Self-Expression of Identity Literature Review

Self-Expression of Identity

Literature Review don't see the point in spending my time with people who are not going to be able to relate to me and I'm not going to be able to relate to them. We are from different worlds, so I think I've had enough of that in my life [...] I don't want to feel as if I have to pretend to be someone I'm not," (Bourdieu, 1997: 471). The concept of being different within the context of a classroom is an enormous fear for many students, such as those who are deaf or gay and lesbian. However, this fear goes much deeper than simple surface differences of hearing and sexuality -- it hinders the true development of individual identity. However, several theories have attempted to isolate these specific hindrances and understand the complexities of developing an identity in the shadow of normal classroom existence.

The concept of identity is a slippery term, which refers to the understanding of oneself and one's situation within the external world. According to Stuart Hall in his 1996 work, the idea of identity if an ongoing process dealing with both "becoming" as well as "being;" it reflects both what an individual is slowly morphing into, as well as what that individual already identifies him or herself with, (Hall, 1996: 237). Not only are the common conceptions of who one already believe oneself to be heavily influential in the creation of each individual identity, but so are the dreams and aspirations one holds for a future self just as defining in terms of identity creation. This continues into the idea of identity as being formed from both whom or what someone wants to be, as well as who or what an individual does not want to be, or a specific role in which an individual "dis-identifies" his or herself, (Skeggs, 1997: 123). This concept is also highly important in the formation of individual identity, for it gives a person a clear limitation of what they wish their identity to be.

There are several educational theories which coincide with the formation of each individual's identity within the context of a classroom. Social Justice Education theories posit the concept that education should reflect the changes of the social movement which have liberated thousands of Americans within the past century. Students all face difficulties within a classroom setting based on their individual differences which may make living within a classroom environment harder, for example a student being either deaf or Homosexual. There are several facets of this conception of social justice, "it is viewed as simultaneously concerning the distribution of goods and resources on the one hand and the valorization of a range of social collectives and cultural identities on the other," (Cribb & Gerwitz, 2003: 15). This reflects a common equal treatment and fostering of a variety of different identities within the society at larger, whether those identities be racial, social, or of a physical handicapped nature. In many cases education programs fail at fulfilling the multiple definitions of the term; and in most cases many classrooms fail to acknowledge and support the various cultural identities within their walls, (Cribb & Gerwitz, 2003: 15).

Most identities formulated within a classroom tend to be based on social class differences such as rich and poor; yet there are other factors which help foster individual identity as well, (Epstein, Hewitt, Leonard, Mauthner, & Watkins, 2003: 120). These factors include physical handicaps which separate children's experiences from those of a normal existence, as well as issues of sexual orientation also responsible for children dis-identifying themselves from the normal conception of their classroom's projected identity. Social Justice Theories would posit the concept of protecting and fostering these unique types of identification, despite the heavy backlash against them.

Much of the backlash towards these identities comes in a sometimes violent homophobic reaction of other students. A study conducted in the UK in 1997 reveled an astonishing 82% of teachers within 600 schools had witnessed homophobic bullying first hand, (Epstein, Hewitt, Leonard, Mauthner, & Watkins, 2003: 123). For Gay, Lesbian, Bi-sexual, and Transgender students, this constant reminder that they are not the norm is an important factor in the shaping of their identities. In the perfect implementation of Social Justice Theory, these classrooms would completely eradicate this homophobic atmosphere as a way to further allow such students to identify themselves with a student identity as well as Gay or Lesbian identity.

Whereas Social Justice Education attempts to change authoritative methods used in education in order to help foster different cultural identities, Critical Pedagogy is more from the student's point-of-view; this theory encourages students to question authority and achieve their own unique versions of critical consciousness, "[Critical] pedagogy... signals how questions of audience, voice, power, and evaluation actively work to construct particular relations between teachers and students, institutions and society, and classrooms and communities.... Pedagogy in the critical sense illuminates the relationship among knowledge, authority, and power," (Giroux, 1994: 30). This practice also originated with class as being the main component for diversion of cultural identities, but was also later adopted by queer and special education theories. The main proponent of early Critical Pedagogy, Paulo Freire, explained how this practice empowered students to look beyond their own individual situations and how those situations are held back by the society which governs them, (Friere, 2000: 76). According to Ira Shor in his work Empowering Education, the idea of Critical Pedagogy refers to the "Habits of thought, reading, writing, and speaking which go beneath surface meaning, first impressions, dominant myths, official pronouncements, traditional cliches, received wisdom, and mere opinions to understand the deep meaning, root causes, social context, ideology, and personal consequences of any action, event, object, process, organization, experience, text, subject matter, policy, mass media, or discourse," (Shor, 1992: 129). The very existence of Critical Pedagogy Theory aims at alleviating the pain and suffering caused by the oppression of those individuals whose identity does not fall within the normal guidelines of what it should be, (Kincheloe, 2008: 23).

This theory posits the concept that students who fall outside the norm are still entitled to create an individual identity based on the higher knowledge of their oppression in society. In its earlier stages this referred mainly to class differences, but has since been adopted by queer and special education studies to help empower such students to rise above the set wall of oppression against them. In the cases of the physically handicapped and queer students, this theory becomes an empowerment for them to individually rise up against the oppression found outside of the classroom, (Kincheloe, 2008: 156). Critical Pedagogy in a modern world requires the student to understand that there are multiple levels of oppression that goes far beyond simple class lines, (Vavrus, Walton, Kido, Diffendal, & King, 1999: 119). Deaf students can understand that there are other ways to establish their identity outside of the verbal and spoken world of most traditional classrooms. Although deemed special education students, this is in no way a limit to their own capacities. Once they can establish this confidence and consciousness, Critical Pedagogy has succeeded in allowing deaf students to create a unique, yet perfectly acceptable version of their own identity outside of the audible world, (Vavrus, Walton, Kido, Diffendal, & King, 1999: 119). The same goes with gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, and transgender students. Research has shown that Critical Pedagogy in practice allows students to empower themselves outside of the norm. Not only would this practice benefit the minds of queer students themselves, in the stronger creation on an accepted identity, but it would also lessen homophobic tensions in heterosexual students upon realization of the oppression involved with homophobia. Because it concerns all elements of the classroom, Critical Pedagogy proves most efficient in opening the minds of all students concerning the oppression and identity crisis faced by gay and lesbian students,

Critical pedagogy is primarily concerned with the kinds of educational theories and practices that encourage both students and teachers to develop an understanding of the interconnecting relationship among ideology, power, and culture... [that] challenges us to recognize, engage, and critique (so as to transform) any existing undemocratic social practices and institutional structures that produce and sustain inequalities and oppressive social identities and relations, (Leistyna & Woodrum, 1995: 2-3).

This then allows the entire classroom to become more accepting of such student's identities, which will only further foster the development of such queer identities.

One of the major theories which coincides with the formation of identity in different students is the concept of the Social Identity Theory. This ideology, is another conception of how we create individual identities for ourselves based on the theories of Henri Tajfel and John Turner. According to their early research, each and every social group has its own form of internal discrimination which labels each individual in the larger group, (Tajfel & Turner, 1979: 94). Within this discrimination, each group categorizes every individual into an easy label, for instance "Deaf" based on the physical handicap which disables hearing, or "Gay" which refers to someone of a homosexual orientation within a larger group of heterosexual individuals, (Tajfel & Turner, 1979: 99). Each outside label has an affect on that individuals own conception of them, effectively rising or lowering self-image. These categories allow individuals of the same label to sometimes band together in order to further develop their own unique identities away from the labeling and discrimination from the larger group who may view them as abnormal, (Oxoby & McLeish, 2007: 13). Once inside a more specific group, these individuals have the capacity to flourish, and gain more and more self-esteem, (Handler, 1991: 223). However, when placed outside of these smaller groups into the larger population, this identity is once again viewed in a discriminatory manner, (Taylor & Moghaddam, 1994: 134). This occurs mainly due to the xenophobia each group portrays towards other groups, which then creates a hostile environment for the establishment of strong individual identities.

One way to examine the formations of deaf and queer identities using the Social Identity theory is to look at the entire classroom as one group with several subgroups within the larger unit. The classroom becomes a microcosm of the larger group, and so each student deals with the particular requirements of that group, "For one thing, students are acutely aware of the increasingly commodified nature of cultural identifications, marking one's commitment to or appreciation of a particular social group through buying certain kinds of clothes, listening or not listening to rap or salsa," (Powers, 2005: 54), or in this case in terms of hearing ability and sexual orientation. If the entire class is heterosexual, that one gay or lesbian student will have difficulty pulling his or her identity out of the larger group with little or no support. However, if there are more than one homosexual individual, regardless of gender, it makes the process of establishing a solid identity a little easier through a smaller sub-group which represents the same functions as the larger.

Therefore, research has been committed to the study of successful integration of Identity Theory's findings into classroom curriculum. According to Finkel and Bollin, teachers are the ones who need the biggest change in curriculum. Therefore, new curriculum changes in the classrooms of future teachers successfully prove the importance of recognizing identity and social groups within the classrooms of children, (Finkel & Bollin, 1996: 2). This study incorporated much more class discussion rather than lecture, in order to pull the different sub-groups out of their hiding spots within the larger class group. Through exposure of these various different sub-groups and discrimination against those sub-groups, the future teachers were also exposed to different methods of handling such situations and individual identities. Also coinciding with this idea, several studies have shown the effectiveness of dealing with more abnormal subgroups in relation to their more accepted forms of identity. For example, Special education students should also be treated as their other identities such as race, and gender, (Grossman, 1995: 233). This is the same concept for students with different sexual orientations; they should first be acknowledged for all of their various identities, and then treated and taught accordingly based on the collaboration of those identities. This type of teaching environment must begin in grade school and continue on into higher education in order to present a solid foundation for these student's identities to grow and flourish all throughout their educational career.

Children who are forced with a disability have an especially hard time in formulating their own unique identity when compared to physically normal children. Deaf children of all ages suffer a lag in their language and communication skills, which in turn delays their own formation of a conception of a self, "When children are delayed in developing language, this may lead to a delay in their understanding that everyone has an interior mental state and that these mental states differ," (Lundy, 1999: 1). As a result of listening to adult's various speech concerning internal states, hearing children start to grasp the idea that not everyone feels and thinks in the exact same manner, that people have various states of consciousness and thinking that may or may not coincide with their own, (Peterson & Siegal, 1995: 464). This begins as early as pre-school in normal hearing children, with the beginning stages of understanding objects can exist outside of their direct peripheral vision, (Flavell, Green, & Flavell, 1995: 35). This continues on to develop a keener understanding of the human mind, and that each individual mind differs from another -- each human mind has its own identity. However, this concept becomes increasingly difficult when dealing with deaf children. If a deaf child has a normally hearing parent, the issue gets even more complex, (Schick & Gale, 1997: 4). Research shows that the concept of identity and the mind is not delayed that much compare to normally hearing children, if the parent of the child is also deaf, (Lundy, 1999: 1). This represents the idea seen in previous theories that identity can flourish within a fostering atmosphere. When a parent can experience the same things as their deaf child, it helps foster growth of a stronger identity with that parental re-assurance. This is also the case of a deaf child in an all-deaf school. However, there is a much bigger delay in internal individual development for deaf children who are not surrounded by those who must go through the same types of experiences and thoughts as they do, (Steeds, Towe, & Dowker, 1997: 188). Deaf children with normally hearing parents, as well as deaf children in a classroom full of normally hearing classmates, are forced to deal with their own experiences alone with the knowledge that they are the only ones feeling that way, (Lundy, 1999: 1). Many young deaf children in both situations have trouble even understanding the concept that others have different feelings and identities. What could result are complex issues understanding other people's motives and objectives, only further distancing them from their family members or classmates. Therefore, they are forced to deal with understanding the collective human identity as well as their own individual identity on their own with a much distorted sense of the human mind, (Peterson & Seigal, 1995: 463). As the deaf child grows, these issues turn into insecurities and improper formation of later individual identity.