Identity and Agency Assignment

 Reading #1: Local Matters: The Time/Space of Social Identification and Learning

I definitely agree with Holland’s (2006) analysis of Wortham’s observations in that they strongly suggest a “generativity and significance of local meaning making” in the context of identity (p. 168). The recognition of local, short time-scale developments in sociological patterns that emerge within classrooms is something that should be considered seriously by teachers. Certainly, these ideas resonate with my own personal experience as both a teacher and a student. On my practicum, it was easy to observe how some students had come to identify with particular stereotypes that were created within the school. For example, I had a particularly disruptive Science 10 class that had a reputation around the school for being a “bad crop” of students; the students surely did not live under a rock and responded negatively to their teacher’s often low expectations for their behaviour, creating a vicious cycle. 

Similarly, when I was a student, I experienced gender-driven local frameworks wherein my English teachers often expected boys to achieve at a lower level than girls in English class. Looking back, I certainly adopted that mindset and was comfortable receiving lower marks in English than all of my other subjects, thinking that improvement was unlikely, and finding solace in comparing my poorer grades with my male peers. Perhaps this is one of the reasons I look back on English class with such distaste in comparison to math and science classes, where perhaps the gendered assumptions were reversed. I certainly do not want to make gendered assumptions about my students in the math and science classes that I will teach, and this will be something that I reflect on and pay close attention to in my practice.

Reading #2: Symbolic worlds in time/spaces of practice: Identities and transformations

    With respect to the idea of figured worlds, there seems to be a culturally and socially produced figured world of the "high school", which although varies on a local scale, also has some common, almost archetypal, themes. In my experience, the figured world of school values obedience, hard-work, conformism, a shallow sense of charity, and performative justice. In this world, teachers are expected to assume an identity that meshes with these values; teachers should instil these values in their students and act according to them. This is my personal take, so take it as you will. Perhaps this is why I have grown to separate myself from the identity of "teacher". I have come to realize that I no longer want to restrict myself to this figured world of "high school" or fight against the prevailing identity of "teacher" in order to live by my own values and priorities in life. I like to see my self as someone who enjoys teaching but is not a teacher. I am yet to know what and who I am.