Abstract
For much of history, people have sought deeper understandings of identity and how it shapes our ways of living in this world. Previous scholars investigated along a relatively linear, unified trajectory, first exploring self then cultural development, then social difference. Along the way, identities of “self” and “other”, hierarchies and prejudices were crafted and reified. Newer theories attempt to disrupt past shadows of imposed central/marginal positions, yet these colonial remnants continue to impact social spaces, including those found in schooling. This study questions what can be done to confront these spaces and their affect on students; in doing so, it interrogates contemporary notions of identity as they are drawn from psychology, sociology, philosophy, literature, and organizational dynamics. Additionally, it problematizes theories derived from these fields specific to development, self categorization and narrative, social identity, and organizational theory. The contact hypothesis and its conditions for ameliorating prejudice are also interrogated for applicability. The paper specifically questions how these notions may offer support for society’s youngest students, as elementary-aged children navigate social spaces that influence their understandings of acceptance, behavior, appropriate interaction, self, and others during their developmentally formative years. Recognizing the nascent forms of identity awareness awaking in these children, concurrent with their learning to negotiate multiple, previously unknown forms of social difference, crafts a framework for exploring beyond the theories mentioned, to invite thoughts on decolonized meaning-making in schools that may shape how children, faculty, and families consider “identity” as we collectively move forward.
Presenters
Clydia ForehandSchool Counselor, Counseling Center, Tulsa Public Schools, Oklahoma, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Identity, Social Identity Theory, Central/Marginal Hierarchies, School Organizational Theory
