Putting Identities at the Heart of Teaching and Learning

Your identity is your most valuable possession. Protect it. 
Elastigirl, The Incredibles

Figure 1 Identity X-Rays Adapted from Cultural X-Rays (Short, 2009)

The identities that we carry with us matter more than ever. They decide the spaces we are and are not allowed to enter.  They decide which borders we can cross and which we cannot.  They are a predictor of college graduation, incarceration, and even health later in life. Identities matter.  As educators, we have an ethical responsibility to make sure that our classrooms include, respect, and give voice to the many identities that enter them. 

Children bring into classrooms lived experiences, meaning-making and communicative practices, sets of skills, and customs that assist them in making sense of the social world.  Unfortunately, our education system perceives these assets children bring in as deficits (González, Moll, & Amanti, 2005).  It is no secret that this neglect of our children’s cultural, social, and emotional assets is no longer holding up in non-White, linguistically-diverse, and low-socioeconomic classrooms.  Most upsetting is the detrimental effects the literacy practices being pushed off on children in schools have on the learning and developing identities of the children our system serves (Delpit & Dowdy, 2008; Gay, 2010; Lee, 2000).  

When we enter the classroom this new school year, students and educators will bring with them diverse cultural groups, lived experiences, values, languages, dispositions, and social contexts.  These may or may not align with those privileged in schools.  This is important to consider because we cannot expect children from diverse backgrounds to be motivated to engage in learning from perspectives and lived experiences that do not connect with their own.   

As Gay (2002) put it, “When academic knowledge and skills are situated within the lived experiences and frames of reference of students, they are more personally meaningful” (p. 106).  As a result, children will be interested in and absorb the learning more completely.   In other words, when children can connect to the experiences, history, and people presented in the teaching and learning, motivation to engage in them will increase. 

If we want to begin connecting with, learning from, and authentically interacting with the children that enter our classrooms, we have to explore the many identities they bring with them. If not, we cannot build on them. We have to set conditions early in the year to get to know our children beyond a surface level and continue that curiosity about them throughout the year, as they grow, change, and expand their perspectives. 

Freire (1998) posed the question, “Why not establish an ‘intimate’ connection between knowledge considered basic to any school curriculum and knowledge that is the fruit of the lived experience of these students as individuals?” (p. 36).  This “intimate connection” requires a reconsideration of the way we build on the identities in our classrooms and use our children’s assets to inform the teaching and learning.  In order to do that, we must get to know these identities beyond a surface level. 

Identity-Based Curricula

So what theoretical ideas ground identity-based curricula?  I turn to the work of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy (Gay, 2010; Ladson-Billings, 2009; Lee, 1997), Cultural Modeling (Lee, 2001), Funds of Knowledge (Gonzales, Moll, & Amanti, 2005), Funds of Identity (Estaban-Guitart & Moll, 2014; Estaban-Guitart, 2016) and Biography-Driven Instruction (Herrera, 2010).  All of which are grounded in the beliefs that: 

• Students bring with them assets and expertness that should be harnessed and built on. 
• Educators should take on positive perspectives of parents, students, and families, avoiding a deficit perspective. 
• Students should see their lives reflected in the teaching and learning. 
• Educators should have high expectations of all students. 
• Educators should have in-depth knowledge of students’ lives outside of school and the content being taught in school, so the two can be interwoven.

Classroom Application 

Identity Inventory 

This past spring, I taught a graduate literacy course, Making the Literacy Connection: Language to Reading, and we explored ways of tapping into our children's Funds of Identity.  Using Esteban-Guitart and Moll's (2014) five major types of Funds of Identity,  we compiled an Identity Inventory that could be used with students of all ages. The questions position us as educators to get to know our students beyond a surface level and to begin setting conditions in our classrooms so children see their lives reflected in the teaching and learning. Since then, I have edited, added, and thought more deeply about this as a tool.  I hope that this inventory can be a starting point for you to think about the types of questions you might ask to get to know students and their families. 

​Exploring Students' Scripts Through Visual Autobiographies 

Each of use carries with us “a database of stored emotional memories that influence the way we think, feel, and behave,” which are known as “scripts” (Jennings, 2015, p. 60).   Getting to know the scripts our children bring into the classroom with them is crucial if we want to build a community where they see their lives reflected.  The following multimodal literacy and language experience opens a space to explore our many scripts and identities.

• Using the book Artists, Writers, Thinkers, and Dreamers: Portraits of Fifty Famous Folks & All Their Weird Stuff​ by James Gulliver Hancock, explore some of the visual biographies in the book.  
• Discuss the layout and the way sketches are positioned to share someone's life story. 
• Have students plan out their visual autobiography, thinking about the scripts they want to share and the ones they want to leave out. 
• ​Using photos, symbols, sketches, words, and any other visual representations, have the students create their visual autobiography. 
• Hang them in a gallery-style format and let the children explore one another's final piece, leaving questions and comments for their classmates.
• Use these throughout the year to plan.
• Allow students to pull stories from this throughout the year as a pre-writing tool.   

Figure 2 Sample of a Visual Autobiography.

Digital resources to create a digital visual autobiography:

• Spark Adobe: https://spark.adobe.com/make/photo-collage-maker/
• BeFunky: https://www.befunky.com/features/collage-maker/

Identity Masks

Tatum (2000) noted that identity is complex, shaped by historical, social, political, and cultural contexts. She further acknowledged that the answer to the question, “Who am I?” is one that “depends in large part on who the world around me says I am” (p. 9).  Some of our identities we choose, some we are born into, and others are given to us without our permission.  This experience positions us to think about the many "masks" we wear. 

• ​Read aloud Looking Like Me by Walter Dean Meyers. 
• Have students make their own I Am list. 
• On a blank mask, write the identities from the I Am list, purposefully positioning and sizing them to represent the  weight each identity carries in the life of the composer. 
• Hang the mask in a gallery-style format, giving the students time to explore all the identities that make up the community. 

Figure 3 Identity Masks from the Assembly of Expanded Perspectives on Learning Conference
​Estes Park, Colorado 2018 

​Artifactual Literacies 

Artifacts represent our many identities.  They carry with them a range of narratives that provide insight into the lives of those who the artifacts belong to.  Pahl and Roswell (2010) remind us that artifacts personify “people, stories, thoughts, communities, identities, and experiences” (p. 2).  In the classroom, artifacts can provide us insight into our children’s narratives outside of school.
​
Our class has always celebrated Valentine's Day a little differently than most other classes.  Instead of bringing in decorated boxes that are ready to be filled with sweet letters and candy, we all bring an artifact that represents us in some way.  We share a short story about our artifact and lay it in the middle of the circle, celebrating US and the many stories we bring to the community. Students write a piece about their artifact to publish in the class artifact book. 

Figure 4 Artifact Party with Fourth Graders 

​Assets Wall 

Our children bring in with them beliefs, values, customs, thinking patterns, communicative practices, and numerous other assets that make our learning communities rich and diverse.  As educators, it is important that we find out what those assets are, harness them, and begin building on them immediately.
​  
A great way to do this is to start the year with an Assets Wall. The children create a web, putting their names in the middle and their strengths or assets on the outside of the web. When complete, post these webs on a wall so students can access them, finding "experts" in the room when they need assistance or want to collaborate.  This wall is updated throughout the year as new students join the community, as students discover more about themselves, and as students recognize assets their peers carry with them. 

Figure 5 Assets Wall with Fourth Graders 

A Simple Rule in our classroom is to teach and learn in every interaction.  If we are to treat children as teachers and position ourselves as learners, we have to set conditions for this type of space to emerge.  An asset wall is one that supports democratic classrooms by acknowledging that there are many experts in the room. 

​Exploring Our Roots 

Our beliefs, values, and upbringing ground and shape us as humans. Pressures from outsiders can sometimes make us lose sight of this. This text set explores these ideas, the impact they have on who we become, and how we never forget where we “came” from.

Response
Institutions, educational, religious, and political, can make us feel like outsiders. We may have to participate or attend events, but we don’t always see our lives reflected. Write about an institution where you do see your life reflected. Write about one that you are a part of but do not see your life reflected. 

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Response
Think about some place that “you knew first”. Illustrate all of the things that you loved about that place. Use your illustrations to create a poem.

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Response
Sometimes the things we want to remember about a place don't fit in a suitcase or trunk of a car. Draw an illustration of something you would want to remember or take with you if you had to suddenly leave.

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Response
People around the world are leaving behind everything they know to seek refuge and safety. What feelings, connections, or ideas are you left with after reading this? How did this, if at all, change your perception about the current situation taking place at our borders right now?

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Response
​Sometimes people are forced to flee, leaving behind everything. Think about how the characters in these books “took” things with them. What would be important for you to take with you?  What memories of your life now would you hold on to the tightest?

Response
There are moments in life where we feel like we don't belong.  What does Amanda Gorman mean when she says, "Nothing that is human can be alien to me." 

Who am I?

Who am I?  That's a question that I don't think we reflect on enough.  Who we are is not something that is static; rather it is dynamic and constantly shifting.  Every life experience that we have, or don't have, impacts our identities.  Our upbringing. The people we meet. The people we don't meet.  The trips we take.  The books we read.  All of this, and so much more, make up our many identities.  

When a new school year begins I always ask the questions, “How will I get to know the many identities that make up the classroom?” and “How will I set conditions so children see their lives reflected in the teaching and learning?”.  I hope that these multimodal, literacy experiences will assist you in getting to know children beyond a surface level, so we can build on children’s cultural, social, emotional, and economic assets, making the teaching and learning relevant and rich.

References 

• Delpit, L. & Dowdy, J. K. (2008). The skin that we speak: Thoughts on language and culture in the classroom. New York: The New Press.
• Esteban-Guitart M. (2016). Funds of identity: Connecting meaningful learning experiences in and out of school. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
• Esteban-Guitart, M., & Moll, L. C. (2014). Funds of Identity: A new concept based on the Funds of Knowledge approach. Culture and Psychology, 20, 31-48.
• Freire, P. (1998). Pedagogy of freedom: Ethics, democracy, and civil courage. Oxford, England: Rowman & Littlefield.
• Gay, G. (2010). Culturally responsive teaching (2nd ed.).  New York: Teachers College Press.
• Gay, G. (2002). Preparing for culturally responsive teaching. Journal of Teacher Education, 55, 106-116.
• Gonzalez, N., Moll, L., & Amanti, C. (Eds.). (2005). Funds of knowledge: Theorizing practices in households, communities, and classrooms. Mahwah, NJ: Routledge.
• Herrera, S. (2010). Biography-driven culturally responsive teaching. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
• Jennings, P. A. (2015). Mindfulness for teachers: Simle skills for peace and productivity in the classroom.  New York: W. W. Norton & Company.
• Ladson-Billings (2009). The dreamkeepers: Successful teachers of African American children. 2nd edition. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
• Lee, C.D. (2007).  Culture, literacy, and learning: Taking bloom in the midst of the whirlwind. New York: Teachers College Press.
• Lee, C. D. (2001). Is October Brown Chinese? A cultural modeling activity system for underachieving students. American Educational Research Journal, 38, 97-141.
• Lee, C. D. (1997). Bridging home and school literacies: A model of culturally responsive teaching. In J. Flood, S.B. Heath, D. Lapp (Ed.). A handbook for literacy educators: Research on teaching the communicative and visual arts (pp. 330-341). New York: Macmillan Publishing Company.
• Pahl, K. and Rowsell, J. (2010). Artifactual literacy: Every object tells a story. New York: Teachers College Press.
  
• Tatum, B. D. (2000). The complexity of identity: “Who am I?.” In Adams, M., Blumenfeld, W. J., Hackman, H. W., Zuniga, X., Peters, M. L. (Eds.), Readings for diversity and social justice: An anthology on racism, sexism, anti-semitism, heterosexism, classism and ableism (pp. 9-14). New York: Routledge.