACTION

Social media platforms such as Facebook have been understood to present new possibilities for interaction. Yet, there have been concerns surrounding the reducing quality of our interaction and conversation. Such debates, however, have not considered the pre-post dimension of online environments: that is, the preparatory work that occurs to online posts before they are shared with their audience. Based on real time recordings of Facebook Messenger interactions, this paper asks what the pre-post perspective tells us about the quality of our interactions online. The analysis is theoretically informed by Goffman and methodologically by conversation analysis and addresses this question with a focus on processes of identity construction. Specifically, this paper questions how the practice of pre-post editing (the editing of messages before sending) is used by users to represent self online and what this then tells us about the quality of our online talk. In presenting innovative screen capture data, this paper argues against claims that our interaction online is declining in quality instead showing the ways users perfect their online posts by elaborating a new stage of online communication: the ‘rehearsal’ stage. In doing this, this work reflects on the wider implications the affordance of pre-post editing has on users’ social media experiences questioning the impacts constructing ‘perfect lives’ has and the potential for creating ‘reduced’ versions of self within our online interactions.

Organizational identity: components and construction

The objective of this research was to understand the identity construction process of the middle managers (MMs) of a Colombian multilatina. From the research question, i.e., what are the components involved in the identity construction process of MMs?, it was established that MMs are those individuals whose level in the organization is below top managers and above first-level supervisors. The theoretical framework used was organizational identity (OI). To this end, literature review focused on the discussion of research works whose epistemological basis considered OI as a process, not as an invariant or static element. The case study used a qualitative approach. Identity construction processes are made up of three categories: recognition, transcendence and security. The research was conducted under the case study method and targeted a relatively new organi­zation that is in an unfinished and immature process of adopting a specific OI. The components explain the process and make it possible to elucidate a new way of approaching it at the manage­ment level; at the same time, due to their clarity and understandability, they can be used for other studies, as well as for consultancies. Finally, the integration of concepts from the social sciences for conceptualization and analysis nourishes the dialog with the administrative field.

A Consideration of the Relationship Between Music and Collective Identity: From the Viewpoint of Cultural Psychology of Music

The aim of the present study lies in an effort of converging anthropological, ethnomusicological and psychological approach to the relationship between music and collective identity. Music is considered a socio-cultural artifact, which mediates the processes of collective identity construction, and whose function in such process can be multiple. In order to understand the ways in which it is sutured into (in)formal processes of collective (self)identification, we propose simultaneous consideration of various dimensions: cultural, social, political, psychological. Although there already has been interdisciplinary research of the role of music in the emergence of identity, we advocate for a more complementary approach, by a consideration of the psychological accounts, adjusted to the needs of ethno-anthropological analysis. As the most comprehensive theoretical approach, we propose cultural psychology of music. Future empirical research on specific identity processes mediation by music as cultural artifact, should include the analysis of intersecting local and global social trends, aspects of musicological analysis, specificities of psychological development of identity, the role of socio-political strategies of identity formation, and, last but not least, cultural specificity of the community in focus of the research. We find the complexity of the phenomenon in focus to be obligatory for the complexity of the theoretical and methodological approach.

¿De qué ríe un cuerpo tullido? Políticas del humor crip

En estas páginas se analiza cómo determinadas subjetividades configuradas al margen de los discursos normativos sobre cómo ha de ser, sentir o actuar un cuerpo pueden hallar en el humor una herramienta clave a la hora de establecer sus propios procesos de construcción o reivindicación de identidad. El humor crip o humor tullido permite establecer una tregua entre diferentes actores sociales: por un lado, los llamados Social Justice Warriors, defensores a ultranza de los valores progresistas de la izquierda identitaria, denostados en las redes sociales por sus actitudes censoras o ultraprotectoras; y, por otro, los propios agresores que, desde posicionamientos generalmente ubicados en el marco derecho del tablero político (desde bandos más tradicionalistas hasta grupos neoliberales) denigran las políticas de identidad o incluso a los protagonistas de las mismas. La cuestión es: ¿cómo dar voz a estos cuerpos, reubicarlos en la escena política, y de qué modo producir fórmulas de intercambio, diálogo y reivindicación? Una de estas vías, tal y como aquí tratamos de demostrar aquí, es el humor.

Working for a Sustainable Surfing Community: Becoming a Local Surfer at a New Home Destination

South Korea used to be a non-surfing region until it experienced a remarkable realization of the surfing phenomenon, the so-called “surfing boom”, during the past couple of decades. The nonexistence of surfing communities or cultures offers a unique context that surfers have to deal with to become local surfers. The migration status of surfers further complicates the process of local surfer identity construction. This particular context provided migrant surfers with unique socio-spatial challenges and tasks that led them to a certain desire for sustainable surfing milieu. This paper aims to explore the experiences of early migrant surfers when constructing their local surfer identity. Data were collected through fieldwork, in-depth interviews, and document analysis. The early migrant surfers perceived becoming local surfers to be a process of making a new life while they were settling on their new “home”. Thus, they desired a sustainable surfing environment not only with the surf breaks but also with the whole regional community they live in. Hence, becoming a local surfer was becoming a local villager at the same time. They put forth multilateral community endeavors to construct and maintain social and emotional bonds with local authorities, local native residents, and the community environment. Through their interactions with the wider rural community, it was hoped that they would also actually contribute to the formation and maintenance of that rural community for sustainable surfing.

Novice teachers in a changing reality

ABSTRACT The aims of this paper are to explore novice teachers’ experiences in the Covid-19 crisis, and to examine their professional identity construction process. During the global crisis, novice teachers had to deal with unexpected challenges and take advantage of new opportunities. This study is based on 32 narratives of novice teachers in Israel who took part in a one semester online Zoom induction in two workshops. The open conversations narratives in the meetings were recorded and transcribed, and then subjected to categorical content analysis. The findings show the challenges and opportunities related to three central categories: technological, pedagogical and educational system in the novice teachers’ experiences. The main contributions of this study are: understanding the novice teachers’ experiences in the uncertainty and turmoil of the crisis, and learning about professional dilemmas and tensions which gave rise to various challenges and opportunities that that supported the construction their professional identity.

Cultural identity and its impact on today’s multicultural organizations

Within the context of the internationalization of organizations and, in particular, growing numbers of staff members from different cultures, the number of studies on the management of cultural differences has increased considerably. However, as several authors have observed, studies on cultural differences and the concept of cultural identity remain limited, in large part due to the influential studies of Hofstede, which led to increased interest in national cultures. The objective of this study is to demonstrate the importance of cultural identity, which is a broader concept than national identity and only partly determined by it. Cultural identity is based on the distinctiveness or specificity of a given community, encompassing certain characteristics common to its people. A distorted view can significantly hinder understanding and communication with citizens of a specific nation. Today, as many authors observe, there is renewed interest in the complex, multidimensional process of identity construction in cross-national, cross-cultural work settings. The aim of the present study is therefore to review the processes involved in the formation of cultural identity and its importance for understanding individuals’ distinctive, culture-specific traits and to show how individuals with plural identities influence and transform contemporary organizations. Finally, a research program focused on recontextualizing cultural identity in contemporary organizations is proposed.

Explaining the relationship between religiosity and increased wellbeing avoidance of identity threat as a key factor

ABSTRACT Previous research outlines a relationship between religiosity and increased mental and physical wellbeing. However, to date findings from quantitative and qualitative research do not offer an unambiguous explanation for this relationship. The study addresses this gap in knowledge by examining underlying identity construction processes in relation to religiosity and wellbeing in the light of Identity Process Theory. Eight Christian converts from different deep-faith groups were recruited via purposive and modified snowball sampling. Detailed descriptions of first-hand experiences were collected by biographic-narrative interviews and analysed by Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. The findings suggest that religious elements are integrated into identity content as these respond to a set of motivational principles of identity construction. In doing so, religious elements in identity content contribute to the avoidance of identity threat and to the maintenance of a positive identity structure. The adoption of health-promoting behaviours that relate to the application of beliefs (i.e. practice forgiveness, love oneself and the other, stopping excessive drinking) are consequences thereof and improve mental and physical wellbeing. In conclusion, the relationship between religiosity and wellbeing may be explained by the way in that religious elements in identity impact on identity maintenance process.

Entrepreneurial Diversity: Contextual Variety of Entrepreneurial Identities and Experiences

This study explores entrepreneurial diversity through the analysis of everyday experiences of women entrepreneurs and their entrepreneurial identity construction processes in relation to context and questions the manner in which entrepreneurial experiences and identities vary across contexts. Capitalizing on life story narratives of Turkish women entrepreneurs in two country contexts – Turkey as the country of origin and the Netherlands as the country of residence, we evaluate migration as a significant contextual element along with country-specific opportunity structures and look at what differences it makes with respect to entrepreneurial identities and experiences of these Turkish women entrepreneurs. We analyze the social, political, and institutional opportunity structures and the relationship between these opportunity structures and entrepreneurial identities and experiences in Turkey and the Netherlands comparatively. We propose that Turkish women entrepreneurs in Turkey engage in processes of ‘self-defense’, whereas in the Netherlands they engage in processes of ‘self-discovery’. The women in the Netherlands challenge existing opportunity structures either by providing alternative images of a Turkish migrant woman or questioning culturalist perspectives behind these opportunity structures. In Turkey, women entrepreneurs are more hesitant in challenging the opportunity structures. They either step down from their enterprises or downgrade their entrepreneurial identities in order to fulfill the requirements of these opportunity structures. This study contributes to the field of entrepreneurship by providing an extended understanding of the manners in which entrepreneurial identities and experiences vary across contexts.

Identity Work Orientation: Unpacking Divergent Identity Construction Processes of Police Newcomers

Through a longitudinal ethnographic study of new recruits into an English police service we explain how different ‘identity work orientations’ (i.e. legitimacy, authenticity and competence seeking) direct different patterns of identity work and produce different work identities within the same socialization processes. In so doing, we make a three-fold contribution. First, departing from mainstream research of newcomers’ identity construction, our study highlights the fragmentation and diversity of externally provided work identities and the important influences of newcomers’ own orientations in their identity formation. Second, by illustrating three distinct identity work processes, we challenge the monolithic portrait of identity work and theoretical disconnection in the identity work literature. Third, we offer identity work orientation as an analytical lens that transcends theoretical boundaries and sensitizes researchers to diverse identity work. Key words: Identity construction, identity work, newcomer socialization, police.

Education into identity: From „survival pedagogy” to „spiritual pedagogy”

Marzec Jarosław, Education into Identity: From „survival pedagogy” to „spiritual pedagogy”. Culture – Society –Education no 2(16) 2019, Poznań 2019, pp. 265–278, Adam Mickiewicz University Press. ISSN 2300-0422. DOI 10.14746/kse.2019.16.17.
 I would like to present the general outlook on dominant tendencies within educational studies and shortly introduce my analysis in the context of so called „turning point” of educational discourse in the second half of XX century. I would like to propose to look at that moment of our actual cultural and educational field through two dominant perspectives and metaphors on which two different pedagogies are grounded. I would like to introduce two domianant metaphors within the educational field and the new tendencies, shortly how the educational studies shift from the „survival pedagogy” to the „spiritual pedagogy”. In general, this atriculations founded in the mindfull critics of educational practices undermine the cultural shift which is based on the process of abandom the tradition values, and the civilisation trends of development which generated the actual shape of culture to be axhausted. The great positivismproject was adjected by the new generations of educators with new and fresh approach to the educational problems. At that moment it’s clear that we stand before the creation the new, alternative vision of the social world and culture in general. I would like to present the changes of that social process on the example XX-century pedagogy, which I hope is touched by that cultural transformation. I would like to concentrate on the educational discourse as a econcrete area of such cultural shift. It’s rather difficult to recognize the whole field of that revolutionary and alternative movement within our culture. In my text I would like to show the process of transition from „survival pedagogy” into „spiritual pedagogy”. As we simply know from the poststructural perspective each of educational interpretation operates in the social contexts has own definition of the aims, functions and tesks of education. After Michel Foucault works we can say that each of the educational discourse and interpretation is grounded in the cultural power/knowledge forces. The new generation of educatorsproposed new approach towards social analyses of edacational aims and destination. In that movement the main aim of edacation is to build identity of pupils. There are of course many researchers shared that view on edacational discourse eg. Zbyszko Melosik, Tomasz Szkudlare, Lech Witkowski, Zbigniew Kwieciński in Poland ( to give only representative examples) and Henry Giroux and Peter McLaren in the United States.They proposed the new approach towards the understanding of edacation destination ond obligations and broke the traditional interpretation. They rejected the traditional inerpretation of „formingthe reason” or „excercising the reason” as the main goal of education towards the popular culture and sensses. And they based their interpretations on that aspect of identity construction process. I would like to propose in my text general outlook at the cultural shift within educational discourse as the transtition from the metaphor of „survival pedagogy” towards the „spiritual pedagogy”. These metaphors also determined two different perspectives and approachesto education. I wolud argue that these perspectives are based on the two different antopological visions and determine different pedagogies.

La arquitectura del vínculo a través de la web Personas y Patrimonios

El estudio de los vínculos que establecemos con el patrimonio contribuye a la comprensión de los procesos de construcción de identidades. En la web Personas y Patrimonios, comunidad virtual de patrimonios personales, indagamos en la naturaleza del vínculo y en su contribución a la generación de identidades. Seguimos una metodología de carácter mixto a través de análisis estadístico-descriptivos y análisis de contenido, analizando una muestra de n=229 patrimonios. El análisis de los datos nos ha permitido clasificar en esferas patrimoniales, tipologías de vínculos y nudos, definiendo la arquitectura del vínculo personal y profundizar en la comprensión de su funcionamiento.

‘I did not feel any passion for my teaching’: a narrative inquiry of beginning teacher attrition in China

ABSTRACT This study conceptualises teacher attrition as a dynamic process of identity construction and interpretation in shifting professional knowledge landscapes, which attunes to both individual and contextual milieus. From this perspective, this narrative inquiry describes the attrition experiences of two Chinese beginning teachers after two years of employment in two middle schools after being prepared in the Free Teacher Education (FTE) Program. Specifically, the beginning teachers experienced tensions in their ‘stories to live by’, characterised by the motivations for joining the FTE Program and the unsupportive professional landscapes. The ‘stories to leave by’ came to dominate their identities when the teachers could no longer sustain their images of who they thought they could be as curriculum makers. Other contextual elements included the burden of school administration and rigid teacher evaluation policies. The implications for fostering teacher identity development are discussed, especially for beginning teachers coming from the FTE Program in China.

La educación literaria: nuevos referentes para trabajar la igualdad desde la perspectiva de género. Propuestas didácticas

<div class="page" title="Page 1"><div class="section"><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column"><p>Las investigaciones derivadas de los estudios de género proponen, entre otros objetivos, nuevos referentes desde los que ampliar y modificar la representación social y cultural que ha conformado el imaginario colectivo. La crítica literaria feminista y la teoría queer rescatan voces silenciadas por el sistema patriarcal y deconstruyen los textos literarios para ofrecer nuevas interpretaciones que den voz a pluridentidades alternativas al orden normativo. Del mismo modo, sugieren obras con las que ofrecer modelos de identificación que abarquen una dimensión social lo más amplia y real posible. La educación literaria tiene la responsabilidad de educar a lectores/as capaces de interactuar con la obra, pero también capaces de contemplar otros modelos identitarios en los que reconocerse o considerar y respetar. El objetivo de este artículo es profundizar en la necesidad de utilizar en el aula mecanismos y estrategias literarias que forman parte del proceso de construcción de la identidad para trabajar la igualdad, y ofrecer propuestas didácticas para el alumnado de Educación Primaria y Secundaria.</p></div></div></div></div>

Cultural Competence of Professionals Working With Unaccompanied Minors: Addressing Empathy by a Shared Narrative.

BackgroundThe number of migrant youth traveling without parents continues to rise in Europe and North America. Some of t hem leave their home countries on their own and find themselves in a new country, separated from their family and cut off from their cultural roots. Besides those who leave to study, work, and pursue a better life, others are escaping war-torn countries. They need adequate social, educational, and therapeutic spaces, where they can feel entitled to speak. Social workers often ask about how they can understand these young people better so that they can provide them with better care (cope with their trauma and suspicion, deal with the cultural distance between the adolescents and their social workers, etc).AimAt Cochin Hospital in Paris, we led a participative action-research program to transmit cultural competence to social workers who provide care for these youth. The aim was to develop an approach to help these young migrants to share their representations about themselves and to train these social workers to encourage this sharing in a culturally sensitive manner.MethodsThis study used a qualitative method that mixed narrative and transcultural approaches. Two researchers met each youth and social worker with an interpreter-cultural mediator three times (once a month) to assess changes in their relationships during the study. The youth were asked to bring three items of their choice, representing their past, present, and future. They could use their imagination and creativity. We also used the circle test described by Cottle for this purpose. We used a phenomenological approach to analyze the interviews.Results and DiscussionThis study included 29 young people from 13 different countries and 29 social workers. A transcultural approach appears to be a useful framework for reactivating their identity construction process. It promotes the emergence of cultural representations and takes their experiences before, during, and after migration into account. We assisted them in developing their ability to produce a thorough narrative of their bicultural adolescences and simultaneously helped their social workers to develop their cultural competence.ConclusionTogether, a transcultural approach and methods stimulating the production of narrative are relevant ways to help children to describe their representations of themselves, especially those who have learned to protect themselves by remaining silent. This protocol could be useful for both preventive action and therapy for psychotrauma.

Social Identities and Bilinguals’ Language and Literacy Development

This is a qualitative case study that investigates bilinguals’ language and literacy practices on the intersection of social identities, speaking and writing learning, and translanguaging in a Spanish-English two-way classroom.[1] The study proposes that certain bilinguals’ language and literacy learning is closely related to the performance of their social identities, along with the language and literacy practices that they performed in school and home contexts, including translanguaging practices. Two cases of Spanish-English emergent bilinguals’ and two cases of English-Spanish emergent bilinguals’ speaking and writing practices are presented from a qualitative sociocultural and poststructuralist (Davis H Peirce, 1995; 2016) theoretical perspectives. Findings show that certain emergent bilinguals’ speaking and writing practices are closely associated with their identities that they constructed in school and at home. Specifically, the way the emergent bilinguals were positioned on the continuum of the classroom social networks, from central to peripheral influenced their diverse ways of learning to speak and write, as well as the other way around. Further findings show that the ways how emergent bilinguals were invested in language and literacy practices in Spanish in classroom as well as in the literacy practices that they performed at home directly influenced the processes of social identity construction. In this way, these findings confirm the assumption that additional language learning can be reinforced when the linguistic, emotional and social dimensions of their developing identities were legitimized applies for certain emergent bilinguals’ language and literacy learning.[1]This is one chapter of my doctoral research on translanguaging and identities.

Circuitos Socio-Asistenciales para Población en Situación de Calle en la Ciudad de Buenos Aires: Representaciones Sociales y Prácticas

This work is part of an action-research funded by the University of Buenos Aires. Its aims were to investigate the life trajectories and the processes of identity construction in homeless people in the City of Buenos Aires, Argentina, and create a space for participation and collective reflection that facilitates the problematization of both these trajectories and socio-care circuits for homeless people. Using participative qualitative research, this work had three stages: (a) participatory diagnosis, (b) problematization and (c) first intervention. An intentional sample was selected of 10 organizations that were part of the healthcare offer for homeless people, and with a snowball sampling one of 18 homeless adults users of this offer, both men and women, who were in the streets for at least 3 years. Through interviews, focus groups, collective mapping, and the construction of a problem tree, and using grounded theory approach, it was found that interventions are organized according to certain social representations of the street situation, of the people themselves and of what is meant by "addressing the problem”. Based on these results, the limits and challenges of interventions with community-based approaches with homeless people are problematized, as well as relations between the University and the Community in the process of building knowledge.